Preface
"There is no water, so I have to break the law and marry more wives to help fetch water."
It's hard to believe that this is the words of a husband himself!
China Youth Daily, published on July 30, 2019
In India, there is a group of women who tend to have a very low status and are called "water wives".
Once a woman becomes a "water wife", it also means that she may be her husband's "faucet" for the rest of her life.
However, what is strange is that some women know that the fate of becoming a "water wife" will be very miserable, and they can't even talk about concubines, but they are still willing to accept the arrangement, why is this? What is the secret behind it?
The Humble Indian "Water Wife"
I still remember that in his Independence Day speech at the Red Fort in Delhi, Modi claimed:
India will become a developed economy in 2047 as it celebrates its 100th anniversary.
To make such a promise, Modi is naturally not "making a lot of nonsense", but has a basis.
From an economic point of view, according to the International Monetary Fund, as early as the fourth quarter of 2021, India's total GDP has surpassed that of the former colonizer Britain, becoming the world's fifth largest economy.
For now, India's economy is also growing at an annual rate of 6%-7%.
Reference news, released on May 6, 2024
What makes Indians even more confident is that Indian-origin elites seem to have spread all over the world, such as British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, US Vice President Kamala Harris, and Microsoft CEO Nadella.
However, do all of this really represent India's success?
Nadella, CEO of Microsoft Corporation
This is not necessarily the case, some of India's wealthy people may still be able to rely on some monopolies to make huge profits, but the slums under those villas and poor Indian villages are different.
Among them, it is worth mentioning that the situation of "water wives" is prevalent.
"Water wife" is a special name for Indian women, and the reason why "water wife" is prevalent is because of the serious shortage of water in India.
Maybe you see this and want to say, Indians lack water? Are you kidding? I've been to India so many times, why don't I feel that India has little water?
On May 6, 2024, according to CCTV, Bangalore, known as the "Silicon Valley of India", has fallen into a serious water shortage crisis due to factors such as rapid urban expansion, excessive use of groundwater, and climate change in recent years!
Bangalore is home to about 13 million people, and the city uses only 500,000 tonnes of water per day, when it normally uses about 2.6 million tonnes of water per day.
In response, local citizens revealed that they are trying to conserve water and have even started using wastewater that has not been used before.
Not only that, CCTV also reported that the temperature in Bangalore has reached around 40 degrees, and the situation is expected to deteriorate further as freshwater resources are depleted and heat waves continue to invade.
This is true in cities, not to mention the impoverished villages of India.
Back in 2014, the government of Maharashtra, India's third-largest state, said that more than 19,000 villages in the country lacked drinking water, such as a village in Maharashtra called Tangamal.
This small village, about 140 kilometers from Mumbai, has no taps for some reason, and has to rely on two wells at the foot of a hill near the village for daily water.
However, due to the relative distance, the villagers of Tangamal often have to walk for several hours to get to the water collection point, and because of the large number of villagers who collect water, there are long queues and long waits to get water.
It is so difficult to get water in this way, especially for those who are older and have limited mobility, and trying to get water is basically a "pipe dream".
A large family always needs water, what should we do?
It was in this context that the "water wives" came into being, and many Dangamal villagers even violated the relevant laws in order to get water, marrying one "water wife" after another, asking them to help fetch water for their families and act as "water carriers".
The women in the picture below who are traveling long distances with large aluminum cans on their heads are typical "water wives", and we can also see that some of the better conditions will also carry multiple cans to fetch water.
The "water wife" is very humble, how pitiful is it?
Although the name of the "water wife" is "wife", it also occupies the status of a wife, but it is not protected by the law, and the status is extremely low, and they have to listen to the dispatch of the real wife, as long as the real wife is present, they may not be able to enter the master bedroom.
There are even some "water wives" who can't stay at home, just like a tool person, who can use it if they want, and it doesn't seem to have to consider their feelings.
Digest Daily, June 6, 2019, 03 edition
It can be said that the Indian "water wife" is equivalent to the senior nanny at home, in addition to the high temperature, the long journey to the remote water point to fetch water, laundry, cooking and taking care of the children also need to be done by the "water wife", and even they have to drink the husband's foot washing water.
However, what makes people feel incredible is that some Indian women are willing to accept such an arrangement for such a humble "water wife", why is this?
Is there any "benefit" to being a "water wife"?
Observer.com, published on April 13, 2024
The reason why some Indian women are willing to be "water wives".
In fact, the reason is very simple, most of those "water wives" are Indian widows who "don't want to be buried for their husbands" and "have nowhere to go", so becoming "water wives" has become their best choice.
Although their status is relatively low after becoming "water wives", it is still much better than their position as "widows".
Becoming a "water wife" not only enables some widows to solve their own food and housing problems, but also enables them to gain basic respect, which can be described as killing two birds with one stone.
Why?
Once upon a time there was a caste system in India, which very deliberately divided people into four classes, Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, and Shudras, but few people knew that there was also a "fifth caste" of untouchables.
However, the status of widows is even lower than that of "untouchables", to what extent?
For some reason, people at the time regarded it as an evil "monster".
Although the caste system was officially abolished after India's independence from the colonial system in 1947, it was difficult to change the cultural ideas that had been passed down for thousands of years, so even in modern times, the status of widows is still very low.
It can be said that once an Indian woman is unfortunately widowed, and she is unwilling to leave with her husband, then the woman may live a "dark day" in the future.
Because according to Indian tradition, women whose husbands died early are regarded as "ominous" and are usually kicked out of the house by their in-laws and children.
As a result, many widows chose to stay in their rooms, had nothing to do, and rarely went out, while others chose to become "water wives".
They would rather go to fetch water in the sun and sweat on their foreheads, rather than live a life of "lingering" or even begging along the streets, which is believed to be the unanimous idea of more than 40,000 Indian widows.
In fact, not only "widows", but even some Indian women, what about Indian women?
The current situation of women in India
In 2021, according to official media, the dowry of a woman in rural India is about 7 times the cost of the man's bride price!
Yes, in India, men rarely give their women a bride price, which is the opposite of the mainland.
As for why?
Not for anything else, just because in the eyes of those Indian families who give birth to girls, they marry their daughters to ask others to take in their daughters and give the man a high dowry, which may make their daughters feel better in their in-laws' families.
What is more peculiar is that not only women have such thoughts, but also Indian men.
In 2023, the "Jinan Times" reported such a strange thing, in March of that year, an Indian couple originally planned to hold a wedding at the end of 2022, but the groom suddenly canceled the wedding, according to the woman's family, it was because the groom thought that the dowry was too small to withdraw from the marriage.
The above divorce incidents are not nothing, and there have also been cases in India where the in-laws have disputes with the woman's family because they are dissatisfied with the dowry, or abuse the daughter-in-law because of this.
It's really scary to think about, what kind of marriage is this, it's just a "mess".
And it should be noted that in fact, as early as 1961, India issued the "Dowry Prohibition Act", but the above behavior of "spending money to buy a groom" is still prevalent in India.
This can also be seen how much the caste system has influenced India, and how fortunate we are to live in China today.
epilogue
There is no doubt that the prevalence of "water wives" is the result of various reasons, and in recent years, the relevant departments in India have begun to pay attention to these special groups, and changes are happening little by little.
For example, if someone learns to write their name for the first time in a literacy class; For the first time, a woman who used to wear only white dyed her clothes in a different color.
There is reason to believe that this situation will eventually change, and the concept of equality between men and women will become the trend of development today and beyond.
What do you think about this, welcome to express your opinions!
The sources in this article are from:
1. "Baidu Encyclopedia - Caste System"
2. "Modi's Decade: India's GDP Jumps to Fifth in the World, and China's Youth Unemployment Rate is High" (Chinese Academy of Sciences Science Cloud Platform) Times Weekly, released on May 10, 2024;
3. "British media said that "the next China cannot be India": India's rapid economic growth is more challenging", reference news, released on May 6, 2024;
4. "Bangalore, India, is in a deep water shortage crisis, 13 million people are affected", overseas network-CCTV news client, released on May 6, 2024;
5. "Indian men quit their marriages due to less bride dowry, and Indians rely on dowry to "buy grooms", and the pressure to have girls is greater", Jinan Times, released on March 19, 2023;
6. "46 Million Widows, the Unknown Scars of This Country", Sina.com-Observer.com, released on April 13, 2024;
7. World Bank Report: Women's Dowry in Rural India Is About 7 Times of Man's Dowry, Sina Finance-The Paper, July 5, 2021;
8. "In Indian Villages, Water Shortage Gives Birth to a Group of 'Water Wives'", China Youth Daily, July 30, 2019;
9. "India's Water Shortage Gives Birth to "Water Wife"" Abstract Newspaper, 2019-06-06-03 edition, but in order to improve the readability of the article, the details may be polished, please read sensibly, for reference only!