Dowry, though banned by law in India, is still prevalent in large swathes of the Indian countryside, and parents of marriageable girls go through daytime nightmares to locate a suitable groom for their daughters.
There is a reverse trend too. Overaged males offer to "buy" brides, when they fail to get women to marry.
Poor parents are often forced to sell their daughters in the guise of marriage, as was the case nearly four centuries ago, when both male and female slaves used to be sold at slave bazaars.
There are four major reasons behind this gruesome trade in human trafficking:
