Legal Dual Wife in Deganmal village I Mumbai I RECTV INDIA

DENGANMAL, India (Reuters) - In the parched village of Denganmal, in Maharashtra, there are no taps. The only drinking water comes from two wells at the foot of a nearby rocky hill, a spot so crowded that the sweltering walk and wait can take hours.

“I had to have someone to bring us water, and marrying again was the only option,” said Bhagat, who works as a day labourer on a farm in a nearby village.

“My first wife was busy with the kids. When my second wife fell sick and was unable to fetch water, I married a third.”

Bhagat and his family are suffering the consequences of a critical shortage of safe drinking water in India’s villages, as well as the fallout from the most severe drought that Maharashtra has faced in a decade.In Maharashtra, India’s third-largest state, the government estimated last year that more than 19,000 villages had no access to water.

And India is again facing the threat of a drought this year, with monsoon rains expected to be weaker than average.

In Denganmal, a cluster of about 100 thatched houses set on an expanse of barren land, most men work as farm labourers, barely earning the minimum wage. Marrying for water has been the norm here for many years, villagers said.

Bhagat’s wives all live in the same house with him but have separate rooms and kitchens. Two of them are entrusted with fetching water, while the third manages the cooking.

Polygamy is illegal in India, but, in this village, “water wives” are common.

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