16 years after the birth of the youngest of her seven daughters, 53-year old Rani had a son. Villagers say she went into hiding during her alleged pregnancy, suggesting that she may have 'bought' this child even though she already has a 12-year old grandson.

After six daughters, when Kalpa got pregnant for the seventh time, her husband threw her out of the house on the grounds of her being a girl-bearing wretch. She gave birth to her seventh daughter on the streets, who died soon after. Kalpa now shares quarters with mentally unstable women at a short-stay shelter. Her husband has remarried since then.

After the accidental death of her only child, an 18-year old son, Shweta was desperate for another one. On the advice of a 'baba', she had a concoction of peacock feathers, gold ash and other such ingredients known to be laced with unhealthy arsenic levels. She did have a son but due to a fusion deformity, he was stillborn.

Married off at the age of 13, Rajbala's reproductive journey began six months later. At 27 today, she is pregnant yet again, even though the youngest of her six daughters is barely 5 months old. Misdiagnosed by an ultrasound technician in the past, this time she can only pray that her mother-in-law's insistence for a male child is fulfilled. For now, she dresses her girls up as boys.

Bani has conceived 11 times till date. While five of these ended in miscarriages, six of her daughters are alive. Feeling she is too poor to opt for any sex-selective techniques, she continues to try for a male child even though she has been medically advised against it.

After having given birth to four successive girls, Sumati decided that she could not take on the 'liability' of any more girl children. She says went through four abortions, before Aashish was finally born.

Like many couples of today, Satindar Singh and Gurvinder Kaur were clear they wanted just two children. When the first turned out to be a daughter, Gurvinder went through repeated abortions over 12 years to ensure their second-born was the son they so desperately wanted.

While sex selection is rampant amongst the well-to-do, it's the landless and those without government jobs who bear the brunt. Finding it difficult to get local brides, Dheeru, a 40-year old truck driver, arranged for two girls from Orissa for his younger brothers. He then got an 18-year old Bengali girl for himself. Allegedly, he often finds brides for his bachelor friends, but at a price.

Smita is a mentally-challenged woman from Rajasthan. Unable to even tie the strings, she has little memory of her past. She was given away to Jogi, a professed 32-year old male from Najafgarh who was finding it impossible to get a local girl.

20-year old Chandni's neighbours brought her 11 months ago from Orissa to 'help' her settle in Delhi. Instead, she was married off to Jabbar, a 70-year old widower with six daughters who lives in a village in Haryana with his 60-year old bachelor brother. Already seven months pregnant, Chandni is being treated well for now, as her husband has found out that she is carrying a son.

The woman smoking the hookah is the mother of Satbir, a handicapped man with little land. A man in his situation usually has to shell out lots of money in order to find a bride from another state. So he settled for Sonia, a widow who brought her son from her first marriage.

In rural Punjab, a desire to keep family holdings intact had led to the trend of polyandrous unions. A case in point; Kulwant Kaur. Now, faced with a severe shortage of women, only one or two brothers in a family manage to get married by showing their combined land as a single brother's share. And women from lower castes or those who've been 'purchased' from poorer regions end up as modern-day 'Draupadis'.

Jaspreet is married to the eldest brother in a family of five. For a while, she also had to look after the other four, as the family didn't have adequate land to show for all. In time, this arrangement allowed them to purchase more land and the middle brother got married to Veena. The two women now run adjoining houses, and take care of the remaining single brothers between them.

Sukhvinder is the wife of Hardam Singh, the only married brother among five siblings. Since the family had limited land holdings, the other brothers found it difficult to get proposals of marriage. Once Sukhvinder joined the family, she had to look after the needs of all five men. Her son will now inherit the land owned jointly by the brothers.

After her mother's death, Savita's father got a woman from Bengal for himself. Later, he married Savita off, fully aware of the role she'd have to play in a family had three unmarried brothers. Like Savita, most women who find themselves in trafficking or polyandrous situations have a vulnerable past.