Woman Gambled Away

Draupadi may be the most well known woman who was lost in a game of cards. She isn't the only woman to have been wagered though.

According to a report in the ToI, Sokendra Kumar of Muzaffarnagar apparently wagered his wife in a game of cards and lost. His friends who won turned up to collect their winnings on December 19. The woman raised an alarm, and neighbours kept her from being dragged away. They later got her to approach to police who told her not to bother them with trivial issues. The woman has now gone into hiding to avoid the risk of being dragged away by the winners.

Although the woman is still in hiding, the police seem to have claimed that the incident was nothing more than an allegation in a domestic dispute which was resolved.

Reading about the incident didn't leave me particularly surprised. It has the usual ingredients: a woman being treated as property, gambling, the complete inability to get the police to act even when something patently illegal happens to a woman in relation to a domestic situation even if outsiders are involved. It's only the combination of ingredients in this story which makes it unusual.

The only part that surprised me was that the neighbours were willing to intervene and that someone's now given her a place to stay instead of leaving her to her own devices. That isn't something which always happens and an idiotic husband notwithstanding, I think this woman's
lucky to have something in the way of a support structure.