Chandan Savargaon: The day before his little sister’s engagement party, Vibhishan Tapse was in a buoyant mood. He laughed with his mother and teased the bride-to-be as they prepared food and set out sweets for 200 guests who would begin arriving the next morning.
Months earlier, the 23-year-old Tapse had told his father: You paid for my two older sisters’ weddings. Let me take care of this one.
That meant paying the bridal dowry, a costly but time-bound custom in their community of smallholder farmers in western India. He met with a local loan agent to secure about $800, one-third of the dowry payment, enough to satisfy the groom’s family and allow the engagement party to proceed.
Although it was a princely sum, Tapse was confident of paying it back. The low green hills were studded with wheat and cotton ready for harvesting, among the best crops the family had seen in years.
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