Wives fight to be ‘ alive’

India’s notorious bureaucracy records deaths ineptly, to the advantage of men seeking an alternative to divorce. They find it easier to swear out a death certificate on one wife so they can marry another, but that means the first wife will face years, and maybe decades, of campaigning to convince officials that she is not dead. BBC News chronicled the plight of Asharfi Devi, now 64, in September as she was finally declared“alive” after being deserted by her husband at age 23 and ruled dead at age 40. After Devi finally earned a hearing and brought relatives and evidence to the village council, deliberations took eight more months. The husband stuck to his story.

— Chuck Shepherd