Across several districts of northern India, particularly in Haryana, women trafficked through marriage face not only social discrimination but also severe housing and land rights challenges. Many of these women are brought from economically marginalized regions such as Jharkhand, Bihar, Assam, and West Bengal. While they often spend years working within their marital households and raising families, their legal and social access to housing and property remains extremely fragile.

One major challenge is that many of these marriages are informal and never legally registered. Without legal recognition, survivors struggle to claim any right to the homes where they live or to agricultural land owned by their husbands’ families. If family disputes arise or if a husband dies, these women can easily lose their shelter.

In one documented case, a survivor brought from eastern India as a teenager spent years working in her husband’s household and caring for livestock. Despite this, her in-laws refused to give the couple a share of the family house. Today, she and her husband live in a rented room in the same village. She applied for a government housing scheme, but her application has remained pending for years.

Another survivor faced even greater insecurity. After disputes within the family, she and her husband were separated from the ancestral home and forced to live in a small structure built on village council land. Because the land legally belongs to the local authorities, the family lives with the constant fear that the house could be demolished at any time.

Property exclusion also becomes especially severe when a husband dies. In one case, a widow who had spent years working on family farmland was denied her husband’s share of agricultural land by her in-laws. Although the family owns several acres of farmland, she and her children have not received any portion of it and continue to struggle financially.

Some survivors are allowed to cultivate land temporarily but without legal ownership. In one case, after repeated disputes and community intervention, a woman and her husband were allowed to cultivate about one acre of land. However, the land remains legally registered in the father-in-law’s name, leaving the survivor without long-term security.

Housing conditions are also extremely poor for many survivors. One woman described living in an old house that could collapse during heavy rains. The family lacks even basic facilities such as a toilet, highlighting the deep poverty that many trafficked brides experience despite living in agricultural communities.

Even when government housing programs exist, survivors often struggle to access them. Applications for housing or sanitation schemes are frequently delayed or rejected due to lack of documentation, discrimination, or bureaucratic barriers.

These cases demonstrate that housing insecurity is not only a welfare issue but also a human rights concern. Without secure housing and land rights, bride trafficking survivors remain vulnerable to exploitation, domestic violence, and poverty. Ensuring legal recognition of marriages, improving access to documentation, and guaranteeing housing rights are essential steps toward restoring dignity and stability in the lives of these women and their children.