Indian men are being forced to travel the length of the country to find brides after gender selection abortions have left them with a shortage of eligible women to marry.

Before 1994, pregnant women could carry out a pre-natal sex determination test to see if they were expecting a boy or a girl.

However, it led to an increase in the abortion of female babies as most families prize boys for economic reasons.

A group of men line up in Sorkhi village in the Haryana in northern India. They are facing a shortage of women to marry due to gender selection tests, which have now been banned

A single girl sits in a classroom in a school in Sorkhi. There had been an increase in the abortion of female babies as most families prize boys for economic reasons

Now, Indian men, especially in the rural north of the country, are struggling to find women to marry in their local area due to the imbalanced male to female ratio.

It also means that Indian women have their pick of men they can marry and can chose husband's whose families are not demanding expensive dowry payments and gifts.

In Haryana state, Sadhuram Berwal wanted to marry but was unable to find a suitable wife, despite asking relatives, neighbours and priest and the local temple.

Eventually he found a bride called Anita but she lived almost 2,000 miles away in Kerala and also spoke a different language.

However, the pair agreed to marry and she moved to his village, despite only speaking a smattering of Hindi.

Indian women now have their pick of men they can marry and can chose husband's whose families are not demanding expensive dowry payments and gifts

She said: 'When I first came here, I didn't much care for the place. I couldn't go out, I couldn't contact anyone.

'Now I speak very good Haryanvi, almost as well as anyone in the village. No-one believes that I'm from Kerala. I speak like a native.'

Mrs Berwal's neighbour Sreeja also agreed to marry a man called Birbal from the same village, despite coming from Kerala, due to a financial crisis in her family.

Sadharum Berwal with his wife Anita and two sons. Anita moved 2,000 miles from Kerala to marry her husband

Mrs Berwal carries water back to her home with her son. She agreed to marry her husband despite not speaking the same language

Her father had lost his eyesight following an illness then lost his job.

She explained: 'We were four sisters. What could my poor mother do? The stigma of having four unmarried daughters was too much for her. When this offer came from Birbal's family, my mother said I was lucky.

'His uncles spoke to my mother over the telephone. Then they came to Kerala and met me and my family. Within a couple of days, I was married and I came here.'

Several other Kerala women who agreed to marry men in Haryana also said they married partly to avoid the oppressive dowry demands.

The grooms' families agreed to pay all wedding expenses and did not take any dowry.

Sreeja Berwal works in the local bank in Sorkhi. She agreed to marry a man living in Sorkhi despite being from Kerala to help family finances

However, activists say another consequence of the shortage of women in northern Indian states such as Punjab and Haryana is that human trafficking has become a lucrative trade.

Agents procure girls and young women from different states in India, promising them jobs or a husband, and sell them to brokers in Haryana.