PRAYAGRAJ, March 31 -- Amid years of deprivation and neglect, Banskati, 18 kilometres from the Kaushambi district headquarters, looks like just any other village in Uttar Pradesh but hides a stark reality beneath the surface.

A settlement of mud houses gives no inkling that a new trend has emerged in the village's Dera Paar Mohalla, which is already notorious for producing the state's highest number of male history-sheeters (28) in a single village; 23 of them are still alive.

Faced with extreme poverty, domestic violence, and the absence of their criminal husbands-who are either dead, jailed, or absconding-several village women are part of 'D-39', said to be the state's first organised all-women crime syndicate.

Dressed in traditional...