e_dowry.txt

The woman alleged that since her marriage in January last year her husband and inlaws used to beat her up and demand dowry ofRs.
Harassed for dowry a woman allegedly committed suicide by hanging herself here.
A yearold woman was allegedly burnt by her husband and inlaws in Old Malda police station area on Friday.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday said his government will plan a campaign involving people to fight against the menace of foeticide and dowry.
Police has filed an FIR against five persons including the husband of a woman four months after she was allegedly murdered over a dowry demand here officials said today.
The Madras High Court Wednesday ruled that money demanded by a man from his inlaws for doing business does not come under the category of dowry.
Enraged over dowry demands a yearold woman called off her marriage to a government teacher scheduled for next week.
A Khap Panchayat was held in a small village of Bhagpat. The Panchayat was held to sort out the matter of dowry which a boys family demanded from the girls family. The Panchayat successfully sorted the case out by Penalizing the boys family. Watch the full video to know more.
No third child after the birth of two daughters and only Re. to be taken by the groom as dowry from a girls family. These were among a host of rulings given out by a Khap Panchayat here to discourage the practices of female foeticide and dowry.
An FIR has been filed against former Bihar chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhis daughter regarding her daughterinlaws death in Gaya district police said on Monday.
Kerala girl Remya Ramachandran called off her marriage after groom demanded dowry.
A group of youngsters in Nawabpet village of Telangana have decided to launch a campaign against the dowry menace.
This Week Dr. Subhash Chandra Show was conducted at Birla Institute of Technology Mesra Patna in Bihar with an all Women Audience from Patnas Magadh Mahila College.
A strange form of dowry demand even before marriage has come to surface. The demand is not for a house car gold orlakhsof money the grooms family allegedly demanded a nudeselfieof the bridetobe for their son and said only then the marriage would get consummated.
A yearold woman was burnt to death by allegedly her inlaws over dowry at Purmali village in this district police said.
Radhe Maa who was questioned by the Mumbai Police at the Kandivali Police station on Wednesday in connection with a dowry harassment case is believed to be married to a person called daddy who has found mention in the statement given by the victim.
The controversial godwoman Radhe Maa who has been accused in a dowry harassment case was questioned by Mumbai Police at Kandivali Police Station on Wednesday.
In a fresh trouble for selfproclaimed controversial godwoman Radhe Maa a petition filed in the Bombay High Court on Tuesday sought a direction to the police to lodge an FIR against her for alleged cheating obscenity and hurting religious sentiments.
Selfstyled godwoman Radhe Maa who was questioned last year in connection with a dowry harassment complaint filed by a woman has not been named as an accused in the case a senior police officer said today. 
In a shocking incident a yearold woman was allegedly raped by her husband and his two brothers who tattooed expletives on her forehead and hand after her family could not fulfill their dowry demand in Alwar district the police said today. 
First they beat her so badly that she fainted. Then as she lay unconscious the young womans body was marked with seven crude tattoos in different parts each an abuse. 
Woman Allegedly Commits Suicide In Faridabad Case Lodged Against Husband InLaws
Harassed for dowry a woman allegedly committed suicide by hanging herself in Faridabad. 
The Supreme Court while upholding a high court verdict that sentenced a man to five years in jail for torturing his pregnant wife which eventually drove her to suicide said the story was a reminder of the untold miseries of young women in matrimonial homes. 
A man allegedly killed his yearold wife for dowry by pushing her into a canal while clicking a selfie in Sardhana area of Meerut police said today. 
Around women were either killed or committed suicide due to dowry harassment between and Union Minister Maneka Gandhi said today. 
In a bid to discourage ostentatious marriages Pakistans Punjab province has passed a law banning serving of more than one dish display of fireworks and dowry during the wedding ceremony. 
In her suicide note a yearold in Delhi wrote that her husband used to beat her like a devil. Priyanka Kapoor a former model was found on Saturday hanging from a fan in the apartment she shared with her husband in South Delhis Defence Colony. 
A new commercial is winning praise for challenging more than one obsolete tradition related to marriages in our country. 
Cops have registered an FIR in the case. The estranged couple had initially filed for divorce on the grounds of mutual consent but Karisma withdrew her consent stating Sunjay had failed to meet certain financial commitments established in the consent terms 
Furious over his greed and demands for dowry a yearold woman called off her marriage to a government school teacher. 
Enraged over dowry demands a yearold woman called off her marriage to a government teacher scheduled for next week. 
An year old girl in Maharashtras Latur reportedly committed suicide to save her father a poor farmer with a one acre farm from having to pay dowry for her marriage. 
In a tragic incident a yearold girl from Latur district who was academically bright committed suicide so her poor farmer father doesnt have to pay dowry for her marriage. 
The Delhi Assembly on Wednesday passed a resolution that members of the House will not indulge in exchange of any kind of dowry for wedding of their children and relatives. 
Woman Allegedly Raped Multiple Times by BrotherinLaw Tortured for Dowry in Faridabad
A yearold married woman was allgedly tortured by her inlaws for dowry and raped multiple times by her brotherinlaw in Faridabad police said. 
In a relief for controversial selfstyled godwoman Radhe Maa the Bombay High Court today granted her prearrest bail in a dowry harassment case. 
Former Delhi Law minister Somnath Bharti broke down during questioning by investigators who today took him to his Dwarka residence where he came face to face with his wife in connection with the dowry harassment and attempt to murder case. 
As soon as we reach the bungalow in Borivli where Radhe Maa had been given the entire fifth floor by her follower Sanjeev Gupta we are asked to tie a handkerchief on our heads. When we asked why we should cover our heads Radhe tells us This is not for me but to pay respect to Devi Mata as this is her temple. 
Radhe Maa selfappointed godwoman stepped out of the Kandivali police station in suburban Mumbai fourandahalf hours after she had gone in for questioning in a dowry harassment case today. Police sources said she was asked questions. 
Dressed in her trademark bridal red and with a trishul or trident in hand Radhe Maa went into Mumbais Kandivali police station for a questioning session that lasted nearly fourandahalf hours. The yearold selfproclaimed godwoman has been named in a dowry harassment case. 
There have been a flurry of complainants against selfstyled Godwoman Radhe Maa but the chances of her arrest remain rather bleak. 
Radhe Maa who calls herself a godwoman has grabbed national attention with an array of controversies and eyecatching pictures on social media. 
Have No Complaint Against Anyone Says Godwoman Radhe Maa After Being Booked in Dowry Case
She may have found herself embroiled in a spate of controversies ranging from dowry harassment to being a fake Guru but that does not seem to have dampened selfstyled Godwoman Radhe Maas spirits. 
The miniskirt controversy is not the only issue dogging selfstyled godwoman Radhe Maa. There is a police case against her as well for inciting a family to demand dowry. Besides a Mumbaibased lawyer has lodged a complaint with the police accusing her of being a fake guru who encourages her followers to kiss and hug her. 
A First Information Report or FIR was registered against selfstyled godwoman Radhe Maa after a woman accused her of instigating her inlaws who are her followers to demand dowry. 
A total of dowry deaths have been reported in the country in past three years with maximum of them occurring in Uttar Pradesh with deaths. 
The divorce case of Karisma Kapoor and her estranged husband Sanjay Kapoor is getting ugly. Every ot.
Greater Noida Aug In an alleged dowry death a woman was found hanging from a ceiling fan in Roh.
This article originally published by Neon Tommy was written in response to USG.
In yet another shocking case of cruelty against women a young mother in Birbhum was burnt alive allegedly because she was darkskinned and her husband and inlaws wanted a new bride with a fairer complexion.
A yearold woman was allegedly burnt by her husband and inlaws in Old Malda police station area on Friday.
Former BSP minister Hiralal Kashyap has alleged that the city lawyers have refused to take up the case of his daughter who allegedly committed suicide due to dowry harassment.
The arrests came after an FIR was registered under SectionsAandBofIPCand Section of Dowry Act. 
Police suspect that Delhibased pub owner Nitin Chawla who has been arrested for domestic violence and dowry death after his socialite wife allegedly committed suicide hid details of his life from her including about a rape case he was facing when they married in January.
A yearold woman was killed allegedly by her husband and inlaws over dowry in Jawaharnagar village here police said today.
A yearold woman was killed allegedly by her inlaws over dowry at Mewla Maharajpur area here police said today.
A yearold woman and her infant daughter were strangled to death allegedly by her husband and inlaws over dowry demand in Mehmoodabad area here police said Monday.
A yearold woman was burnt to death allegedly by her husband and inlaws over dowry demands at Khanpur village here police said Tuesday.
A yearold woman was allegedly poisoned to death by her husband and inlaws when she refused to return her wedding gift to them at Kakroli village here police said Monday.
A yearold woman was allegedly killed by her husband for dowry in Kotwali area here police said Tuesday.
The Gujarat High court on Thursday upheld the conviction of a man and his mother in a dowry death case observing that demanding money for starting a business was as good as demanding dowry.
A man allegedly killed his wife and buried her body in an agricultural field in a village here before ploughing the ground to avoid suspicion.
A yearold woman was allegedly beaten to death by her husband and inlaws after she failed to fulfil their dowry demands police said Wednesday.
Locals along with family members of a woman who died allegedly in a dowry case on Tuesday blocked a national highway for more than four hours protesting against the laxity of local police in the matter.
A local court has sentenced three members of a family to years of imprisonment in connection with a dowry death case.
The Thane police arrested four members of a family here on Tuesday including a couple on charges of allegedly harassing a young married women and forcing her to end her life under duress for more dowry the police said.
A housewife was allegedly set on fire by her husband and inlaws and killed in her marital home at Khardah in the northern fringes of Kolkata police said on Saturday.
Relying on circumstantial evidence the Bombay High Court has confirmed life sentence awarded to a man and three members of his family for killing the formers wife and dumping her body into a well.
Bihar Indias thirdmostpopulous state with the countrys poorest people has a crime rate .
If you want to know how civilized a culture is see how it treats its women.
Greater Noida Aug In an alleged dowry death a woman was found hanging from a ceiling fan in Roh.
Priya Vedi an anesthesiologist at the prestigious All India Institute of Medical Sciences AIIMS i.
by Antara Mason This is not just a feminist documentary in actuality its a statement documentary.
Triple Talaq Via Post Jaipur Woman Seeks Supreme Courts InterventionMay 
Selfstyled godwoman Radhe Maa who was questioned last year in connection with a dowry harassment complaint filed by a woman has not been named as an accused in the case a senior police officer said today. 
In a shocking incident a yearold woman was allegedly raped by her husband and his two brothers who tattooed expletives on her forehead and hand after her family could not fulfill their dowry demand in Alwar district the police said today. 
First they beat her so badly that she fainted. Then as she lay unconscious the young womans body was marked with seven crude tattoos in different parts each an abuse. 
Woman Allegedly Commits Suicide In Faridabad Case Lodged Against Husband InLaws
Harassed for dowry a woman allegedly committed suicide by hanging herself in Faridabad. 
The Supreme Court while upholding a high court verdict that sentenced a man to five years in jail for torturing his pregnant wife which eventually drove her to suicide said the story was a reminder of the untold miseries of young women in matrimonial homes. 
A man allegedly killed his yearold wife for dowry by pushing her into a canal while clicking a selfie in Sardhana area of Meerut police said today. 
Around women were either killed or committed suicide due to dowry harassment between and Union Minister Maneka Gandhi said today. 
In a bid to discourage ostentatious marriages Pakistans Punjab province has passed a law banning serving of more than one dish display of fireworks and dowry during the wedding ceremony. 
In her suicide note a yearold in Delhi wrote that her husband used to beat her like a devil. Priyanka Kapoor a former model was found on Saturday hanging from a fan in the apartment she shared with her husband in South Delhis Defence Colony. 
A new commercial is winning praise for challenging more than one obsolete tradition related to marriages in our country. 
Cops have registered an FIR in the case. The estranged couple had initially filed for divorce on the grounds of mutual consent but Karisma withdrew her consent stating Sunjay had failed to meet certain financial commitments established in the consent terms 
Furious over his greed and demands for dowry a yearold woman called off her marriage to a government school teacher. 
Enraged over dowry demands a yearold woman called off her marriage to a government teacher scheduled for next week. 
An year old girl in Maharashtras Latur reportedly committed suicide to save her father a poor farmer with a one acre farm from having to pay dowry for her marriage. 
In a tragic incident a yearold girl from Latur district who was academically bright committed suicide so her poor farmer father doesnt have to pay dowry for her marriage. 
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The illegal custom claims the life of one woman every hour with many of the victims burnt by their husbands family.
A woman dies every hour in India due to the demands placed upon her family as a result of the dowry system according to figures from the countrys National Crime Records Bureau.
This is an age old custom where the wifes family has to hand over endless amounts in cash and gifts at the wedding and beyond to secure her wellbeing.
It is illegal and the punishments are severe but the number of cases is on the rise in a country that continues to grapple with the issue of violence against women.
Most of the victims of the dowry system die in the most painful way burnt by their husbands family.
Neha a yearold motheroftwo was treated in the intensive burns unit of a hospital in Delhi after suffering deep burns over almost half of her body.
She said her inlaws threw gasoline on her and set her alight. Doctors said it will take another six months before the bandages can be removed from her body.
It got worse when my daughter was born. I never thought they would do this to me they would beat me up and throw me out of the house in the middle of the night. But I never thought they would try to kill me by burning me.
The case is being investigated and four people are in police custody. Neha is now looked after by her parents at their home on the outskirts of Delhi.
Her father Virender Yadav said he did everything possible to make sure his daughter was safe but never imagined the situation would get this bad. He wants the severest punishment for all those involved in the attack.
Seema Mishra said she saved herself from unbearable misery when she left her husbands home with her eightyearold daughter.
She said the demands made were beyond her fathers means. This resulted in physical violence and harassment which caused her to lose her first child. Unable to cope and in fear for her daughters life she left.
Her case has been in court for five years now and Seemas family have poured their savings into fighting it.
Since an estimated women have been killed due to dowries. But the worrying factor has been the increasing numbers of such deaths and dowry cases registered by the NCRB.
Kamla Bhasin a womens rights activist for more than four decades told Sky News she was shocked by the rising numbers and believes there is a direct correlation with Indias economic progress.
Its really linked to greed of money and its linked to patriarchy. Traditional patriarchy is bad enough. This combination of capitalist patriarchy is lethal she said.
The system has farreaching effects on Indian society. It is the primary reason for female foeticide and infanticide. Activists estimate female foetuses are aborted illegally every year.
For many families it is the boy who brings in the riches while a girl continuously depletes it.
Its not the uneducated or tribals that practise this but the affluent societies in large cities and towns of the country. And all this for the want of money.
The horrific Delhi bus gang rape and murder of a yearold student in December led to unprecedented protests across the country.
Under pressure from the public the government passed tough laws aimed at protecting women. Fast track courts were established to try cases of violence against women and punishments were increased.
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Bihar Indias thirdmostpopulous state with the countrys poorest people has a crime rate .
If you want to know how civilized a culture is see how it treats its women.
Greater Noida Aug In an alleged dowry death a woman was found hanging from a ceiling fan in Roh.
Priya Vedi an anesthesiologist at the prestigious All India Institute of Medical Sciences AIIMS i.
by Antara Mason This is not just a feminist documentary in actuality its a statement documentary.
The court decision prohibiting immediate arrests under IPC Section A meets the need for safeguards against false charges and enjoys the support of many including a budding filmmaker. But does it come at a greater risk to genuine victims Shoma Chatterji explores.
From Aug published with support from Oorvani Foundation a champion of publicfunded media for the new India.
Now there was talk about Nirupomas marriage. Her father Ramsundar Mitra looked around hard but could not find a suitable bridegroom for her. Finally he heard about the son of a big landlord a Raibahadur. Although the ancestral estate of the landlord was now considerably reduced there was no question about his aristocracy.
The prospective bridegrooms party demanded a promise of ten thousand rupees and considerable other goods and utensils. Without much thought Ramsundar agreed to all demands a boy like him should not be allowed to slip through.
But how could one raise so much money After mortgaging some and selling some of his possessions he was still short by six or seven thousand rupees. On the other hand the date of the marriage was drawing closer.
Finally the day of the marriage came. A man who had agreed to loan the remaining amount at a very high interest failed to turn up at the appointed time. A great hubbub arose during the marriage ceremony. Ramsundar fell at the feet of Raibahadur and begged Let the auspicious event be completed. I will surely pay you the remaining amount. Raibahadur replied If the money is not in hand the marriage cannot be solemnised.
When the news of this misfortune reached the inner chambers the women started wailing. The central cause of the unhappy event was sitting in silence decked with ornaments sandalwood paste splashed across her forehead. It cannot be said that she felt much respect or sympathy for her wouldbe inlaws.
In the meantime the situation eased a little. The bridegroom suddenly turned against his father and told him I do not understand anything about buying and selling about bargaining I have come here to get married and I will get married.
The father turned to the person next to him and said You see sir how boys behave these days There were a few elderly people around who said Theres no teaching of religion no teaching of morals these days so 
The Raibahadur stunned by the evil consequence of contemporary education that he saw in his own son sat down in silence. The marriage was somehow solemnised in a cheerless manner.
When Nirupoma was leaving for her fatherinlaws house her father held her close and could not hold back his tears. Niru asked him Wont they let me visit you father
And Ramsundar replied Why wont they I will bring you home myself.Ramsundar often visited his daughter in the house of her inlaws but he was not respected in that house. Even the servants looked down upon him. In a small room outside the main building he sometimes saw his daughter for a few minutes sometimes he did not.
Such humiliation from a close relative could not be borne for too long. Ramsundar resolved to find a way to repay the rest of the money.
But he was finding it difficult to bear the burden of the loan that was already heavy on his shoulders. There was little money to meet the expenses of his household and he was constantly employing devious strategies to avoid his debtors.
In her fatherinlaws house Nirupoma suffered constant humiliation. Listening to indignities hurled against her father and crying copiously standing at the door had become a daily routine for her.
Her motherinlaws anger seemed particularly irritating. If someone said Ah what beauty What a pleasure to behold such beauty she would immediately huff What nonsense Her beauty matches exactly the house she comes from.
Nirupoma was not even given enough food to eat or clothes to wear if some neighbour dared to mention it her motherinlaw would cry out Enough In other words if the father had paid the full amount the daughter would have received full care. Everyone behaved as if she had no right in that house that she had somehow tricked them into allowing her to enter that house.
Perhaps the illtreatment and all the insults suffered by his daughter finally reached Ramsundars ears. So he started thinking about selling his ancestral homestead.
But he kept this a secret from his own sons whom he was about to make homeless. He had planned to rent a house after he had sold his own and run his own affairs in such a way that his own sons would not know anything until he was dead.
But his sons came to hear about it and they all broke down into tears. The opposition of the three older sons who had children of their own was particularly vehement and so the selling of the house was put off.
Ramsundar started borrowing small sums of money at very high interest from various sources. It was becoming impossible to make ends meet.
Niru had only to look at her fathers face to understand everything. Poverty and worry were clearly stamped on the old mans thin face his white hair and shrunken frame. When a father has sinned against his daughter can his sense of guilt be hidden from her
In the few moments that were occasionally granted to Ramsundar to meet his daughter the fathers broken heart was evident to the daughter in the smile with which he greeted her.
Nirupoma became extremely impatient about going home for a few days so that she could console her distressed father. The sight of her fathers sad face made the distance impossible to bear. One day when she met her father she pleaded Father take me home once please. And Ramsundar replied Okay.
But he felt as if he had no strength left it was as if he had relinquished the natural right of a father over his daughter for his inability to pay the pledged amount. The embarrassment of begging even for a sight of his daughter made the articulation of a second request doubly difficult.
But how could a father be heedless to a daughters desire to revisit her own home Let the history of how much insult loss and indignity Ramsundar suffered to savesome three thousand rupees before applying to Nirupomas fatherinlaw remained untold.
Ramsundar wrapped up the banknotes in his handkerchief tied the handkerchief to his shawl and appeared before his inlaw. With a smile on his face he first talked about his neighbours. He gave an elaborate description of the big robbery at Harekrishnas house he compared the two brothers Nabinmadhab and Radhamadhab praising the intelligence and character of the latter and condemning the former he talked absurdly about a new disease that plagued the city. Finally laying the hookah down he said Ha ha it is true I still owe you money. Every day I think of bringing it over but I forget every time. You know I have become old. With that elaborate introduction he brought out the three banknotes with a show of much casualness almost indifference. When he saw the three thousand rupees the Raibahadur burst out in derisive laughter.
Thats all right I dont need it he said and referring to a wellknown Bengali proverb he added that he did not want to soil his hands with such a petty amount.
Who could talk about his daughters visit after such an incident But Ramsundar simply thought I can ill afford to allow myself to be embarrassed by my relative. Deeply disappointed he sat quietly for sometime and finally broached the topic mildly. Without offering any reasons Raibahadur said It is not possible now. And he walked away.
With trembling hands Ramsundar tucked the notes inside his shawl and went straight home without seeing his daughter. In his mind he resolved never again to go to Raibahadurs house till he had paid the entire amount and reestablished his right over his daughter.
Many days passed. Nirupoma sent one messenger after another to her father but still he did not come. Finally hurt by her fathers stubbornness she stopped sending mesengers now Ramsundar was hurt even more by his daughters action but still he wouldnt go. When the month of Ashwin arrived Ramsundar said I will bring my daughter home this Puja or He took a solemn oath.
On the fith or sixth day of Puja Ramsundar again tied a few notes inside his shawl and set off. A fiveyearold grandson came up to him and inquired Grandpa are you going to buy a pushcart for me For days he had been wanting to go on a pushcart ride but it had not happened. A sixyearold granddaughter said I dont have a single good dress to wear to the Puja.
Ramsundar knew that very well and had thought much about it while he puffed on his hookah. He had sighed countless deep sighs when he thought that his daughtersinlaw would only display their poverty in the few ornaments they would wear when they go to Raibahadurs puja feast. And this only helped to deepen the furrows of old age on his forehead. With the piteous cries of his povertyridden household still ringing in his ears the old man entered his inlaws house. Today he didnt feel his habitual embarrassment. The shy and hesitant glances that he usually cast on the servants and guard no longer showed on his face and he entered the house as if it were his own. He was told that the Raibahadur was not in he would have to wait for sometime. Unable to control his elation Ramsundar met his daughter and tears of joy flowed down his cheeks. Both the father and daughter cried together and none could speak. Moments passed and then Ramsundar said This time I am taking you home my girl. There is no more difficulty.
At this time Ramsundars eldest son Harmohon suddenly entered the room with his two small sons and said Father you have thrown us into the streets now.
In a rage Ramsundar cried Do I have to go to hell for you Wont you let me choose the right path for myself Ramsundar had sold his house. He had arranged to keep this fact hidden from hs sons but somehow they had come to know about it this irritated and enraged Ramsundar.
His grandson held him round his knee and looked up at him. Grandpa did you bring my pushcart
Grandpa stood silently with his head bowed and the child turned to Nirupoma. Aunt will you buy me a toy car
Nirupoma understood the entire situation and said Baba if you give a single paisa more to my fatherinlaw you will never see your daughter again. Here let me touch your body and say it.
Ramsundar said For Gods sake my girl dont say such things. It is an insult to your father and an insult to you if I cant give him the money.
What can you do if they dont Please dont come to take me home anymore.
With his hands shaking in agitation Ramsundar flung the shawl into which the notes were tied over his shoulder and walked back home averting the gaze of all like a thief.
The news that he had come with the money and gone away without giving it at the command of his daughter did not remain a secret. Some curious eavesdropping servantgirl revealed the news to Nirus motherinlaw and she was furious when she heard the news.
For Niru her fatherinlaws residence had become intolerable. Her husband had gone away from home soon after marriage to take up his post as a Deputy Magistrate and her inlaws had banned her from the company of her relatives lest such association bring about a degeneration of her character.
At this time Niru contracted a serious illness. But of course her motherinlaw could not be completely blamed for this. Niru herself was very negligent towards her health.
During the chilly Kartik month she slept with the window beside her bed open all night and in the winter she hardly wore warm clothes. She had no regular meal times. Sometimes when the servants forgot to bring her food she herself never opened her mouth to remind them. The belief that she was nothing more than a slave in an alien household dependent on the will of others was firmly taking root in her mind. Her motherinlaw found even this attitude intolerable. When she noticed that her daughterinlaw was indifferent towards food she would cry out Oh are you a nawabs daughter that you cannot eat the food from a poor mans house Sometimes she would say Just look at her look at her Everyday she looks more like a piece of charred wood.
When her illness became really serious Nirus motherinlaw said She is just being childish. Finally one day Niru simply told her motherinlaw I would like to see my father and brothers once.
Her motherinlaw said This is just an excuse to go to your fathers house.
Nobody will believe that the first day a doctor was summoned to see Niru was also the last time the doctor saw her that evening she breathed her last.
The death of the eldest daughterinlaw was observed by an impressive funeral. Just as the Raychowdhurys had become wellknown throughout the district for the grandeur of their puja observances so now the Raibahadurs became famous for the last rites of their daughterinlaw. None in this region had seen a funeral pyre built of sandalwood only the Raibahadurs could have organised such elaborate preparations for the sraddho feast that followed the funeral. It is rumoured that even the Raibahadurs fell into a little debt.
In consoling Ramsundar everybody gave elaborate accounts of the grandeur of his daughteers funeral. In the meantime the District Magistrate wrote I have finalised all preparations so please send my wife to me immediately. And the Raibahadurs astrologer wrote to him Son we have negotiated a marriage with another girl so take leave and come home immediately.
This time the dowry was set at twenty thousand rupees to be paid at the time of marriage.
Shawkat Hussain a retired professor of English at the Dhaka University now teaches at the University of Asia Pacific and is an occasional Tagore translator. 
Any unauthorised use or reproduction of bdnews.com content for commercial purposes is strictly prohibited and constitutes copyright infringement liable to legal action.
In dowry death cases were reported across India meaning a bride was burned every minutes according to statistics recently released by the National Crime Records Bureau.
A decade earlier this number was but climbed to dowry deaths in .
Dowry although banned by law in but never seriously enforced is an ancient tradition prevalent amongst most Indian families.
With prosperity burgeoning after the early s when Indias statecontrolled economy opened up to a free market system this pernicious custom became more acute with greedy grooms backed by their families seeking to get rich through their hapless brides.
But if a bride refused to satisfy incessant demands by her husband and inlaws for money and goods despite having brought with her the mandatory dowry at the time of marriage she was subjected to inhuman treatment.
Thereafter the luckless girl was either starved administered frequent beatings or simply jailed inside her bridal home and denied all contact with her family.
If her family either declined to pay or were simply unable to do so many inlaws in connivance with their sons forced the bride into an flammable nylon sari doused her with paraffin and set her alight claiming she had caught fire whilst cooking.
In the early s such dowry deaths became so commonplace climbing up to even five a day in the federal capital New Delhithat antidowry activists forced the government in to change prevailing laws stacked against the bride.
Consequently all such deaths by burning within seven years of marriage were deemed unnatural and cases of murder were immediately registered against the husband and his parents.
The brides dying statements were also treated as inviolate evidence a move that led to a reduction in the number of such cases soon after the law was first passed.
It also takes decades for the simplest of cases in Indias overloaded courts to be decided after which the litigants invariably file appeal petitions leading to further interminable delays and denial of timely justice.
Three years ago Indias Supreme Court declared that no mercy should be shown to those found guilty of burning brides for not bringing adequate dowry.
On one hand people regard women as devi goddess on the other hand they burn them alive. This is against the norms of civilised society. Its barbaric former Justice Markandey Katju remarked in response to an appeal filed by a husband handed a life sentence by a Sessions court for burning his wife. 
for truth and family harmony. Follwing is the list of current news and media articles which highlight the misuse of dowry laws a attrocities cruelity against family by women governments unjustified policies etc.
story in English for exposing the littleknown plight of Indian 
Awards honouring excellence in ethnic media will be presented at the San Jose Fairmont hotel on Thursday January from and on line submissions in more than languages from Spanish 
West in San Leandra won for Best Investigative story in English blackmailed by their inlaws who abused Indias anti dowry 
Following frontline articles shows the suicide statistics of Indian men and women
Official figures from Indias National Crime Records Bureau reveal that young women many of them new brides were killed in socalled dowry deaths in . The report comes amid growing concern over the level of violence against women following the Delhi gang rape case last December.
The number of deaths is marginally less than in but reflects a broader increase in gender violence. While dowry deaths fell slightly from to the number of cases of cruelty committed by husbands and their relatives increased significantly from in to last year. Many of the cruelty cases are believed to be dowryrelated and many dowry killings are preceded by cruelty by the husband and inlaws.
Although the payment of dowries for marriage is illegal in India they remain widespread across caste class and educational divides. In recent years demands have become more insistent and expensive. 
One of the dowry deaths last year was Pravartika Gupta who was burned to death in her bedroom as she slept with her oneyearold daughter. She had been threatened by her inlaws because her family could not afford to speed up their schedule of payments. They had agreed to pay in cash and buy a Honda City car for their soninlaws parents. The inlaws had suddenly demanded that Pravartikas family also buy them an apartment.
According to the Bureaus latest figures charges were brought in per cent of the dowry death cases but the conviction rate was just per cent. In cruelty cases the conviction rate is only per cent.
Vrinda Grover a leading lawyer and womens rights campaigner said the figures proved that crime against women is rampant in India. She said dowry death cases can only be registered up to seven years after marriage which means most of those killed were young women and relatively new brides. Grave violence is being committed against young women in their matrimonial homes and the low conviction rate shows the legal system is not geared up to investigate and prosecute these cases she said.
District Administration tightens Security around Eidgahs in Muzaffarnagar 
A citybased doctor has been booked by police for allegedly demanding Rs lakh dowry before his marriage for pursuing a higher medical course.
A probationary IAS officer has been booked for allegedly demanding dowry from the family of a senior police official in Bhopal to marry their daughter.
Family members of a man should not be implicated in a dowry case just because their names have been mentioned in the complaint without any specific allegation levelled against them the Supreme Court has said.
Police said that the woman got divorced from her first husband about years ago. She then got married to Rafiq in September .
Doctors treating Rehana Biwi said she has suffered around per cent burns and that her condition was critical.
Culture Minister Kapil Mishra discusses it was hightime for a resolution against dowry and how a pledge against the practice taken by legislators in the Delhi assembly Wednesday will make a difference.
Uttar Pradesh is followed by Bihar and Madhya Pradesh with and deaths during the same period.
Police said the woman who was married to Azharuddin in was subjected to physical and mental torture by her inlaws who demanded dowry from her.
The young woman reportedly wrote a letter before her death has been found in the flat police said. 
The couple reportedly had fights as the mans family demanded dowry from her police said.
Police said when they arrived at the scene the body was lying in the courtyard.
The same study took a look at other crimes against women including outraging modesty and harassment for dowry.
Investigative and legal processes should address the unequal context that dowry laws operate in.
The court let off the bureaucrat with a warning that violation of any of this could lead to cancellation of his bail.
The body of the victim has been sent for postmortem and a case has been registered against her husband.
Northeast states registered zero cases despite an increasing trend of dowry cases in rest of India. 
An exservicemans newly married daughter was allegedly assaulted by around personsmost of whom were her inlaws.
Police in India have rescued a woman whose husbands family allegedly held her captive for three years because her parents failed to pay enough dowry. 
Gunja Devi was dressed in tattered clothes and looked very scared the officer who rescued her told BBC Hindi.
Dowries have been illegal in India since but the practice is still widespread. Thousands of women a year are killed in dowryrelated disputes.
Paying and accepting dowry is a centuriesold South Asian tradition where the brides parents gift cash clothes and jewellery to the grooms family.
Campaigners say the practice leaves women vulnerable to domestic violence and death.
Gunja Devi was allegedly detained by her inlaws in Darbhanga district in the eastern state of Bihar police said.
She was rescued after her father Shyam Sundar Singh complained to the police that he had not been allowed to meet his daughter for the past three years. She has now been handed over to her father police said.
It is unclear why it took so long for the alarm to be raised and for her to be rescued.
Gunja Devi was married in and her family has alleged that her torture escalated when she gave birth to a girl in a culture where boys are valued.
According to reports in the local media the rescue operation took place more than a week ago and photos at the time showed Gunja Devi appearing bedraggled from captivity dressed in tattered clothes with unkempt hair and overgrown nails.
Her plight emerged in Indias national media only on Monday with reports that she had been confined in a dark and dingy bathroom and was given very little to eat.
Police official Seema Kumari who carried out the rescue operation did not confirm whether Gunja Devi had been locked in a bathroom.
She immediately asked for her threeyearold daughter and wept inconsolably when the child could not recognise her the Press Trust of India quoted the police official as saying. 
A police complaint has been lodged against Gunja Devis husband and her inlaws. They were taken into custody but later freed on bail reports said.
A sevenyear inquiry into the Iraq War concludes that peaceful options had not been exhausted and there was no imminent threat from Saddam Hussein.
District Administration tightens Security around Eidgahs in Muzaffarnagar 
Indias Supreme Court has said that women are increasingly misusing the tough antidowry law to harass their husbands and inlaws.
The judges said the law was enacted to help women but it was being used as a weapon by disgruntled wives.
The court has now ordered the police to follow a ninepoint checklist before arresting anyone on a dowry complaint.
Correspondents say dowry offences are a serious issue in India where more than women are killed every year.
Paying and accepting dowry is a centuriesold South Asian tradition where the brides parents gift cash clothes and jewellery to the grooms family.
The practice has been illegal in India since but it continues to thrive and campaigners say it leaves women vulnerable to domestic violence and even death.
To prevent dowry deaths and harassment of brides in their matrimonial homes India introduced a tough antidowry law Section A of the Indian Penal Code in .
A complaint under the law allows for immediate arrest and jailing of the accused often the husband and his family members but campaigners say the provision is frequently misused with many women filing false cases.
The fact that Section A is a cognisable and nonbailable offence has lent it a dubious place of pride amongst the provisions that are used as weapons rather than shield by disgruntled wives the twojudge bench of Justices CK Prasad and PC Ghose said in its order on Wednesday.
The simplest way to harass is to get the husband and his relatives arrested under this provision. In a quite number of cases bedridden grandfathers and grandmothers of the husbands their sisters living abroad for decades are arrested it added.
According to the National Crime Records Bureau statistics nearly people including women were arrested over dowry offences in but only of the accused were convicted the court said.
Expressing concern over the misuse of the law the judges ordered the police not to automatically arrest an accused but to go through a ninepoint checklist to satisfy themselves about the necessity for arrest.
And if the police make an arrest a magistrate must approve further detention of the accused the court ruled.
A sevenyear inquiry into the Iraq War concludes that peaceful options had not been exhausted and there was no imminent threat from Saddam Hussein.
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In a major step to end rampant misuse of the antidowry harassment law the Narendra Modi government on Wednesday said it is planning to make the offence compoundable which will permit compromise and settlement between both the parties at the trial court stage itself.
This will be done by amending a specific provision in Section A of the Indian Penal Code IPC.
At present as the offence is noncompoundable men and their relatives framed in large number of cases by their wives or her family members simply for extracting money face harassment at the trial court. They have to move the high court concerned to get their cases compounded.
In Delhi the misuse is less as the police are cautious after my ruling that there cannot be any arrest without the permission of the DCP and I limited the powers of the Crime against Women CAW cells who were lodging many cases themselves. They used to illegally summon and order arrest. I ended the tyranny by ruling that CAW cells have no power to take coercive action. The proceedings of these cells are not judicial or quasijudicial nor can they issue summons to appear before it. That power remains with the judiciary. In other northern states the less said the better about the police conduct said Dhingra.
The plan to make the offence compoundable was announced by Minister of State for Home Affairs H.P. Chaudhary in the Rajya Sabha.
A draft note for the Cabinet which inter alia seeks to amend section A of the IPC making it compoundable has been sent to the legislative department ministry of law and justice for drawing up the draft Bill he said. The move comes a year after the Supreme Court said the law had become a weapon in the hands of disgruntled women.
Expressing concern over the misuse of the law the apex court had directed the state governments to instruct police not to automatically arrest when a case under Section A of the IPC dowry harassment is registered but to satisfy themselves about the necessity for arrest under the parameters laid down flowing from Section of the Criminal Procedure Code.
It is a provision under which a husband his parents and relatives can be booked for subjecting a woman to cruelty to meet their unlawful demands dowry. Generally the husband his parents and relatives are immediately arrested without sufficient investigation and put behind bars on nonbailable terms. Even if the complaint is false the accused is presumed to be guilty until he or she proves innocence in the court. The maximum punishment if proved guilty is imprisonment for three years.
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District Administration tightens Security around Eidgahs in Muzaffarnagar 
A citybased doctor has been booked by police for allegedly demanding Rs lakh dowry before his marriage for pursuing a higher medical course.
A probationary IAS officer has been booked for allegedly demanding dowry from the family of a senior police official in Bhopal to marry their daughter.
Family members of a man should not be implicated in a dowry case just because their names have been mentioned in the complaint without any specific allegation levelled against them the Supreme Court has said.
New amendments to the Dowry Prohibition Act suggested by the Ministry of Women and Child Development include maintaining a notorised list of wedding gifts reduced penalties for dowrygivers and linking the Dowry Act to the Domestic Violence Act 
The Ministry of Women and Child Development has moved a Cabinet note seeking amendments in the existing provisions of the Dowry Protection Act . 
Under the Dowry Prohibition Act genuine presents offered to the bride or to the bridegroom at the time of marriage are not prohibited provided the value of the gifts is not excessive compared to the financial status of the parties giving the presents. The Dowry Prohibition Maintenance of List of Presents to the Bride and Bridegroom Rules already requires a list to be maintained the current amendment makes it more legal by requiring a sworn affidavit thats duly notarised. 
Senior Supreme Court advocate K T S Tulsi called the amendments a positive step. Mandatory registration of lists would not only facilitate having proof but also eliminate the possibility of abuse of law by making false allegations he said.
The amendments are expected to be placed before Cabinet for its approval this month and are likely to be tabled in Parliament in the coming budget session. 
According to the National Crime Records Bureau NCRB in around cases were registered under the Dowry Prohibition Act compared to cases in . Dowry disputes continue to be the cause of death of many women. NCRB data shows female suicides due to dowry disputes reported in that is six a day on average the figure was in . In at least such cases were registered across the country. 
Between and complaints of dowry harassment constituted the bulk of complaints received by the National Commission for Women NCW. A substantial increase in dowry harassment cases has been observed with each passing year a fairly large number of cases report police apathy. 
The Dowry Prohibition Act was amended after a long and protracted struggle by womens organisations. New sections on cruelty and dowryrelated murder were inserted into the Indian Penal Code IPC in with the definition of cruelty widened to include not only harassment relating to dowry but other kinds of domestic violence as well. With the passage of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act womens organisations have seen more and more women come forward to register complaints of violence and abuse. 
InfoChange India News Features development news India Developed By Tekdi Web Solutions.
Indias Supreme Court has said that women are increasingly misusing the tough antidowry law to harass their husbands and inlaws.
The judges said the law was enacted to help women but it was being used as a weapon by disgruntled wives.
The court has now ordered the police to follow a ninepoint checklist before arresting anyone on a dowry complaint.
Correspondents say dowry offences are a serious issue in India where more than women are killed every year.
Paying and accepting dowry is a centuriesold South Asian tradition where the brides parents gift cash clothes and jewellery to the grooms family.
The practice has been illegal in India since but it continues to thrive and campaigners say it leaves women vulnerable to domestic violence and even death.
To prevent dowry deaths and harassment of brides in their matrimonial homes India introduced a tough antidowry law Section A of the Indian Penal Code in .
A complaint under the law allows for immediate arrest and jailing of the accused often the husband and his family members but campaigners say the provision is frequently misused with many women filing false cases.
The fact that Section A is a cognisable and nonbailable offence has lent it a dubious place of pride amongst the provisions that are used as weapons rather than shield by disgruntled wives the twojudge bench of Justices CK Prasad and PC Ghose said in its order on Wednesday.
The simplest way to harass is to get the husband and his relatives arrested under this provision. In a quite number of cases bedridden grandfathers and grandmothers of the husbands their sisters living abroad for decades are arrested it added.
According to the National Crime Records Bureau statistics nearly people including women were arrested over dowry offences in but only of the accused were convicted the court said.
Expressing concern over the misuse of the law the judges ordered the police not to automatically arrest an accused but to go through a ninepoint checklist to satisfy themselves about the necessity for arrest.
And if the police make an arrest a magistrate must approve further detention of the accused the court ruled.
A sevenyear inquiry into the Iraq War concludes that peaceful options had not been exhausted and there was no imminent threat from Saddam Hussein.
very nature of antidowry law makes it wifebiased daughterinlaw biased discriminatory stringent unprecedented exceptional and poorly formulated. One line of written or oral complaint from your wife or her family member can land husband and his entire family 
If you find yourself in the following situation please contact us by providing your information
protection support to the aggrieved husband and his family. We are the victims of this draconian law and are fighting our 
. Establish a healthy and progressive marriage setup for all.
are completely against dowry tradition going on for centuries in India and we help in eradicating the same through various channels. We strongly detest all forms of domestic violence within the family. 
In India it has its roots in medieval times when a gift in cash or kind was given to a bride by her family to maintain her independence after marriage. During the colonial period it became the only legal way to get married with the British making the practice of dowry mandatory. The trend in present India with its booming economy is now encouraging everhigher bride prices among all socioeconomic strata. But the rising bride price has brought with it an increase in violence against women.
Dowry violence is usually perpetrated by the husband or the inlaws in a bid to extract a higher dowry from the brides family. The dowry price paid at the time of marriage may be significant but the greed of husbands and inlaws can grow after marriage. This frequently translates into physical mental or sexual violence against the bride. The violence ranges from slashing genitalia or breasts with razors to burning her alive by pouring kerosene on her. In some cases women are driven to suicide. 
Although seeking a dowry has been outlawed in India since the ban has been a challenge to enforce. An amendment to the law in mandated that any death or violence within the first seven years of marriage would be tried as related to dowry. The reality is that most cases of dowry violence go unreported.
We will illuminate dark places and with a deep sense of responsibility interpret these troubled times.
The story of a young girl on the threshold of marriage who informs the police about her bridegrooms illegal demands on her family and gets him arrested 
In a country where most young girls succumb silently to their fate seldom taking their own decisions yearold Nisha did the unthinkable. Just as she was about to be married Nisha filed a police complaint against her groom for demanding excessive dowry thereby landing him in jail. Nishas gutsy actions have turned her into a national heroine overnight.
The practice of asking for dowry from a brides parents was officially outlawed by the Indian government in but is still widely followed. According to police officers only of women dare to report dowry harassment to the police. Most of those who do belong to urban upper class families.
Nisha a postgraduate registered a case with the police in Noida a satellite township of the capital Delhi after her husbandtobe Munish Dalal roughed up her father at the wedding while demanding an additional Rs . million in dowry.
Nishas father had already given the groom Rs worth of goods and a luxury car worth roughly the same amount.
With the wedding on in full swing and the guests already assembled Nishas father Devi Dutt Sharma pleaded with the Dalals. I was about to leave for the mandap when my brother Gyaneshwar called to say that our father had been beaten up. Munish was demanding dowry. I took out my cellphone and dialled recalls Nisha. She calmly told the police that a fight had broken out at the wedding venue over dowry.
Nishas bold decision undoubtedly followed her father D D Sharmas firm stand. Sharma who owns six factories told the Dalals that he wouldnt give them any more dowry and that the bridegrooms wedding party would have to return without the bride. 
When there are more than guests at your daughters wedding its a difficult decision to take. But I realised that if Nisha married Munish their blackmailing and demands wouldnt end says Sharma. 
The day before Sharma and his four brothers discussed the marriage late into the night. We felt that there was something wrong. We decided that if they asked for more money we would refuse says Nishas father. 
Sharma says Munish also lied to them. He claimed to be a computer engineer but they found out he taught computers at a school. 
The Sharmas had already spent Rs . million on the marriage. Munish specifically asked for a black Maruti Esteem. They also asked for electronic goods of specific brands says Sharma. 
While Munish is cooling his heels in jail Nisha has become something of an overnight sensation politicians are asking her to fight elections Supreme Court lawyers are promising to fight her cases free of charge. 
Many of those calling her are proposing marriage. Apparently there are countless young men who would be proud to marry a feisty young girl like her. 
Having become an icon for Indian girls Nisha has one piece of advice for them. Never yield to dowry demands and do not be afraid to stand up for your rights. People who harass for dowry should be taught a lesson.
Would she marry Munish if he straightened up No. He has been making overtures but I dont want to have to do anything with that family.
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InfoChange India News Features development news India Developed By Tekdi Web Solutions.
Plans are afoot to amend a criminal law that will allow compromise and settlement between husband and wife at the onset of trial in dowry harassment cases a move that comes after frequent misuse of the provision to trouble men and their near relatives.
Under the proposal Section A of the Indian Penal Code will be made a compoundable offence with the permission of the courts as suggested by the Law Commission and Justice Malimath Committee.
A draft note for the Union Cabinet seeking to amend Section A of the IPC making it compoundable has been sent to the Law Ministry for drawing up the draft bill a Home Ministry official said.
Now the offence is noncompoundable and nonbailable which provides for immediate arrest of the accused. Conciliatory effort by the warring sides is virtually impossible.
A husband or his family members are presumed to be guilty till they prove their innocence in the court. The guilty is punishable with a jail term of up to three years.
There have been allegations that in many cases husbands and their relatives are often charged with false dowry harassment cases by their wives or her family members when some marital problems arise.
If the offence is made compoundable misuse of the law may come down hugely as there would be scope for initiating conciliation proceedings and outofcourt settlement.
Permission from a court will be a guarantee against attempts where a wife may be compelled into a compromise by her husband or inlaws the Home Ministry official said.
Now if a dowry harassment case is proved wrong or proved that the law is misused only Rs penalty is slapped. But the amendment provides for a Rs fine.
Another new section is expected to be inserted to allow an accused to escape jail by paying a penalty.
Opposing the move to dilute the antidowry provision of the law senior Supreme Court lawyer Indira Jaising said it is a law which gives relief and protection to harassed woman and it should be continued.
Violence against women is a violation of human rights. There is no compromise of that. I would disagree with the government move Jaising said.
The Supreme Court had in a judgement in said as it stood now the law had become a weapon in the hands of disgruntled women. It had also observed that serious relook of the entire provision is warranted by the Legislature.
It is a matter of common knowledge that exaggerated versions of the incident are reflected in a large number of complaints. The tendency of overimplication is also reflected in a very large number of cases the apex court had said.
Section A was introduced in early eighties to protect married women from being subjected to cruelty by the husband or his relatives involving newlymarried brides.
A spate of dowry deaths in Delhi and elsewhere led to a campaign by some leading women members of Parliament pushing the government to bring the amendment.
A punishment involving imprisonment of up to three years is provided in the present law. The expression cruelty has been defined in wide terms so as to include inflicting physical or mental harm to the body or health of the woman and indulging in acts of harassment with a view to coerce her or her relations to meet any unlawful demand for any property or valuable security.
The Law Commission recommended that the offence under Section A should be made a compoundable offence with the permission of Court.
Justice Malimath Committee on Criminal Justice Reform also recommended that it should be made compoundable as well as bailable.
Last year the Home Ministry had asked all state governments to be judicious in slapping Section A of IPC in matrimonial disputes as the provision may be used as weapons rather than shields by disgruntled wives.
In an advisory to the states and union territories the Ministry had asked them to instruct their police officers not to automatically arrest a person when a case under Section A of the IPC is registered but to satisfy themselves about the necessity for arrest under the parameters laid down flowing from Section CrPC When police may arrest without warrant.
In an unusual decision in a dowry case of over nine years ago Judicial Magistrate Ist Class Taranjit Kaur has held complainant and her parents guilty of misusing Section A of the Dowry Act against the accused and his three sisters who were absolved of the charges of harassment and torture for dowry and were aquitted of the charges framed against them. The court observed the prosecution has failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt and the accused are entitled to benefit of doubt. 
The court remarked that ultimate objective of every legal system is to arrive at truth punish the guilty and protect the innocent. The investigating agencies and the courts start with the presumption that the accused persons are guilty and that the complainant is speaking the truth. This is too widely available and generalised a statement. The role of investigating agencies and the courts is that of watchdog and not of bloodhound. She further observed There has been a tendency nowadays to rope in all the relatives of the husband in dowry cases and women are abusing the beneficial provisions of Section A by implicating all the family members of the husband. 
The court had found only general as well as vague allegations regarding cruelty maltreatment and demand of dowry against the accused persons Harish Kumar husband of the complainant Sumit Rani and his family members. The court observed no dowry demand was made by the accused and even reconciliation efforts were failed when the matter was referred to Lok Adalat where the accused had asked the complainant to go to her inlaws house but she refused. 
Sumit Rani had alleged that she was being taunted for not bringing sufficient dowry and her husband harassed and mistreated her. She left her husband and four children and started living with her father. 
New amendments to the Dowry Prohibition Act suggested by the Ministry of Women and Child Development include maintaining a notorised list of wedding gifts reduced penalties for dowrygivers and linking the Dowry Act to the Domestic Violence Act 
The Ministry of Women and Child Development has moved a Cabinet note seeking amendments in the existing provisions of the Dowry Protection Act . 
Under the Dowry Prohibition Act genuine presents offered to the bride or to the bridegroom at the time of marriage are not prohibited provided the value of the gifts is not excessive compared to the financial status of the parties giving the presents. The Dowry Prohibition Maintenance of List of Presents to the Bride and Bridegroom Rules already requires a list to be maintained the current amendment makes it more legal by requiring a sworn affidavit thats duly notarised. 
Senior Supreme Court advocate K T S Tulsi called the amendments a positive step. Mandatory registration of lists would not only facilitate having proof but also eliminate the possibility of abuse of law by making false allegations he said.
The amendments are expected to be placed before Cabinet for its approval this month and are likely to be tabled in Parliament in the coming budget session. 
According to the National Crime Records Bureau NCRB in around cases were registered under the Dowry Prohibition Act compared to cases in . Dowry disputes continue to be the cause of death of many women. NCRB data shows female suicides due to dowry disputes reported in that is six a day on average the figure was in . In at least such cases were registered across the country. 
Between and complaints of dowry harassment constituted the bulk of complaints received by the National Commission for Women NCW. A substantial increase in dowry harassment cases has been observed with each passing year a fairly large number of cases report police apathy. 
The Dowry Prohibition Act was amended after a long and protracted struggle by womens organisations. New sections on cruelty and dowryrelated murder were inserted into the Indian Penal Code IPC in with the definition of cruelty widened to include not only harassment relating to dowry but other kinds of domestic violence as well. With the passage of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act womens organisations have seen more and more women come forward to register complaints of violence and abuse. 
InfoChange India News Features development news India Developed By Tekdi Web Solutions.
Behind the entire media cacophony over Pooja Chauhan is a real story and a real person. The story is a familiar one. Of women thousands of them who are harassed over dowry or over the gender of the child they birth particularly if she turns out to be a girl writes
Given the lack of any news about dowry deaths dowry violence or dowry demands one would have thought that the problem had disappeared. Far from it. In fact it has become far more entrenched and taken new forms. Dowry is a symptom of a 
The present day dowry system symbolizes the disinheritance of women and the resulting desperation of parents to push points to inherent flaws in the antidowry legislation and argues that equal inheritance is the way forward.
that has already begun. Others have done it more quietly perhaps. But the dramatic nature of Nishas refusal to give in will give others who are thinking of this some courage.
Alliances may be primed in heaven or in the matrimonial columns but the great Indian dowry custom continues to rule society regardless of reforms and regulations. A strong awareness that marriage is not a retail system will be a step in the right direction says Indra Chopra.
Even if the media does not write about dowry deaths anymore as it did in the latter part of the
India Together is published in part with support from Oorvani Foundation supporting publicfunded media for the new India.
inextlive Dowry Death Act Dowry Death Act Hindi News Dowry Death Act Latest News Dowry Death Act Dowry Death Act Dowry Death Act Dowry Death Act Dowry Death Act inextlive .
Less than a monthandahalf after her wedding a village woman from Bihar escaped from her inlaws place in Haryana after coming to know that she had been sold off by them to porn filmmakers.
Rita Devi named changed landed up at her parents house under Taraiya police station in Saran district in a distraught condition much to the shock of her father who had got her married to a man from Haryana and sent her off to her inlaws place only last month.
Hoping that Rita would be happy after her marriage in a distant place he had arranged her wedding to a youngster named Tiku Patikar with the help of one of his acquaintances from Haryana.
According to a complaint filed by her family with Taraiya police station on Monday Ritas marriage was solemnised at a temple with Tiku Patikar from Patikara village in Haryana on January this year.
Things however started turning worse only a few days after her wedding. Rita alleged that her husband and other members of her inlaws family started torturing her for her fathers inability to give them dowry.
According to her her inlaws wanted her father to give away Rs lakh in cash along with a Royal Enfield motorcycle for the marriage but he was unable to meet their demands because of his financial condition. This soured the relations between the two families.
She said that her inlaws not only taunted her for his fathers inability to give dowry but also started treating her roughly. They even made me work as a labourer in the fields she said in her complaint.
Rita alleged that she recently came to know that her husband with some help from his sisterinlaw had sold her off to porn filmmakers for Rs lakh. One night she also came to know that she would be handed over to them the next morning. This made her panicky but she somehow managed to escape from the house.
After having left her house she subsequently travelled all the way to her village in distant Bihar to inform her parents about her ordeal.
A large number of girls from poor families in Bihar are married to youths from Haryana and other places.
The police suspect that many of them fall prey to the racket involved in human trafficking across the country.
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very nature of antidowry law makes it wifebiased daughterinlaw biased discriminatory stringent unprecedented exceptional and poorly formulated. One line of written or oral complaint from your wife or her family member can land husband and his entire family 
If you find yourself in the following situation please contact us by providing your information
protection support to the aggrieved husband and his family. We are the victims of this draconian law and are fighting our 
Establish a healthy and progressive marriage setup for all.
are completely against dowry tradition going on for centuries in India and we help in eradicating the same through various channels. We strongly detest all forms of domestic violence within the family. 
Indias Supreme Court has said that women are increasingly misusing the tough antidowry law to harass their husbands and inlaws.
The judges said the law was enacted to help women but it was being used as a weapon by disgruntled wives.
The court has now ordered the police to follow a ninepoint checklist before arresting anyone on a dowry complaint.
Correspondents say dowry offences are a serious issue in India where more than women are killed every year.
Paying and accepting dowry is a centuriesold South Asian tradition where the brides parents gift cash clothes and jewellery to the grooms family.
The practice has been illegal in India since but it continues to thrive and campaigners say it leaves women vulnerable to domestic violence and even death.
To prevent dowry deaths and harassment of brides in their matrimonial homes India introduced a tough antidowry law Section A of the Indian Penal Code in .
A complaint under the law allows for immediate arrest and jailing of the accused often the husband and his family members but campaigners say the provision is frequently misused with many women filing false cases.
The fact that Section A is a cognisable and nonbailable offence has lent it a dubious place of pride amongst the provisions that are used as weapons rather than shield by disgruntled wives the twojudge bench of Justices CK Prasad and PC Ghose said in its order on Wednesday.
The simplest way to harass is to get the husband and his relatives arrested under this provision. In a quite number of cases bedridden grandfathers and grandmothers of the husbands their sisters living abroad for decades are arrested it added.
According to the National Crime Records Bureau statistics nearly people including women were arrested over dowry offences in but only of the accused were convicted the court said.
Expressing concern over the misuse of the law the judges ordered the police not to automatically arrest an accused but to go through a ninepoint checklist to satisfy themselves about the necessity for arrest.
And if the police make an arrest a magistrate must approve further detention of the accused the court ruled.
The invasion of Iraq in was not a last resort and there was no imminent threat from Saddam Hussein a longawaited report finds as relatives of service personnel killed say never again must so many mistakes be allowed to sacrifice British lives.
In a major step to end rampant misuse of the antidowry harassment law the Narendra Modi government on Wednesday said it is planning to make the offence compoundable which will permit compromise and settlement between both the parties at the trial court stage itself.
This will be done by amending a specific provision in Section A of the Indian Penal Code IPC.
At present as the offence is noncompoundable men and their relatives framed in large number of cases by their wives or her family members simply for extracting money face harassment at the trial court. They have to move the high court concerned to get their cases compounded.
In Delhi the misuse is less as the police are cautious after my ruling that there cannot be any arrest without the permission of the DCP and I limited the powers of the Crime against Women CAW cells who were lodging many cases themselves. They used to illegally summon and order arrest. I ended the tyranny by ruling that CAW cells have no power to take coercive action. The proceedings of these cells are not judicial or quasijudicial nor can they issue summons to appear before it. That power remains with the judiciary. In other northern states the less said the better about the police conduct said Dhingra.
The plan to make the offence compoundable was announced by Minister of State for Home Affairs H.P. Chaudhary in the Rajya Sabha.
A draft note for the Cabinet which inter alia seeks to amend section A of the IPC making it compoundable has been sent to the legislative department ministry of law and justice for drawing up the draft Bill he said. The move comes a year after the Supreme Court said the law had become a weapon in the hands of disgruntled women.
Expressing concern over the misuse of the law the apex court had directed the state governments to instruct police not to automatically arrest when a case under Section A of the IPC dowry harassment is registered but to satisfy themselves about the necessity for arrest under the parameters laid down flowing from Section of the Criminal Procedure Code.
It is a provision under which a husband his parents and relatives can be booked for subjecting a woman to cruelty to meet their unlawful demands dowry. Generally the husband his parents and relatives are immediately arrested without sufficient investigation and put behind bars on nonbailable terms. Even if the complaint is false the accused is presumed to be guilty until he or she proves innocence in the court. The maximum punishment if proved guilty is imprisonment for three years.
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They have been arrested for harassing Himanshi for dowry. She was found dead at her Ghaziabad residence on Wednesday.
The court observed that the suicide note of the woman did not allege any cruelty or dowry demand by her inlaws.
A yearold woman was allegedly beaten to death by her husband and inlaws after she failed to fulfil their dowry demands police said on Wednesday.
The woman committed suicide early hours on Thursday in her house in Jyoti Park with her husband.
A yearold woman died under mysterious circumstances but her bother alleged that she was killed by her inlaws over dowry in Lakshapur village in Bhadohi police said on Friday.
A woman was beaten to death allegedly by her husband and brotherinlaw after she failed to fulfill their dowry demand of Rs lakh.
In a shocking incident a man allegedly pushed his wife and son into a village well in Bihars Jamui district on Tuesday over dowry leading to their deaths police sources said.
Police sources say that the couple had secretly married in court and the mans family was demanding dowry.
According to Shilpas parents she was depressed due to dowry harassment by her inlaws said police.
Three women were found dead in separate cases of suspected dowry harassment in the national capital.
Three women were found dead in separate cases of suspected dowry harassment. In a th incident a woman suffered pc burn injuries.
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Also cases of dowry were registered during the same period of time she said in a written reply on implementation of Dowry Prohibition Act.
As per National Crime Records Bureau data a total number of and cases were registered of dowry deaths in the country during and respectively the Women and Child Development Minister said.
Similarly and cases were registered under Dowry Prohibition Act in the country during and respectively she said. The Minister said all states except Arunachal Pradesh Sikkim Mizoram and Nagaland where the dowry system is not prevalent have appointed Dowry Prohibition Officers.
The government regularly conducts awareness programmes and public campaigns on various laws related to women including Dowry Prohibition Act through workshops fairs cultural programmes seminars training programmes she said. Advertisements are also regularly brought out in print and electronic media to spread awareness on women rights and laws the Minister said.
In a major step to end rampant misuse of the antidowry harassment law the Narendra Modi government on Wednesday said it is planning to make the offence compoundable which will permit compromise and settlement between both the parties at the trial court stage itself.
This will be done by amending a specific provision in Section A of the Indian Penal Code IPC.
At present as the offence is noncompoundable men and their relatives framed in large number of cases by their wives or her family members simply for extracting money face harassment at the trial court. They have to move the high court concerned to get their cases compounded.
In Delhi the misuse is less as the police are cautious after my ruling that there cannot be any arrest without the permission of the DCP and I limited the powers of the Crime against Women CAW cells who were lodging many cases themselves. They used to illegally summon and order arrest. I ended the tyranny by ruling that CAW cells have no power to take coercive action. The proceedings of these cells are not judicial or quasijudicial nor can they issue summons to appear before it. That power remains with the judiciary. In other northern states the less said the better about the police conduct said Dhingra.
The plan to make the offence compoundable was announced by Minister of State for Home Affairs H.P. Chaudhary in the Rajya Sabha.
A draft note for the Cabinet which inter alia seeks to amend section A of the IPC making it compoundable has been sent to the legislative department ministry of law and justice for drawing up the draft Bill he said. The move comes a year after the Supreme Court said the law had become a weapon in the hands of disgruntled women.
Expressing concern over the misuse of the law the apex court had directed the state governments to instruct police not to automatically arrest when a case under Section A of the IPC dowry harassment is registered but to satisfy themselves about the necessity for arrest under the parameters laid down flowing from Section of the Criminal Procedure Code.
It is a provision under which a husband his parents and relatives can be booked for subjecting a woman to cruelty to meet their unlawful demands dowry. Generally the husband his parents and relatives are immediately arrested without sufficient investigation and put behind bars on nonbailable terms. Even if the complaint is false the accused is presumed to be guilty until he or she proves innocence in the court. The maximum punishment if proved guilty is imprisonment for three years.
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When Shehnaz Bano married Naved in she never suspected her life as a married woman would soon spiral into a circle of violence.
Naveds parents were always opposed to his relationship with Shehnaz as they deemed the initial dowry offered by her family as unsatisfactory. To appease the inlaws Shehnazs parents gave a significant dowry during the wedding and even afterwards giving in to the pressure of the inlaws.
She was required to dust and sweep the house wash clothes and cook food for the family. She was given very little food and had no money for personal needs. Her inlaws and her husband Naved treated her like a slave. She started falling ill frequently due to the stress and the workload but since she had no money she was forced to ask her parents or her brother to take her to the hospital. Moreover every time she went to the hospital her inlaws would lock the house thus denying her entrance. She would knock for hours and eventually the neighbours and often the police would intervene and only then would the inlaws allow her back in.
Despite the mistreatment she had to endure lack of financial independence and the stigma associated with divorce in many parts of India forced her to stay with her husband.
Dowryrelated violence is widespread in India. In alone the National Crime Records Bureau reported dowry harassment deaths. Unofficial figures show that these numbers are at least three times as high. The Criminal Law Act made cruelty to the wife by the husband or his relatives an offense but it focused on punishing the perpetrator while failing to recognize and fulfil womens needs for immediate and emergency relief.
This changed with the passage of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act PWDVA in following a decade of sustained advocacy and activism by the womens movement in India. Drafted by the Lawyers Collective Womens Rights Initiative through a consultative process and with support from the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women the law built on the real experiences of women. By centering on the need to protect women and to enable them to negotiate a life free of violence the law broke the myth that for victims justice is limited to tougher penalties.
The PWDVA marks a radical change bringing violence within the private sphere to the forefront and recognizing domestic violence as a violation of the human rights of women says Indira Jaising Executive Director of Lawyers Collective Womens Rights Initiative. The passing of the domestic violence law has reinforced the norm that violence against women is unacceptable and more importantly this norm has been backed by State sanctions.
For Shehnaz the law became the channel to escape violence. When one day her sisterinlaw attacked her with a knife and she was then left with no financial or other support from her husband she decided to file a case. The Lawyers Collective which introduced Shehnaz to the law accompanied her as she succeeded in securing financial support under the PWDVA Actrebuilding her life independent of her husband and inlaws.
Many are the lessons I have drawn she says. I have learnt to not have any fear and to go out and stand on my own feet to be brave.
I encourage women to speak out and seek support from organizations such as Lawyers Collective to attend survivor meetings and to build up their confidence and regain their pride.
Meanwhile work continues for Lawyers Collective. With a new grant from the UN Trust Fund the organization has been monitoring the implementation of the Law through its annual reports Staying Alive. A national picture of the effectiveness of the Law the reports carry the voices and the stories of thousands of survivors like Shehnaz.
In January the th Staying Alive report will be launched at a national conference that will be attended by Indias Minister for Women Child Development. In December a documentary highlighting the monitoring work of the Lawyers collective was released.
Bangladesh is a development country. In this country there are many kinds of unpleasant customs. Dowry is the most common unpleasant custom of those. It creates many problems. It is against the success of our country. Through this custom the bride has to give a large amount of money furniture ornaments and many things to the bridegroom. It is a very terrible situation for the society. Women their family suffer a lot for this dowry system. I think poverty illiteracy narrow mentality negative attitude to the women dependence on husband and living on their income social corruption etc are the main cause of dowry. Some time bridegroom wants money to do business or want to make his life settle with that money. In the village if brides are not beautiful to look at or if they get late married then they are to give a lot of money as dowry to the bridegroom. It is a much unexpected situation for the brides family members. They are to collect a huge amount of money for their daughters or sisters marriage. Sometime they are to take loan sell their lands furniture ornaments and even their own house to collect the money. They are to lose many things and face many problems for this dowry system. We saw that women are tortured when they can not give any money to their husband. Some time we hear and see in the newspaper that some women are killed some are hung and some are burnt by their husband inlaws family members and others. For this dowry system divorce doing suicide mental and physical tortures number of broken family are increasing day by day. It is also affecting on the new generation. They can not give attention in their education can not contribute in any development activities. It hampers their mental development. This custom is very disgraceful for our country. So we should try hard to remove this system from our country. There are some laws to remove it. But we can not apply them properly. We have to try to use these laws properly. There should be more steps on womens right in our Law system. We should change our outlook mentality by our Law rules. Narrow mentality of the greedy people should be changed and a hard punishment should be given to them. But good thing is that at present our Government is aware about it. Therefore this system is changing. In the past it was so high in our country. Now we have a law that who will give dowry and take dowry all will be known as a criminal. So if we stop giving dowry then I think that this system will be end soon.
that it is a device to control the unfettered power of the husband to divorce his wife. etc. There is a considerable debate what constitutes dowry in its various forms.M
. By this very verse. the poormen are taking this chance of exploiting the brides family to improve their fate from poverty and this is making marriage a commercial transaction. The word consideration is not used in the sense it is used in the Contract Act. Whereas dowry is a subsequent social development for the Muslim communities in Bangladesh with renewed effects after independence. It is paid to the wife only as an honour and respect and to show that he has a serious desire to marry her and is not simply entering into the marriage contract without any sense of responsibility and obligation or effort on his part. criminal law.
has become of much greater significance in the lives of the Bangladeshi people than dower. Under such pressure. welleducated families start saving up money for their daughters dowry as soon as she is born. is to be protected from violence and economic deprivation. remedies can only be achieved by changes of attitude in society.
Even modern. The time has come to assess whether women are actually able to use legal remedies available under these new statutes. Due to inability in respect of realisation of dower and social impact of dowry system. the government passed the Dowry Prohibition Act of . whose only form of education is tradition
When demands for killed. this can be attempted by legislation. so what can one expect from the uneducated masses. the Women and Children Repression Prevention Special Provision Act of exaggerated punishments in most cases up to death penalty for crime against women and children. By abolishing the dowry system and proper appreciation and observance of the custom of dower the Muslim women can be empowered in the society. the Muslim women still are being deprived from empowerment. and the stress they go through due to never ending demands from her inlaws. the bride is subject to torture. and often even parents dont want to have daughters is because of the
.at least not for another century. Dowry problems involve both aspects of the needs i.
The dowry system is so deeply rooted in Indian culture. but will need to be supported by education and legal awareness. which is not Islamic and specifically prohibited by state law. The real need of women in Bangladesh. that sometimes one feels that theres going to be no way out .and some enlightened males were demanding legislation to stamp out this social evil. The reason many
dowry are not met. More recently. Despite the enactment of stringent laws dowry related violence continues to increase.
An astounding number of parents still dont lay enough emphasis on educating their daughters. give as much as you receive. its something to brag about at kitty parties. so why push them so hard Poorer sections of society would rather send their daughters out to work and earn some money. One of the reasons
dowry. but dont feel pressured to give anything more than you receive to her inlaws. is that they often expect that their son will be earning and supporting the wife.your daughter is married into the wrong family. Those from regular middle and upper class backgrounds do send their daughters to school. do so. Encourage her to have a career of her own.Dowry is an evil. They believe their daughters will get married eventually. but our culture is such that we feel we must give something to the inlaws.
Similarly.so DONT. If their daughters do well. and the parents of the daughter flood her inlaws with gifts. at some level. If such giving is selfinflicted. you are contributing to this evil.
. In such cases. but dont emphasise career options. youve got a strong step in your favour.
Often the boys parents dont demand dowry. and it is only fair that she contribute somewhat towards the household by way of dowry. They view education as a rite of passage. and husbands will support them. Give a token present to your daughter. they know they will education very
Because of the family status and their ability to fork out a high get good matches for their daughter. If gifts are expected . If your daughter is educated and has as good a career as her husband to be. condone it and even contribute to it. to help them save up for her dowry.
education. evil system and all of us. If you want to give her something more. You dont need to if your daughter is happily married and has a supportive husband .
Come festivals like Diwali or Holi. youre making a mistake. dowry. When you go out of your way because you are the parents of the girl. and dont take their daughters seriously. parents of the boy ask for
Some of its basic functions are to protect the wife against ill treatment by her husband. So if they treat her badly. In Europe.
education. since a dowry can be a conditional gift. however. as she is not dependent on them. since the dowry makes it possible for the young man to establish a household. and other parts of the world. the dowry served to build the power and wealth of great families and played a role in the politics of grand alliance through marriage. to help the husband discharge the responsibilities of marriage.Instead of giving her dowry so everyone is nice to her at her new home.
Money. The giving of a dowry more or less disappeared in Europe in the th and th centuries. to provide the wife with support in case of her husbands death. South Asia. In some cases. delayed or insufficient dowry made some young wives the victims of murder by their husbands or inlaws. The dowry has a long history in Europe. and to compensate the grooms kin for their payment of bridewealth. Africa. in South Asia. goods. The practice grew. or estate that a woman brings to her husband in marriage. so they cant help but respect her. a practice known as bride burning or dowry death. she can walk out. give her a great career. and encouraging her to pursue a career dowry any parent can ever give their daughter. So they need her monthly contribution to the household expenses and dare not mess with her.
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The Bombay High Court on Thursday directed the State government to ensure that an additional post of dowry prohibition officer is set up in each district within three months. It also asked the State to establish an advisory board.
Hearing a petition filed by advocate Priscilla Samuel the HC observed that a large number of dowry cases have been registered across the State in recent years. It directed the government to appoint any experienced and capable officer from the Women and Child Development Cell as an independent dowry prohibition officer and added that the duties of these officers will be decided by the advisory board.
Advocate Samuels petition which was filed last year states that although the Dowry Prohibition Act was enacted in few steps had been taken by the government to curb the rising number of cases where women were physically and mentally tortured for dowry by their inlaws. The Tata Institute of Social Sciences had also intervened providing statistics of dowry harassment cases registered in the State. The PIL also raised the issue of ever increasing matrimonial websites and the illegalities associated with the same. It invited the HCs attention to the mushrooming illegal businesses of marriage brokers and Internetbased marriage service providers.
When Shehnaz Bano married Naved in she never suspected her life as a married woman would soon spiral into a circle of violence.
Naveds parents were always opposed to his relationship with Shehnaz as they deemed the initial dowry offered by her family as unsatisfactory. To appease the inlaws Shehnazs parents gave a significant dowry during the wedding and even afterwards giving in to the pressure of the inlaws.
She was required to dust and sweep the house wash clothes and cook food for the family. She was given very little food and had no money for personal needs. Her inlaws and her husband Naved treated her like a slave. She started falling ill frequently due to the stress and the workload but since she had no money she was forced to ask her parents or her brother to take her to the hospital. Moreover every time she went to the hospital her inlaws would lock the house thus denying her entrance. She would knock for hours and eventually the neighbours and often the police would intervene and only then would the inlaws allow her back in.
Despite the mistreatment she had to endure lack of financial independence and the stigma associated with divorce in many parts of India forced her to stay with her husband.
Dowryrelated violence is widespread in India. In alone the National Crime Records Bureau reported dowry harassment deaths. Unofficial figures show that these numbers are at least three times as high. The Criminal Law Act made cruelty to the wife by the husband or his relatives an offense but it focused on punishing the perpetrator while failing to recognize and fulfil womens needs for immediate and emergency relief.
This changed with the passage of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act PWDVA in following a decade of sustained advocacy and activism by the womens movement in India. Drafted by the Lawyers Collective Womens Rights Initiative through a consultative process and with support from the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women the law built on the real experiences of women. By centering on the need to protect women and to enable them to negotiate a life free of violence the law broke the myth that for victims justice is limited to tougher penalties.
The PWDVA marks a radical change bringing violence within the private sphere to the forefront and recognizing domestic violence as a violation of the human rights of women says Indira Jaising Executive Director of Lawyers Collective Womens Rights Initiative. The passing of the domestic violence law has reinforced the norm that violence against women is unacceptable and more importantly this norm has been backed by State sanctions.
For Shehnaz the law became the channel to escape violence. When one day her sisterinlaw attacked her with a knife and she was then left with no financial or other support from her husband she decided to file a case. The Lawyers Collective which introduced Shehnaz to the law accompanied her as she succeeded in securing financial support under the PWDVA Actrebuilding her life independent of her husband and inlaws.
Many are the lessons I have drawn she says. I have learnt to not have any fear and to go out and stand on my own feet to be brave.
I encourage women to speak out and seek support from organizations such as Lawyers Collective to attend survivor meetings and to build up their confidence and regain their pride.
Meanwhile work continues for Lawyers Collective. With a new grant from the UN Trust Fund the organization has been monitoring the implementation of the Law through its annual reports Staying Alive. A national picture of the effectiveness of the Law the reports carry the voices and the stories of thousands of survivors like Shehnaz.
In January the th Staying Alive report will be launched at a national conference that will be attended by Indias Minister for Women Child Development. In December a documentary highlighting the monitoring work of the Lawyers collective was released.
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Behind the entire media cacophony over Pooja Chauhan is a real story and a real person. The story is a familiar one. Of women thousands of them who are harassed over dowry or over the gender of the child they birth particularly if she turns out to be a girl writes
Given the lack of any news about dowry deaths dowry violence or dowry demands one would have thought that the problem had disappeared. Far from it. In fact it has become far more entrenched and taken new forms. Dowry is a symptom of a 
The present day dowry system symbolizes the disinheritance of women and the resulting desperation of parents to push points to inherent flaws in the antidowry legislation and argues that equal inheritance is the way forward.
that has already begun. Others have done it more quietly perhaps. But the dramatic nature of Nishas refusal to give in will give others who are thinking of this some courage.
Alliances may be primed in heaven or in the matrimonial columns but the great Indian dowry custom continues to rule society regardless of reforms and regulations. A strong awareness that marriage is not a retail system will be a step in the right direction says Indra Chopra.
Even if the media does not write about dowry deaths anymore as it did in the latter part of the
India Together is published in part with support from Oorvani Foundation supporting publicfunded media for the new India.
A dowry is a type of payment or gift of property that accompanies a bride upon marriage. The custom has been most common in settled agricultural societies where it may form an important part of the financial arrangements for a marriage. The types of property included in a dowry vary tremendously depending on the economic circumstances of the families involved and the customary expectations of the society. A womans dowry might include personal possessions such as clothing and jewels money servants or land. Societies vary in regarding a dowry as the property of the bride her husband or her husbands family. Where the custom exists women frequently receive dowries in lieu of a right of inheritance from their fathers estates Goody and Tambiah .
The custom of giving dowries may perform several positive functions. First as with other common forms of marital exchange such as bridewealth also called brideprice a dowry affirms an alliance between two families united by marriage. Second a dowry may provide a bride with some protection against an abusive husband. Should she leave her husband a womans family may demand that all or part of her dowry be returned. Third a young couple may use the dowry to set up their own household. Finally a woman may need to rely upon her dowry for support should her husband die and she has no rights to inheritance. These are by no means universal functions. They are contingent on the ways that people conceive of the dowry and especially on whether the wife controls all or part of it.
Dowry often has a marked political dimension. In medieval Europe noble families down on their fortunes often sought to marry their sons to women from rich families whose dowries would thus enhance their own financial situations. By the same token a newly wealthy family could improve its social standing by using rich dowries to form marital alliances with those of a higher class. In northern India marrying daughters upwards using the enticement of dowries has long provided one of the chief means for families to raise their status by very small increments within the rigidly hierarchical caste system a process technically known as hypergamy. In general the custom of dowry imposes a financial burden upon families with daughters that can be especially heavy when the family has few or no sons who might themselves attract wives with dowries.
Dowry had disappeared from most of Europe by the beginning of the twentieth century but remains a common practice in south Asia. In India it has become a matter of some controversy and a subject for legal reform because of a large number of incidents in which women have been harassed and even murdered by their inlaws in attempts to extort richer dowries. Debate continues as to whether dowry deaths should be understood as a byproduct of the custom itself or as the result of modern conditions that have undermined the traditional connections between families brought together in marriage while inflating the cash value of dowries Menski .
dowry dour the property that a woman brings to her husband at the time of the marriage. The dowry apparently originated in the giving of a marriage gift by the family of the bridegroom to the bride and the bestowal of money upon the bride by her parents. It has been a wellestablished institution among the propertied classes of various lands and times e.g. in ancient Greece and Rome India medieval Europe and modern continental countries. Generally the husband has been compelled to return the dowry in case of divorce or the death of the wife when still childless. One purpose of the dowry was to provide support for the wife on the husbands death and thus it was related remotely to the rights of dower. In civillaw countries the dowry is an important form of property. In England and the United States except for Louisiana the dowry system is not recognized as law.
a portion given with a bride a gift of nature or fortune a lot a great dealSlang Dictionary .
The paint on the wall behind her is peeling. She sits in a blue plastic chair in the village womens cooperative. As she looks out the window the afternoon suns rays illuminate the left side of her body. The skin on her face and upper body is mottled paper thin and covered with hyperpigmented scar tissue. 
Twenty years ago her husband told her she hadnt paid an adequate dowry threw a bucket of kerosene on her and set her on fire. 
Her husband then took her to the hospital. He gave her a choicetell the truth and lose your children or lie so you can see them again. Meera lied.
Meera comes from a small village called Rajokri outside Delhi. It is a rural iron ore worker community of people. She is a statistic who has not been counteda sequestered victim of dowry violence or bride burning.
I witnessed the results of this violence firsthand seven years ago during my surgical rotation at a government hospital in Karnataka as a secondyear medical student. The female burns ward was always full. The smell was unmistakablea combination of betadine silver sulfadiazine and burnt flesh. While dressing wounds I heard stories of women immolated by their husbands or their inlaws because of an inadequate dowry or groom price.
The memory of that ward and the violence that these women suffered never left me. After earning my MPH last spring I returned to India to unearth the stories of dowry violence victims. I traveled to the cities of Delhi and Mumbai and spoke to survivors lawyers NGO workers doctors and patients to try to understand the problem and hopefully find seeds for its solution.
The practice of paying dowries in India is based on ancient tradition. It was originally a Hindu religious requirement in the Manusmriti a text dating to BC that delineated the way of life and laws for Hindus. Among the ancient Hindus presenting gifts to each other during a wedding was a required cultural practice. The daughters father was expected to expensively clothe and bejewel his daughter and a sons father was expected to give the brides family a cow and a bull.
Over time when a woman left for her husbands home she was given money jewelry and property referred to as streedhan to help ensure her financial independence after marriage. However the practice of dowry devolved from a means of financial emancipation for a bride to a modern system of transactions and groom prices says Anjali Dave an associate professor of Womens Studies at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences TISS in Mumbai. The woman has been disallowed control over the finances that she brought with her to the marriage Dave says. Marriage is like a livelihood for todays Indian woman.
During negotiations between the grooms and brides families the price is agreed upon verbally and never as a written contract. The practice of paying a dowry in India was outlawed in . Although the amount is paid to the grooms family at the time of marriage the demands often increase after the bride arrives at her husbands home. If the demands are not met the bride may suffer. The violence ranges from brutal beatings emotional torture withholding money throwing them out of the house keeping them away from their children keeping mistresses openly or in extreme cases burning the wife alive says Savra Subratikaan a helpline worker at a womens rights organization in New Delhi.
The National Crime Records Bureau of India reported dowry deaths in in other words one wife is killed every minutes. However since social and cultural taboos discourage women from reporting cases the cases represent only the tip of a predominantly submerged iceberg.
In New Delhi I met a woman named Pooja who wanted to tell me her story. We met on a Saturday in her office in a sleek multistoried glass building in the heart of New Delhis business district. Pooja sat in her office dressed in a buttondown professional shirt and tailored pants. After looking down at her hands for a few minutes she looked up and smiled. She was ready to tell her story.
In her parents arranged a match for her. She was to be married to one of her distant relatives whom her family had known for the last years. Her fianc was an educated city man with a good job in New Delhi. Pooja was had just completed her masters in business administration at the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade and was working at a prestigious health insurance firm. The wedding was typical of her familys Marwari traditionsloud large and expensive. The joy did not last.
You know girls in India have a dream boy in their head which never becomes a reality says Pooja.
It is common for a bride to move to her inlaws and husbands house after marriage as part of an extended family. Eight days after the wedding Pooja began to feel uneasy entering her new home. Her husband would shout at her for no reason her inlaws would leave her no dinner when she came home from work and eventually her inlaws stopped speaking to her. I never realized what the problem was. I dont like to cause problems she says.
The basis of her problem Pooja found out later was the inadequacy of the dowry that she had brought with her. She learned indirectly through her relatives that her motherinlaw had told them that she hadnt brought sufficient things from her family. She told herself that her husband would support her. But shortly into the marriage as he was driving her to work he threw her out of his car and told her to get her parents to buy her a new car. A person whom you have entrusted your entire life to doing this and abusing you in public makes you feel terrible she says.
Pooja realized that her inlaws had asked for her hand not because she was a suitable bride but because her salary and net worth were high. The entire intention was to extract my salary she says. The jewelry that she had brought with her at the time of marriage was locked away by her motherinlaw. She was made to give up her savings and to be a coborrower for her husbands student loan. In spite of all that she had paid she finally came home one day to find that she had been thrown out of the house. With nowhere else to go she turned to her parents.
Returning to your parents home after marriage is still a big stigma in India she says. But she didnt know what else to do. Fortunately her parents took her back. She had been aware that the dowry issue still existed for many brides in India but she didnt think she an educated city girl would fall victim to it.
When someone is parting with their daughter he is giving you the most precious possession of his life. Why should dowry come into the picture Pooja asks.
The going rate for a dowry in todays Indian marriage market varies according to ones socioeconomic position. Society decides and confirms the dowry rates says Pratibha Gajbhiye a program coordinator with TISS for the rural womens cells in police stations in Maharashtra state. The dowry amount in rural areas depends on the education level of the prospective groom. If the groom is a doctor or engineer the dowry could be lakhs about US to US she says. A yearold village woman in Rajokri proudly announced to me that she had given her daughter a motorcycle half a kilo of gold and a bed as a dowry.
Less wealthy grooms demand smaller dowries but still its a hardship for poor families. Another Rajokri resident told me that the cheapest motorcycle costs INR about USan astronomical price for the average family of five which daily earns about INR US..
So how do parents manage to raise the money People sell land and get bankrupt after marriage notes Dave the TISS professor. Dalit communities lower caste in India lease their sons into bonded labor to get money for their daughters wedding. In Vidarba Maharashtra where cotton farmers were committing mass suicide because of failing crops research found that their debt had accumulated because of the increased price of dowry.
The societal affliction of dowry colors the life of an Indian woman not only at the time of her marriage but throughout her life. A girl is seen as an encumbrance to the family. The birth of the girl child more often than not warrants judiciously saving for her future marriage. Parents take loans sell land and fall into deep debt in order to save for their daughters dowry. Many girls are killed at birth because of the dowrys financial burden.
And for those who survive poor nutrition abuse and illiteracy remain problems in rural areas especially.
Rashmi Misra the founder of a womans empowerment and educationcentered NGO in New Delhi explains how girls are denied food so that their brothers will have enough to eat. They are also discouraged from going to school because they are usually married off early. I remember speaking to two slum girls in Delhi and they said to me Were girls. We dont need to go to school. Only boys should go to school she recalls.
Prospects of emancipation that come from a young girls education are lost making her financially dependent on her future husband.
In talking with Pooja Meera and others I could not understand what would lead a husband or his family members to attempt to kill a bride by burning her.
Both play into the violence. The husband and inlaws after repeatedly abusing the wife ultimately try to kill her and burn her to death so that once she dies the man can marry again and receive a new adequate dowry Anjali told me. Since a huge social stigma is attached to divorce in India she explained some husbands would rather kill their wives than divorce them.
Dowry violence in India is not limited to the uneducated or the poor it infects all socioeconomic strata. Among the wealthy the market value of grooms is paid via cash commodities and property. The richest in Delhi pay for their daughters husband in the form of a Mercedes furnished apartments and hard cash explains Misra.
On July the Times of India reported that a former Miss World winner Yukta Mookhey accused her husband of dowry harassment saying she had only received lakhs US of the crore US that she took as dowry. She told the Times that she left him when he was threatening to take my child away from me was threatening my life.
Less than two weeks later another woman Gitanjali Garg was found dead in a park beaten with sticks and shot three times. She was the wife of an influential and wealthy chief judicial magistrate of Gurgaon a city kilometers south of Delhi. An attempt was made to cover up the case as a suicideleaving Gitanjalis family to ask why she would shoot herself three times if she wanted to commit suicide. The family has now booked a case of dowry violence against Ravneet Garg Gitanjalis husband and his parents.
Meera the victim from Rajokri had done everything she could. She and her family paid a dowry at the time of marriage. She sold her jewelry at her husbands request and even tried to raise more money for him.
When she returned from the hospital six months after her husband immolated her she found him living in their house with another woman. But she has nowhere else to go so she remains there. Her husband periodically throws her out of the house sometimes even in the middle of the night. Every day she lives in fear.
Still she is reluctant to tell the truth about what happened the night he set her on fire. What will my children think of their father and of me What will society say about me she says.
Like Meera many survivors attribute their burns to accidents or attempted suicide. Societal norms the sanctity of marriage and a lack of personal income prevent rural women from telling the truth.
Even when doctors find evidence to support an act of dowry violence many do not report it says Manoj Ahire a senior lecturer and senior surgical resident at the Lokmanya Tilak Municipal Hospital in Mumbai. In many cases doctors find that the pattern of burns does not match the womans claims but they are not expected to report this. In a court of law doctors are only asked to comment on whether the patient was fully conscious and able to make a statement to the police.
When it comes to reporting the crime women face great hurdles. Pooja says she was harassed by female police at the womens cell in New Delhi. They mocked her and told her to withdraw her case because that would be better for her reputation. When she finally filed her First Investigative Report FIR the police delayed taking the case to court.
Pooja told me that she would talk about this issue publicly but doesnt see the point. The law is not on her side and neither is society. I was tormented but my tormentors are allowed to walk away freely. How is this justice she asks.
The legal system in India technically has multiple provisions to deal with dowry giving and the violence associated with it. In the Dowry Prohibition Act made demanding or giving a dowry as a precondition for marriage unlawful. Sections a of the Indian Penal Code IPC decrees that any death of a woman within the first seven years of the marriage will be considered by default to be because of dowry harassment and Section b IPC deals with cruelty against the bride. Both laws were meant to serve as preventive measuresbut the chasm between legal policies and implementation remains large and difficult to cross.
The disconnect between the reality in India and the laws is evident in the construction of the seven year time frame for penalizing dowry crimes. Dave says How was the number seven years in section a arrived at Dowry violence continues throughout a womans married life in many cases.
This is true of Saraswati another resident of Rajokri village. Saraswati was married at the age of and endured physical and mental abuse because of dowry extortion for years. At the end of the years of marriage her husband walked out on her leaving her alone to fend for herself and their three children. How will I go to a lawyer she says I have to work seven days a week for my family to live hand to mouth and going to the courts requires me to take a whole day off from work.
The dowry tradition impacts a womans health through all her life stages. Before birth it comes in the form of sexselective abortions. During the first few years of her life it manifests itself in infanticide malnutrition illiteracy and abuse. As adolescents girls are often overworked and not given opportunities because they are considered a financial burden. Once married many women have to deal with the physical emotional or financial violence that can lead to mental health issues.
So entwined in modern culture so steeped in history the dowry tradition and its toofrequent violence seems almost ineradicable. At the root of dowry violence is the perception of a woman and her worth in India. The ideology of womens subservience permeates all social classes.
It will be impossible to stop dowry violence until there is a substantial shift in gender norms says Vijayendra Rao PhD a lead economist at the World Bank who has worked extensively on dowry violence and gender equity. Providing women with options outside of marriage he argues would form a strong foundation for increasing their social perception in India as one of value. Female education reducing gender discrimination in the workplace and providing child care could be a few steps to help this process along Rao says. The persuasion of community leaders that dowries are bad and unnecessary too will help. Legal and policy reforms are also necessary including the use of special teams in police departments that work to reduce dowry violence he says.
A combination of changing mindsets through persuasion changes in incentives via policy action and outside enforcement of laws is required to stop dowries and violence against women in India Rao says.
We will illuminate dark places and with a deep sense of responsibility interpret these troubled times.
occur This was the central point of concern of a sociological study by Nalini Singh based on a survey of the marriages of young women aged years in each of which the wife died an unnatural death reportedly due to harassment over dowry. She suggested that it is primarily the societal ones worth or significance. Since worth is distributed unequally amongst material additives that is dowry. The roots of this worth deficiency of husbands are made to feel an obligation to supply dowry goods and services 
therefore she observes do not occur because there is a mismatch between gifts demanded by inlaws and presents received but because young married women customarily have no political significance in their new families. The continuous demand for dowry is but one of the ways in which the deficient in countless other ways too. Therefore she says the term dowrydeaths is a misnomer because dowry related harassment occurs as part of a larger if demands for dowry were to be satisfied fully young women would continue customsanctionedinferiority that robs them of their basic human rights.
According to Nalini Singh from the earliest days of a marriage the inlaws ruin the life of a bride on the assumption that the young woman has surrendered structure while her parents reassure her that selfeffacement is virtuous in woman. If there is much agreement on womens mute compliance with predetermined norms then why are our daughters dying in marriage As revealed by Singhs survey the truth is that young women do not reconcile themselves to the complete absence of political significance in their affinal family. Yet they simulate absolute obedience because that is what their fraudulent the brides parents owe them an unlimited amount of dowry or Compensation they the inlaws establish a conduit for this flow through the bride. two optionsone she succumbs and procures the demanded goods from her parents after initially deflecting some of the hard edge of the demand by tolerating physical brutality herself and two she does not comply is noteworthy she states that many women finally adopt the second alternative at great personal risk and high emotional cost and offer sustained resistance 
family not so much because of the monetary deprivation but because of its real potential for destabilizing the power structure which sanctions exploitative behaviour within the family. The young womans subdued noncooperation with the demand for extortion of dowry from her parents might not be the solitary issue on which she resists blind authority but there might be some other issues which expose her as opinionated as for instance the desire to work or study despite family opposition. All such actions are is a political amputee by tradition resists prestigious traditions such as dowry she is a logical candidate for retaliation by the inlaws. Dowry death are a manifest example of this retaliation by the flagbearers of patriarchial authority. In some cases the retaliatory wrath of the inlaws expresses itself in murders of the young women by burning with kerosene most frequent in urban areas or drowning common in rural areas. Other 
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The Coop is to pay the buyer of of its properties tens of millions of pounds to take them off its hands Sky News learns.
The Cooperative Group is offering a m cash dowry to bidders for scores of properties it acquired during its disastrous takeover of Somerfield nearly a decade ago.
Sky News has learnt that the Coop has pledged the sum to a trio of suitors for the real estate portfolio in exchange for a guarantee to keep scores of stores trading for at least three years.
The dowry underlines the determination of the UKs biggest mutual to offload approximately former Somerfield sites the majority of which traded under the nowdefunct brand.
More than of them now operate Cooperative Food while some of the others are leased to other retailers.
The sale process has attracted interest from bidders such as Greybull Capital which is also attempting to acquire assets from Tata Steel in the UK and which owns a stake in M Local a convenience food retailer.
The other remaining bidders for the Coop portfolio are Gordon Brothers and Hilco which specialise in acquiring struggling retail businesses.
Richard Pennycook the Coops chief executive launched the sale as part of a wider effort to repair its finances following a .bn loss in which was largely the result of a crisis at its banking arm.
It has since offloaded its agricultural business and its pharmacy operations for hundreds of millions of pounds as well as relinquishing a controlling stake in the Coop Bank to external investors.
The Coop paid nearly .bn to buy Somerfield in adding around shops to its estate.
The deal was a disaster however saddling the mutual with debt and leading to huge writedowns in the value of the Somerfield business amid intensifying competition in the food retailing industry.
Since the appointment of a new management team at both the Coop Group and its food business its performance has improved markedly.
During the first half of last year the food division recorded overall likeforlike sales growth of . with its convenience estate showing growth of more than .
Sources said the trading stores included in the portfolio being sold were expected to have made a combined profit of just over m for with the net cost of the remaining sites just over m.
An insider added that the dowry was necessary to make a transaction viable but said that even after the cost of that had been factored in the deal would be financially positive for the Coop.
The fastchanging economics of food retailing mean that all of the major players are being forced to reevaluate their business models a point reinforced by J Sainsburys offer for Argoss owner Home Retail Group.
Wm Morrison the UKs fourthbiggest grocer sold its chain of convenience stores last year for about m since when they reopened under the M Local brand.
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They have been arrested for harassing Himanshi for dowry. She was found dead at her Ghaziabad residence on Wednesday.
The court observed that the suicide note of the woman did not allege any cruelty or dowry demand by her inlaws.
A yearold woman was allegedly beaten to death by her husband and inlaws after she failed to fulfil their dowry demands police said on Wednesday.
The woman committed suicide early hours on Thursday in her house in Jyoti Park with her husband.
A yearold woman died under mysterious circumstances but her bother alleged that she was killed by her inlaws over dowry in Lakshapur village in Bhadohi police said on Friday.
A woman was beaten to death allegedly by her husband and brotherinlaw after she failed to fulfill their dowry demand of Rs lakh.
In a shocking incident a man allegedly pushed his wife and son into a village well in Bihars Jamui district on Tuesday over dowry leading to their deaths police sources said.
Police sources say that the couple had secretly married in court and the mans family was demanding dowry.
According to Shilpas parents she was depressed due to dowry harassment by her inlaws said police.
Three women were found dead in separate cases of suspected dowry harassment in the national capital.
Three women were found dead in separate cases of suspected dowry harassment. In a th incident a woman suffered pc burn injuries.
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The Coop is to pay the buyer of of its properties tens of millions of pounds to take them off its hands Sky News learns.
The Cooperative Group is offering a m cash dowry to bidders for scores of properties it acquired during its disastrous takeover of Somerfield nearly a decade ago.
Sky News has learnt that the Coop has pledged the sum to a trio of suitors for the real estate portfolio in exchange for a guarantee to keep scores of stores trading for at least three years.
The dowry underlines the determination of the UKs biggest mutual to offload approximately former Somerfield sites the majority of which traded under the nowdefunct brand.
More than of them now operate Cooperative Food while some of the others are leased to other retailers.
The sale process has attracted interest from bidders such as Greybull Capital which is also attempting to acquire assets from Tata Steel in the UK and which owns a stake in M Local a convenience food retailer.
The other remaining bidders for the Coop portfolio are Gordon Brothers and Hilco which specialise in acquiring struggling retail businesses.
Richard Pennycook the Coops chief executive launched the sale as part of a wider effort to repair its finances following a .bn loss in which was largely the result of a crisis at its banking arm.
It has since offloaded its agricultural business and its pharmacy operations for hundreds of millions of pounds as well as relinquishing a controlling stake in the Coop Bank to external investors.
The Coop paid nearly .bn to buy Somerfield in adding around shops to its estate.
The deal was a disaster however saddling the mutual with debt and leading to huge writedowns in the value of the Somerfield business amid intensifying competition in the food retailing industry.
Since the appointment of a new management team at both the Coop Group and its food business its performance has improved markedly.
During the first half of last year the food division recorded overall likeforlike sales growth of . with its convenience estate showing growth of more than .
Sources said the trading stores included in the portfolio being sold were expected to have made a combined profit of just over m for with the net cost of the remaining sites just over m.
An insider added that the dowry was necessary to make a transaction viable but said that even after the cost of that had been factored in the deal would be financially positive for the Coop.
The fastchanging economics of food retailing mean that all of the major players are being forced to reevaluate their business models a point reinforced by J Sainsburys offer for Argoss owner Home Retail Group.
Wm Morrison the UKs fourthbiggest grocer sold its chain of convenience stores last year for about m since when they reopened under the M Local brand.
Dowry related domestic abuse is still prevalent in India despite years of feminist campaigning.
Researchers at the University of Portsmouth have found dowry is still regularly practiced in parts of the country and dissatisfaction with the amount of dowry provided contributes to the domestic abuse suffered by newly married women as well as to gender inequalities on a wider scale.
The study also showed that motherinlaws were the main harassers and perpetrators of violence against young women nearly per cent of the time.
Dowry is the exchange of money andor goods from the brides family to the grooms at the point of marriage. Families give as much as possible which in some cases will involve selling land and homes or taking out loans.
The study carried out by researchers in the Universitys School of Languages and Area Studies is one of very few carried out on this topic since the last substantial study ten years ago. During this period the rise of westernisation and modernisation in India has led to increased employment and education opportunities for women.
Womens organisations in India have moved away from antidowry campaigning and focused more on increasing womens independence through better access to healthcare and advice education and employment and encouraging women to take on political roles.
However the study shows that these methods have been unsuccessful in reducing the practice of dowry and the domestic abuse women often suffer when the dowry amount is not satisfactory.
Our findings depressingly show that little has improved in the last decade and dowry remains a fundamental problem in womens lives said Dr Tamsin Bradley lead researcher.
The data shows that investing energy in securing better gender equality has not decreased rates of dowry and related abuse.
In India dowry is traditionally used as a way of displaying and increasing a familys status. As the daughter mirrors the status of her family it is also seen as a way to preserve the family honour. With the increase in wealth of those of a lower social status more families can now afford to give a dowry and families of a lower social status often use it to emulate the behaviour and status of the upper classes.
The study involved interviews with different age groups of both men and women. The older women said young brides not being properly prepared for marriage nor being able or willing to fit in with the behaviour of their new family were key factors contributing to domestic violence. Of the younger women who reported experience of abuse per cent said their motherinlaw was the perpetrator of the violence.
Our research highlights that many women once they reach the status of motherinlaw are so invested in the patriarchal system that they become the main harassers and perpetrators of violence against young women said Dr Bradley.
The study was conducted in Engandiyour village in Kerala south India and was split into two phases. The first phase involved structured interviews with women and eight men under the age of from various religions and social class groupings. The participants were asked questions about their experiences of married life and the part dowry played in this. The women were also asked whether they had experienced any form of violence physical or psychological.
During the second phase researchers conducted indepth interviews with three focus groups seven women aged a local prominent marriage broker and two members of a high profile womens organisation in Kerala. The three focus groups comprised a local womens selfhelp group whose members were aged a group of women aged and a group of three Hindu male community leaders. These interviews could be more personalised and allowed the researchers to be more flexible with their questioning.
Most of the younger women interviewed saw dowry as one of the main problems faced by women but also had no intention of stopping the practice. Those who had experienced mental or physical abuse linked to their dowry still intended to give a dowry when their daughter married as they feared negative repercussions if they didnt do this.
The study did find holes in the patriarchal system and ways of widening those holes. Although most of the men interviewed supported the practice of dowry and didnt see it as a problem their views differed on the role of the woman once she is married with some men supporting the idea of a married woman working and advancing her education. Some of the younger men seemed indifferent at the thought of dowry not being practised.
Dr Bradley believes this is a positive sign and suggests the way forward includes engaging more with men especially younger men whose views about dowry could be influenced for the better.
If young men have greater exposure to both the arguments against dowry and the evidence which highlights its negative impact their views may be transformed.
Other suggestions include strengthening the voice of those women who oppose the practice of dowry highlighting to whole communities the problems dowry can cause for women and monitoring the shift in attitudes towards dowry and marriage to see whether these actions are working.
Conversely in Thailand the dowry is given from the groom to the bride. It is often shown off at the wedding and now on Facebook etc.. I have sometimes heard complaints from wives comparing dowry sizes to others but have not myself heard of domestic abuse arising from it.
Indias top court has accused the countrys women of misusing a law created to protect them from harassment by their husbands and inlaws.
The antidowry law introduced in was originally designed to safeguard women from abuse and sometimes death in the hands of relatives but the Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled the act was now being used as weapons by disgruntled wives.
The simplest way to harass is to get the husband and his relatives arrested the twojudge bench of the Supreme Court headed by Justice Chandramauli Kumar Prasad in a page order said.
In some cases bedridden grandfathers and grandmothers of the husbands their sisters living abroad for decades are arrested the order noted.
According to the National Crime Records Bureau statistics nearly people including women were arrested in regard to dowry offences in but only of the accused were convicted.
The judges reminded authorities they must follow a socalled ninepoint checklist that has been part of the antidowry law before noting down a dowryrelated complaint.
In case the police make an arrest a magistrate must approve further detention of the accused the court ruled.
Paying and accepting gifts associated with a marriage otherwise known as a dowry is an ancient tradition among most Indian families where parents of the bride give cash clothes and jewelry to the family of the groom. As the demands grew over time women were subject to harassment beatings and were even burned to death for failing to bring adequate wealth into the husbands family.
The practice was outlawed in but this act of giving at weddings has remained a common practice in India.
Under laws introduced in a complaint allowed for immediate arrest of the accused often the husband and his family.
In spite of laws that are supposed to serve as a deterrent India continues to see a rise in the number of reported dowryrelated deaths. More than cases where women died from dowryrelated harassment were registered in India in up from the year before and just over in according to the latest figures from the National Crime Records Bureau.
Naina Kapur a New Delhibased lawyer who works on human rights said the court while trying to strike a balance in society has stereotyped women.
Ranjana Kumari of the Centre for Social Research said that If the law is being misused according to the Supreme Court then it is the law enforcement agencies that need to be blamed and not women in society.
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Dowry has become a crude institution resulting in female infanticide suicide brideburning and other indignities and cruelties. The rise in dowry crimes is a cause of concern. The law has proved insufficient for the eradication of dowry and related crimes. Nor have such crimes receded following social awakening by various groups and organisations.
According to police sources the dance masters daughterinlaw Jothi gave a complaint with the Thirumangalam police. And police have started enquiries.
Sivasankar had choreographed songs for several hundred films and even acted in many.
At least women were reportedly killed across India last year in dowryrelated deaths with many being burned alive.
One woman is killed every hour in India often burned to death due to family disputes over dowry payments for marriages a new report claims.
At least women died there last year because of arguments stemming from the brides family giving money to the groom or his family the National Crime Records Bureau has said.
If a payment is not deemed adequate enough victims are often doused with petrol and set alight.
The centuriesold custom of giving or receiving dowries is illegal in India but is still widely practised and dowry demands often continue for years after the wedding.
Loopholes in dowry prevention laws delays in prosecution and low conviction rates have led to a steady rise in dowryrelated crimes womens rights activists and police said.
Activist Ranjana Kumari said the dowry demands had intensified since Indias recent economic boom.
She blamed a growing culture of greed as India opens its economy to foreign goods that the younger generation cannot afford but badly want.
Suman Nalwa a senior New Delhi police officer dealing with crimes against women said dowry practices extended to all classes in society.
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Even suicide note of a man is not enough reason for law to move its rear is wellexemplified in the case below where a young man committed suicide to escape from wifes threat of false dowry case against him and his family. Will police wake up when men in their own family and relations commit suicide in similar situation Maybe they will but it will be too late anyway. When a man lets another man die by treating him as disposable asset he increases his own probability of being disposed off by society one day Its all about collective karmaContinue Reading
How do we know a false cooked dowry harassment story from a true one Well here is one for you. It would have been enough if the wife left things at all the stories about illtreatment mental cruelty blah blah but she could not stop at that could she So she added the story that husband tried to smother her with a pillow. And you are complaining only about pimples and dowry harassment to Deccan Herald Just admit that so far you are unsuccessful at extorting any money and going to newspaper is the final trump card you think youContinue Reading
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Widening social gaps disintegration of the joint family system consumerism globalisation and commercialisation of marriage are some of the reasons for the prevalence of dowry system in modern Kerala Anna Lindberg director of the Swedish South Asian Studies Network SASNET at Lund University has said. 
Speaking on the topic Dowry System in Kerala Ms. Lindberg said that communities that did not traditionally practise bride price also practised dowry system today. The seminar was jointly organised by the Centre for Womens Study Womens Cell Sexual Harassment Prevention Cell and the Womens Forum of the University of Kerala.
Today dowry system is much disguised in Kerala and dowry is given as gift to the daughter. The practice is in fact is taken for granted today she said. Ms. Lindberg said that the practice of demanding extended dowry had also increased over the years. 
She added that women themselves participated in keeping up the dowry system. Many women I interviewed who were also employed said that the husband needed to be compensated for maintaining the family she said.
Pointing out that the issue of dowry had many ramifications Ms. Lindberg said that the biggest tragedy related to dowry was violence against women.
Ms Lindberg who chronicled around marriages held between and and researched on the practice of dowry in erstwhile Travancore said that traditionally the dowry system was prevalent among the Namboodiri Brahmin and Syrian Christian communities in Kerala. The Nairs being a matrilineal caste did not have the dowry system until the s nor did lower castes and tribal communities she said. In fact the Pulayar caste association abhorred the practice of dowry a hundred years ago Ms. Lindberg said.
She said that the dowry system had a sudden spurt in the s and when money from the Gulf started coming into the State. The disintegration of joint families and emergence of nuclear families that vested the responsibility of maintaining families on individuals also strengthened the dowry system. While initially dowry was introduced to encourage young men to marry and to control the sexuality of men and women today it has become more of a prestige issue for families Ms Lindberg said.
She added that dowry was not a private issue in a democratic country like India but a social evil that needed to be addressed appropriately.
Earlier the seminar was inaugurated by Valsalakumari Land Revenue Commissioner.
Preeti Biyani committed suicide on April by hanging herself. Even though she left a suicide note saying that nobody was responsible her parents alleged that she committed suicide due to dowry harassment.
Ravikanth from Swati Mane an organisation dealing with Womens Empowerment and SV Sujata from Dhavala Mahila Vedika agree that women should directly protest about being harassed seek legal remedies call a helpline or receive counselling. They believe incidents of dowryrelated violence are on the rise especially if the girl is unemployed. The girls family can first try to negotiate with the boys family otherwise ask for help from relatives or complain to the police and get the boy and those involved in his family arrested says Sujata.
Hema Deshpande from Vanitha Sahay Vani reminds parents that they must always keep in touch with their daughters after marriage and advises them to pick up on indications of harassment and suicidal tendencies if any. The first step that families must take is negotiation. Problems of dowry are also caused by misunderstanding. So to prevent conflict families should sit together and talk about issues rather than quarrel she says.
Psychologist Ishita Datta explains the state of mind of a woman traumatised by dowry harassment. The main reason for dowry death is low selfesteem. The girl thinks she is worth only the amount she brings in. So when it is not high enough she develops a negative selfimage. She feels there is no point in living which is why extreme cases result in suicide. But in most cases brides remain unhappy and depressed.
Widening social gaps disintegration of the joint family system consumerism globalisation and commercialisation of marriage are some of the reasons for the prevalence of dowry system in modern Kerala Anna Lindberg director of the Swedish South Asian Studies Network SASNET at Lund University has said. 
Speaking on the topic Dowry System in Kerala Ms. Lindberg said that communities that did not traditionally practise bride price also practised dowry system today. The seminar was jointly organised by the Centre for Womens Study Womens Cell Sexual Harassment Prevention Cell and the Womens Forum of the University of Kerala.
Today dowry system is much disguised in Kerala and dowry is given as gift to the daughter. The practice is in fact is taken for granted today she said. Ms. Lindberg said that the practice of demanding extended dowry had also increased over the years. 
She added that women themselves participated in keeping up the dowry system. Many women I interviewed who were also employed said that the husband needed to be compensated for maintaining the family she said.
Pointing out that the issue of dowry had many ramifications Ms. Lindberg said that the biggest tragedy related to dowry was violence against women.
Ms Lindberg who chronicled around marriages held between and and researched on the practice of dowry in erstwhile Travancore said that traditionally the dowry system was prevalent among the Namboodiri Brahmin and Syrian Christian communities in Kerala. The Nairs being a matrilineal caste did not have the dowry system until the s nor did lower castes and tribal communities she said. In fact the Pulayar caste association abhorred the practice of dowry a hundred years ago Ms. Lindberg said.
She said that the dowry system had a sudden spurt in the s and when money from the Gulf started coming into the State. The disintegration of joint families and emergence of nuclear families that vested the responsibility of maintaining families on individuals also strengthened the dowry system. While initially dowry was introduced to encourage young men to marry and to control the sexuality of men and women today it has become more of a prestige issue for families Ms Lindberg said.
She added that dowry was not a private issue in a democratic country like India but a social evil that needed to be addressed appropriately.
Earlier the seminar was inaugurated by Valsalakumari Land Revenue Commissioner.
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Amid infinite number of cruelties of our so called benevolent male over female folk dowry menace is the most atrocious
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Ostentatious weddings are the starting point of dowry extortion. But the situation cannot be altered either through rhetoric or law. For laws to work more than governance and enforcement the ethos of society has to change. Respect for simple living and high thinking needs to be inculcated 
Wedding preparations are in progress in a family I know well. Dozens of clinging georgette creations embellished with velvet lace shimmer and sequins are spread on a kingsized bed for my preview. Looking at my face the proud mother of the bridegroom decrees The days of traditional saris are over even as she lays her sons sparkling shervani alongside umpteen jewellery boxes cradling chandelier lookalikes. 
On International Mens Day married men demand end of torture from women who misuse law to their advantage
In a role reversal of sorts approximately married men pleaded an end to torture by their wives on International Mens Day yesterday.
The harassed husbands carried banners against the misuse of dowry by their wives as they participated in a rally organised by the Protect India Family Foundation Indian Family Foundation and the Childs Right and Family Welfare from Mulund to Azad Maidan.
Demanding dowry is a crime so is giving it. In a first of its kind in the state a citybased software engineer jailed for taking dowry has filed a case against his wife and inlaws for giving him dowry.
Virag Dhulia who had been imprisoned for two days was later released on bail.
Virag has filed cases against his wife Viral Goda and his inlaws saying they had paid him dowry. Virag separated from his wife within two months of their marriage. Viral and her parents filed a complaint in the Mahadevapura police station saying they had paid Virag Rs lakh as dowry.
Preeti Biyani committed suicide on April by hanging herself. Even though she left a suicide note saying that nobody was responsible her parents alleged that she committed suicide due to dowry harassment.
Noida magistrate orders action against brides family for giving dowry and misusing Act to settle personal scores
Giving or taking dowry is a criminal offence under Section of the DPA with imprisonment. This is a rare case where the section was evoked against a woman and her family.
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The paint on the wall behind her is peeling. She sits in a blue plastic chair in the village womens cooperative. As she looks out the window the afternoon suns rays illuminate the left side of her body. The skin on her face and upper body is mottled paper thin and covered with hyperpigmented scar tissue. 
Twenty years ago her husband told her she hadnt paid an adequate dowry threw a bucket of kerosene on her and set her on fire. 
Her husband then took her to the hospital. He gave her a choicetell the truth and lose your children or lie so you can see them again. Meera lied.
Meera comes from a small village called Rajokri outside Delhi. It is a rural iron ore worker community of people. She is a statistic who has not been counteda sequestered victim of dowry violence or bride burning.
I witnessed the results of this violence firsthand seven years ago during my surgical rotation at a government hospital in Karnataka as a secondyear medical student. The female burns ward was always full. The smell was unmistakablea combination of betadine silver sulfadiazine and burnt flesh. While dressing wounds I heard stories of women immolated by their husbands or their inlaws because of an inadequate dowry or groom price.
The memory of that ward and the violence that these women suffered never left me. After earning my MPH last spring I returned to India to unearth the stories of dowry violence victims. I traveled to the cities of Delhi and Mumbai and spoke to survivors lawyers NGO workers doctors and patients to try to understand the problem and hopefully find seeds for its solution.
The practice of paying dowries in India is based on ancient tradition. It was originally a Hindu religious requirement in the Manusmriti a text dating to BC that delineated the way of life and laws for Hindus. Among the ancient Hindus presenting gifts to each other during a wedding was a required cultural practice. The daughters father was expected to expensively clothe and bejewel his daughter and a sons father was expected to give the brides family a cow and a bull.
Over time when a woman left for her husbands home she was given money jewelry and property referred to as streedhan to help ensure her financial independence after marriage. However the practice of dowry devolved from a means of financial emancipation for a bride to a modern system of transactions and groom prices says Anjali Dave an associate professor of Womens Studies at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences TISS in Mumbai. The woman has been disallowed control over the finances that she brought with her to the marriage Dave says. Marriage is like a livelihood for todays Indian woman.
During negotiations between the grooms and brides families the price is agreed upon verbally and never as a written contract. The practice of paying a dowry in India was outlawed in . Although the amount is paid to the grooms family at the time of marriage the demands often increase after the bride arrives at her husbands home. If the demands are not met the bride may suffer. The violence ranges from brutal beatings emotional torture withholding money throwing them out of the house keeping them away from their children keeping mistresses openly or in extreme cases burning the wife alive says Savra Subratikaan a helpline worker at a womens rights organization in New Delhi.
The National Crime Records Bureau of India reported dowry deaths in in other words one wife is killed every minutes. However since social and cultural taboos discourage women from reporting cases the cases represent only the tip of a predominantly submerged iceberg.
In New Delhi I met a woman named Pooja who wanted to tell me her story. We met on a Saturday in her office in a sleek multistoried glass building in the heart of New Delhis business district. Pooja sat in her office dressed in a buttondown professional shirt and tailored pants. After looking down at her hands for a few minutes she looked up and smiled. She was ready to tell her story.
In her parents arranged a match for her. She was to be married to one of her distant relatives whom her family had known for the last years. Her fianc was an educated city man with a good job in New Delhi. Pooja was had just completed her masters in business administration at the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade and was working at a prestigious health insurance firm. The wedding was typical of her familys Marwari traditionsloud large and expensive. The joy did not last.
You know girls in India have a dream boy in their head which never becomes a reality says Pooja.
It is common for a bride to move to her inlaws and husbands house after marriage as part of an extended family. Eight days after the wedding Pooja began to feel uneasy entering her new home. Her husband would shout at her for no reason her inlaws would leave her no dinner when she came home from work and eventually her inlaws stopped speaking to her. I never realized what the problem was. I dont like to cause problems she says.
The basis of her problem Pooja found out later was the inadequacy of the dowry that she had brought with her. She learned indirectly through her relatives that her motherinlaw had told them that she hadnt brought sufficient things from her family. She told herself that her husband would support her. But shortly into the marriage as he was driving her to work he threw her out of his car and told her to get her parents to buy her a new car. A person whom you have entrusted your entire life to doing this and abusing you in public makes you feel terrible she says.
Pooja realized that her inlaws had asked for her hand not because she was a suitable bride but because her salary and net worth were high. The entire intention was to extract my salary she says. The jewelry that she had brought with her at the time of marriage was locked away by her motherinlaw. She was made to give up her savings and to be a coborrower for her husbands student loan. In spite of all that she had paid she finally came home one day to find that she had been thrown out of the house. With nowhere else to go she turned to her parents.
Returning to your parents home after marriage is still a big stigma in India she says. But she didnt know what else to do. Fortunately her parents took her back. She had been aware that the dowry issue still existed for many brides in India but she didnt think she an educated city girl would fall victim to it.
When someone is parting with their daughter he is giving you the most precious possession of his life. Why should dowry come into the picture Pooja asks.
The going rate for a dowry in todays Indian marriage market varies according to ones socioeconomic position. Society decides and confirms the dowry rates says Pratibha Gajbhiye a program coordinator with TISS for the rural womens cells in police stations in Maharashtra state. The dowry amount in rural areas depends on the education level of the prospective groom. If the groom is a doctor or engineer the dowry could be lakhs about US to US she says. A yearold village woman in Rajokri proudly announced to me that she had given her daughter a motorcycle half a kilo of gold and a bed as a dowry.
Less wealthy grooms demand smaller dowries but still its a hardship for poor families. Another Rajokri resident told me that the cheapest motorcycle costs INR about USan astronomical price for the average family of five which daily earns about INR US..
So how do parents manage to raise the money People sell land and get bankrupt after marriage notes Dave the TISS professor. Dalit communities lower caste in India lease their sons into bonded labor to get money for their daughters wedding. In Vidarba Maharashtra where cotton farmers were committing mass suicide because of failing crops research found that their debt had accumulated because of the increased price of dowry.
The societal affliction of dowry colors the life of an Indian woman not only at the time of her marriage but throughout her life. A girl is seen as an encumbrance to the family. The birth of the girl child more often than not warrants judiciously saving for her future marriage. Parents take loans sell land and fall into deep debt in order to save for their daughters dowry. Many girls are killed at birth because of the dowrys financial burden.
And for those who survive poor nutrition abuse and illiteracy remain problems in rural areas especially.
Rashmi Misra the founder of a womans empowerment and educationcentered NGO in New Delhi explains how girls are denied food so that their brothers will have enough to eat. They are also discouraged from going to school because they are usually married off early. I remember speaking to two slum girls in Delhi and they said to me Were girls. We dont need to go to school. Only boys should go to school she recalls.
Prospects of emancipation that come from a young girls education are lost making her financially dependent on her future husband.
In talking with Pooja Meera and others I could not understand what would lead a husband or his family members to attempt to kill a bride by burning her.
Both play into the violence. The husband and inlaws after repeatedly abusing the wife ultimately try to kill her and burn her to death so that once she dies the man can marry again and receive a new adequate dowry Anjali told me. Since a huge social stigma is attached to divorce in India she explained some husbands would rather kill their wives than divorce them.
Dowry violence in India is not limited to the uneducated or the poor it infects all socioeconomic strata. Among the wealthy the market value of grooms is paid via cash commodities and property. The richest in Delhi pay for their daughters husband in the form of a Mercedes furnished apartments and hard cash explains Misra.
On July the Times of India reported that a former Miss World winner Yukta Mookhey accused her husband of dowry harassment saying she had only received lakhs US of the crore US that she took as dowry. She told the Times that she left him when he was threatening to take my child away from me was threatening my life.
Less than two weeks later another woman Gitanjali Garg was found dead in a park beaten with sticks and shot three times. She was the wife of an influential and wealthy chief judicial magistrate of Gurgaon a city kilometers south of Delhi. An attempt was made to cover up the case as a suicideleaving Gitanjalis family to ask why she would shoot herself three times if she wanted to commit suicide. The family has now booked a case of dowry violence against Ravneet Garg Gitanjalis husband and his parents.
Meera the victim from Rajokri had done everything she could. She and her family paid a dowry at the time of marriage. She sold her jewelry at her husbands request and even tried to raise more money for him.
When she returned from the hospital six months after her husband immolated her she found him living in their house with another woman. But she has nowhere else to go so she remains there. Her husband periodically throws her out of the house sometimes even in the middle of the night. Every day she lives in fear.
Still she is reluctant to tell the truth about what happened the night he set her on fire. What will my children think of their father and of me What will society say about me she says.
Like Meera many survivors attribute their burns to accidents or attempted suicide. Societal norms the sanctity of marriage and a lack of personal income prevent rural women from telling the truth.
Even when doctors find evidence to support an act of dowry violence many do not report it says Manoj Ahire a senior lecturer and senior surgical resident at the Lokmanya Tilak Municipal Hospital in Mumbai. In many cases doctors find that the pattern of burns does not match the womans claims but they are not expected to report this. In a court of law doctors are only asked to comment on whether the patient was fully conscious and able to make a statement to the police.
When it comes to reporting the crime women face great hurdles. Pooja says she was harassed by female police at the womens cell in New Delhi. They mocked her and told her to withdraw her case because that would be better for her reputation. When she finally filed her First Investigative Report FIR the police delayed taking the case to court.
Pooja told me that she would talk about this issue publicly but doesnt see the point. The law is not on her side and neither is society. I was tormented but my tormentors are allowed to walk away freely. How is this justice she asks.
The legal system in India technically has multiple provisions to deal with dowry giving and the violence associated with it. In the Dowry Prohibition Act made demanding or giving a dowry as a precondition for marriage unlawful. Sections a of the Indian Penal Code IPC decrees that any death of a woman within the first seven years of the marriage will be considered by default to be because of dowry harassment and Section b IPC deals with cruelty against the bride. Both laws were meant to serve as preventive measuresbut the chasm between legal policies and implementation remains large and difficult to cross.
The disconnect between the reality in India and the laws is evident in the construction of the seven year time frame for penalizing dowry crimes. Dave says How was the number seven years in section a arrived at Dowry violence continues throughout a womans married life in many cases.
This is true of Saraswati another resident of Rajokri village. Saraswati was married at the age of and endured physical and mental abuse because of dowry extortion for years. At the end of the years of marriage her husband walked out on her leaving her alone to fend for herself and their three children. How will I go to a lawyer she says I have to work seven days a week for my family to live hand to mouth and going to the courts requires me to take a whole day off from work.
The dowry tradition impacts a womans health through all her life stages. Before birth it comes in the form of sexselective abortions. During the first few years of her life it manifests itself in infanticide malnutrition illiteracy and abuse. As adolescents girls are often overworked and not given opportunities because they are considered a financial burden. Once married many women have to deal with the physical emotional or financial violence that can lead to mental health issues.
So entwined in modern culture so steeped in history the dowry tradition and its toofrequent violence seems almost ineradicable. At the root of dowry violence is the perception of a woman and her worth in India. The ideology of womens subservience permeates all social classes.
It will be impossible to stop dowry violence until there is a substantial shift in gender norms says Vijayendra Rao PhD a lead economist at the World Bank who has worked extensively on dowry violence and gender equity. Providing women with options outside of marriage he argues would form a strong foundation for increasing their social perception in India as one of value. Female education reducing gender discrimination in the workplace and providing child care could be a few steps to help this process along Rao says. The persuasion of community leaders that dowries are bad and unnecessary too will help. Legal and policy reforms are also necessary including the use of special teams in police departments that work to reduce dowry violence he says.
A combination of changing mindsets through persuasion changes in incentives via policy action and outside enforcement of laws is required to stop dowries and violence against women in India Rao says.
We will illuminate dark places and with a deep sense of responsibility interpret these troubled times.
Kumars wife Pratibha a lecturer at a local college had made a complaint under Indias dowry law. The offence would allow for arrest and jailing of him and his parents without investigation.
The couple married in late but Pratibha left the marital home after five days and the marriage was never consummated. Months later she claimed her husband had threatened to kill her if she did not produce a dowry that included a hatchback car and rupees in cash. He has denied the allegations.
I spent six weeks sharing a small prison cell with thieves and murderers said yearold Kumar who was released on bail. They had been convicted of a crime. I was innocent but was treated like a guilty man.
After he agreed to pay in an outofcourt settlement his wife withdrew the charges and the couple divorced this October.
The cautionary tale appears to be part of a trend in middleclass India where male angst is on the rise. Men complain that they have lost their traditional role as providers as women work more. Further women with independent incomes are refusing to submit to the traditional ideal of marriage where an obedient wife accedes to a husbands every wish.
The outcome is an undisguised backlash against Indian feminism and womens rights. One mens organisation is demanding a ministry for men arguing that of taxpayers are men but that no money has ever been allocated for male welfare.
The protection enshrined in Indian law for harassed wives has also led to a deepseated sense of male victimhood. The mens movement in the country has been fired up by what it claims is the legal terrorism driven by radical groups . which has resulted in the blatant violation of mens rights.
Mens groups accept that Indian society has discriminated against women for centuries. But they say it is wrong to use legal measures to correct historical inequalities.
In India arranged marriages are still the norm and dowries are negotiated between families. In an antidowry act came into force to protect brides who were being attacked and in some cases killed by husbands trying to extort money from their families. Those found guilty face up to three years in jail. Up to the start of December this year Delhi police had registered antidowry cases. However the mens movement says the law is being misused by wives. Unscrupulous women they say see the law as a tool to extract as much money as possible from their partners.
Every Saturday in Delhi a group of young professional men gathers to share experiences. They counsel each other over the trauma of systematic abuse by wives.
At the mens meetings lawyers dispense free advice and their nervous clients finger leaflets explaining the ugly reality of dowry law.
Sarkar who works in marketing set up the foundation after his wife filed a false case against him in . I know what it is like not to be able to sleep or work. We want only genderneutral laws not onesided ones.
He talks of government data which show that people were arrested under the antidowry law but only people were convicted. He wants the antidowry offence decriminalised and the threat of jail removed. The change say police and womens groups would mean fewer women coming forward.
This misuse business really is complete rubbish said Indira Jaisingh a supreme court lawyer who successfully lobbied last year for a new domestic violence act in India. From a low conviction rate you cannot conclude a law is wrong. Just look at conviction rates for rape in England which are also low but nobody says rape does not happen.
Jaisingh said that since Indian women still lived in joint family households an antidowry law would need to protect wives from a husband and his family seeking money. The jail option is there because of the violence used by members of the joint family. We probably need more laws for women to ensure for example equitable distribution of property on divorce.
The booming economy has raised the price of wedlock a ritual still governed by the past. In Indian weddings there is widespread acceptance of the inequality between bride givers and bride takers. The brides family according to convention gives to but never takes from the grooms family. In todays India that tends to translate into ever more expensive dowries.
In the merchant class we are seeing open auctions of marriageable men. If your son has a shop in a good location the bride will have to pay m rupees said Virk. Until such mindsets change and that will not be for a long time I cannot see how women need less protection.
The first shots have been fired in Indias gender war. There are about websites committed to promoting the wellbeing of men in India. Mens groups say males are increasingly subject to myriad forms of subtle discrimination in the name of progress.
Some groups cite job insecurity and unemployment as the problem. In the five years to . million men lost their jobs while one million women gained new employment.
On crime too the mens movement is sifting through official statistics to counter claims that women in India bear the brunt of violence though police say that every minutes a crime is committed against a woman in India and there is one dowry death in the country every minutes.
The Save Indian Family Foundation argues that compared with women nearly twice as many married men up to take their own lives being unable to withstand verbal emotional economic and physical abuse.
But on social indicators Indian women are clearly far behind men. Less than half of the women in India can read or write compared with of men. In the past years more than million female foetuses have been aborted.
The male lobby claimed a symbolic victory when the government of India observed an international mens day in November.
The Cooperative Group is offering a m cash dowry to bidders for scores of properties it acquired during its disastrous takeover of Somerfield nearly a decade ago.
Sky News has learnt that the Coop has pledged the sum to a trio of suitors for the real estate portfolio in exchange for a guarantee to keep scores of stores trading for at least three years.
The dowry underlines the determination of the UKs biggest mutual to offload approximately former Somerfield sites the majority of which traded under the nowdefunct brand.
More than of them now operate Cooperative Food while some of the others are leased to other retailers.
The other remaining bidders for the Coop portfolio are Gordon Brothers and Hilco which specialise in acquiring struggling retail businesses.
Richard Pennycook the Coops chief executive launched the sale as part of a wider effort to repair its finances following a .bn loss in which was largely the result of a crisis at its banking arm.
The Coop paid nearly .bn to buy Somerfield in adding around shops to its estate.
The deal was a disaster however saddling the mutual with debt and leading to huge writedowns in the value of the Somerfield business amid intensifying competition in the food retailing industry.
Since the appointment of a new management team at both the Coop Group and its food business its performance has improved markedly.
During the first half of last year the food division recorded overall likeforlike sales growth of . with its convenience estate showing growth of more than .
Sources said the trading stores included in the portfolio being sold were expected to have made a combined profit of just over m for with the net cost of the remaining sites just over m.
An insider added that the dowry was necessary to make a transaction viable but said that even after the cost of that had been factored in the deal would be financially positive for the Coop.
Wm Morrison the UKs fourthbiggest grocer sold its chain of convenience stores last year for about m since when they reopened under the M Local brand.
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A DAY after yearold Himanshi Kashyap was found dead from a gunshot injury her fatherinlaw and BSP Rajya Sabha MP Narendra Kashyap motherinlaw Devendri and husband Sagar were arrested by the Ghaziabad Police.
Three persons have been arrested the victims husband her fatherinlaw who is an MP and her motherinlaw on charges of dowry harassment and dowry death. They were produced before the magistrate and have been sent to judicial custody. Of the six accused three have been arrested. We are ascertaining the role of the other three following which necessary action will be taken said Ghaziabad SSP Dharmendra Singh.
The other accused in case are the BSP MPs younger son Siddharth and two daughters Shobha and Sarita.
Earlier the Rajya Sabha MP and wife were admitted at a local hospital after they complained of chest pain.They were examined by a team of government doctors after which they were discharged and arrested bypolice.
On Wednesday morning Himanshi was found lying in a pool of blood inside a bathroom in the Kashyaps residence in Ghaziabads Sanjay Colony.
The incident came to light after police were alerted by a local hospital that the body of a woman who died of a gunshot wound had been brought there.
According to police the accused have maintained that Himanshi committed suicide by shooting herself in the head and they had not heard the sound of the gunshot.
They have also handed over a licensed revolver to police which they claimed Himanshi had used to shoot herself.
The postmortem report states that the cause of death was the bullet injury on the right side of the victims temple. An FIR under sections of IPC pertaining to dowry harassment and dowry death has been registered at Kavi Nagar police station said Singh.
On Wednesday night Himanshis family members filed a police complaint saying she was being harassed by her inlaws who had demanded a Fortuner car as dowry.
The complaint by the victims uncle stated My niece used to tell us that they beat her up for dowry and they demanded a Fortuner car. My brother and I used to console her. we told her things will be fine since I was going to sell a plot of land to buy the car.
Himanshi and Sagar were married in November and they have a oneyearold son.
Also cases of dowry were registered during the same period of time she said in a written reply on implementation of Dowry Prohibition Act.
As per National Crime Records Bureau data a total number of and cases were registered of dowry deaths in the country during and respectively the Women and Child Development Minister said.
Similarly and cases were registered under Dowry Prohibition Act in the country during and respectively she said. The Minister said all states except Arunachal Pradesh Sikkim Mizoram and Nagaland where the dowry system is not prevalent have appointed Dowry Prohibition Officers.
The government regularly conducts awareness programmes and public campaigns on various laws related to women including Dowry Prohibition Act through workshops fairs cultural programmes seminars training programmes she said. Advertisements are also regularly brought out in print and electronic media to spread awareness on women rights and laws the Minister said.
The tradition of giving a wedding dowry is causing growing division and domestic violence amongst Asian families in Britain and should be banned according to a leading British lawyer. 
It is a practice common among Sikhs Hindus Muslims Christians and Buddhists and in India is blamed for the death of thousands of women every year. 
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Contrasting with the related concepts such as brideprice and dower dowry is an ancient Indian custom and its existence may well predate records of it. Dowry continues to be expected in some parts of India mainly north with disputes related to it often resulting in domestic violence such as dowry deaths.
The practice of dowry in India continues to be a controversial subject. Some scholars believe dowry was practised in the ancient Indian subcontinent some do not. Historical reports suggest dowry in ancient India was significant and daughters also had inheritance rights which by custom were exercised at the time of their marriage. The Code of Manu also sanctioned dowry and bridewealth in ancient India but dowry was the more prestigious form and associated with the Brahmanic priestly caste.
Dowries originally started as love gifts for the marriages of upper caste individuals but during the medieval period the demands for dowries became a precursor for marriage. The demand for dowries spread to the lower caste and became a prestige issue with the system becoming rigid and expensive. The dowry system became a tool for enhancing family social status and economic worth.
Dowry got more pronounced after the country achieved independence in . Prior to including during the British Raj daughters had no rights to inheritance to their familys wealth. In India gave equal legal status to daughters and sons among Hindu Sikh and Jain families under the Hindu Succession Act. For its Muslim population India granted Sharia derived personal status laws. Ancient vedic scholar Manu described dowry as essentially a payment of cash or gifts from the brides family to the bridegrooms family upon marriage. These days it would include cash jewellery electrical appliances furniture bedding crockery utensils and other household items that helped the newlyweds set up their home.
In the recent decades the expected value of the dowry has risen in northern parts of India such as Punjab Haryana Uttar Pradesh Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh. This phenomenon has led to a sharp increase in dowry deaths since the s. A dowry killing occurs when a new wife is murdered by her husband or inlaws if they are unhappy with her rather than sending her back to her parents which would force the inlaws to return the dowry to the brides parents.
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Manjunathan Padmanabhan a hardware engineer spent three harrowing days in Parappana Agrahara sharing cell space with thieves and murderers. His crime Accepting dowry. Now in perhaps a firstofitskind case the year has turned the tables on his wife and her family by filing a counter complaint for giving him dowry.
The Dowry Prohibition DP Act states that both giving and accepting dowry is an offence punishable by law and Section of the Act speaks about the penalty for giving or taking dowry. But while cases of husbands and their family members spending time in jail for receiving dowry are dime a dozen rarely if ever has a dowry giver been punished.
In his complaint against his wife and inlaws Padmanabhan a resident of Ulsoor has used the same statements made by his wifes relatives in their complaint against him three years ago. Ulsoor police registered an FIR on April .
In his complaint Padmanabhan states that he was married to R Ashwini on September . His wife had filed a complaint against him on September stating that she was harassed for dowry and that Padmanabhan was paid . grams of gold pieces of silverware and cash of Rs Rs and Rs on January July and July respectively. A case was filed against him under A of the IPC and under Sections and of the Dowry Prohibition Act.
In her complaint Ashwini claimed that she and her family had also given Padmanabhan a suit in dowry. Her brothers statement claimed they had given cash on three occasions. The complaint was filed in the same police station Ulsoor and the complaint and the memo of evidence given by his inlaws are part of the station records. He claims he obtained all the necessary documents from the station through the Right to Information Act.
Padmanabhan is now seeking action against all family members who admitted to giving him dowry. Since offenders and abettors themselves admittedclaimed to have given dowry it is submitted further that all these records and details are already with you Padmanabhan has stated in his complaint.
Speaking to Bangalore Mirror Padmanabhan said My fatherinlaw is a Central government employee. He knows giving dowry is a crime. He along with his family has admitted to giving me dowry. That is the crux of their complaint and police statements against me. They have admitted to committing a crime before a police officer and the police have to take action against those persons. I am only stating what the law says.
When contacted for his reaction Ashwinis father A Ramesh Babu the main accused in Padmanabhans complaint said I have not paid any dowry to him. Only a complaint of harassment for dowry was filed. The police might have changed my statement and added that I paid dowry. I do not know about the complaint filed against me.
AK Mohan Krishna an advocate who specialises in matrimonial disputes and who is unconnected to this case said This is the first time that the police have registered a FIR against the wifes family for giving dowry. If it is only a demand for dowry then only the provision of IPC Section A comes into play. If the wife and her family members have admitted to giving dowry then they have committed a crime under the Dowry Prohibition DP Act. If they have stated that they have given dowry they are clearly pleading guilty here. Though this provision of punishing those who give dowry is in the Act in reality it has never been invoked. The same Act is used to punish husbands and their families who receive dowry. Police usually do not take such complaints. But this case seems to be very promising for men who are accused of taking dowry.
Ulsoor police said He Padmanabhan was jailed on a case of dowry harassment and he has now filed a complaint against his wife and inlaws. We are investigating the case.
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Contrary to popular belief dowry in India is not an ancient tradition. There is no record of dowry in Hindu scriptures. In our early history there existed a fair system that distributed parental wealthy equally between all children both male and female. Daughters were given movable assets like money and jewels at the time of their wedding while sons were given immovable assets like land upon death of senior family members. It speaks volumes about the maturity prevalent in society in those ages with women being given equal rights as men.
The difference between the traditions of those times and today is that during marriage wealth was once given to the bride. In the days when no established communication channels existed the young brides had no easy way to reach back to the parents. Carrying their inheritance with them to their new home gave them a degree of financial freedom and established equal status in the new family.
In the current day and age the word dowry is a taboo. The word is not spoken only practiced. Some call it blessings of the parents while others call it investment in the girls future. The brides parents consider this the price of a well educated and settled boy. The grooms parents consider this as the return of investment on their boys education. Even if one were to treat the entire affair as a business with people seeking a handsome return on investment the brides parents will always post a loss because the money spent on her education is never compensated.
Although the word dowry is never used gifts are often discussed openly during arranged marriage negotiations. Everything from gifts to the grooms relatives to lavish wedding expenditure is agreed before the liaison is fixed. In some communities the brides parents are required to fulfill the unspoken expectations of the grooms family. This is where the problems come in. Dowry places the brides family under an immense financial burden and the grooms parents are sometimes dissatisfied. This dissatisfaction manifests itself in the form of misbehavior toward the bride and her family.
Newspapers published with headlines such as One Woman Is Killed Every Hour For Dowry In India are routinely dismissed as being sensationalist however during there were cases registered under section B of the Indian Penal Code Dowry Death. In and the numbers were similar with and cases respectively. Given that there are approximately hours in a year the headline is not far from the truth.
Most alarming is that these figures represent deaths only and do not include acts of violence where the victim survives. They also do not include acts of non violence including threats or extortion. According to the National Crime Records Bureau India has recorded . lakh cases of cruelty.
If any person after the commencement of this Act gives or takes or abets the giving or taking of dowry he shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than five years and with the fine which shall not be less than fifteen thousand rupees or the amount of the value of such dowry whichever is more.
The exception and loophole to this law are gifts given to the bride or groom at the time of marriage.
The educated Indian writes essays about the malpractices of dowry in school attends debates on this topic in college and shakes their head every time media reports news of a dowry death. The very same Indian does not oppose the exchange of expensive gifts at their own wedding. In the urban upper class the current dowry mindset is that if it is not demanded it is not dowry. They look down upon those who demand dowry and yet drive the car gifted to them by the brides parents every morning to work. This paradox needs working on. A collective effort by every Indian to understand the impact of the dowry mindset and an attempt to break it. Practice what you preach needs to be the new mantra. If not then we will continue to hear of new and vile ways in which women have been harassed for dowry.
In Barsa Swony Choudhury the then daughter in law of Minister Raghunath Mohanty had filed a complaint against her inlaws alleging torture and dowry demands. The Mohanty family was arrested in March . It took almost a year for the police to file a charge sheet on the Mohanty family. A mere five days after it was filed though Barsa was threatened with acid attacks. Before his resignation Minister Mohanty was holding the portfolios of housing and urban development law and information technology.
Dowry demands are rampant in India irrespective of the social and educational background of the groom. In fact the social stigma associated with demands of dowry has given rise to threats and acid attacks against the women who gather enough courage to report the incidents. In May in Mathura a woman and her brother were subjected to an acid attack. They had just filed a dowry complaint against the womans inaslaws. In the same month a rickshaw puller from Meerut attacked his wife and seven other members of her family with acid over a dowry dispute. The youngest victim of this attack was a six month child. In August a woman was reportedly fed acid by her inlaws over demands of dowry. Outwardly unheard she battled for life as doctors struggled to gauge the extent of her injuries. Her husband and mother in law went into hiding to avoid arrest.
These examples cite that not every case of dowry harassment leads to a dowry death. Mental torture abuse and physical attacks like these compound the problem to an even bigger proportion. The practice of dowry is the biggest reason of female infanticide in India. Parents look at the girl child as a financial burden and do not desire them. It continues to convince future generations too that being borne a woman automatically makes them a liability.
Dowry is not a tradition it is simply greed. All Indians need to be aware of this. The Indian youth of the st century are fighting for the freedom to make their own decision. If they make the collective decision to fight against dowry then this evil would surely be weeded out of our society for good.
A dowry is the money or a property that a woman brings to her husbands family at the time of their marriage. Traditionally dowries in India were meant to ensure that the bride was financially secure after her marriage and were seen as a type of inheritance from the brides parents to the bride. However when the British colonized India this changed. Heavy taxes meant that many families who had sons began to rely on the brides dowry for survival and the husbands family began to extort more and more money from the brides family.
Dowry was officially made illegal in India in with the establishment of the Dowry Prohibition Act but many families among all social classes continue the practice of giving a dowry today. Dowry killings are when a wife is killed because her parents are unable to fulfill all of the demands of the husbands family and these killings are unfortunately extremely common.
In women were killed in dowryrelated deaths. While the number of these deaths declined from when women were killed over dowry disagreements the number of abuse cases related to dowry when a husband and inlaws abuse a bride because her parents fail to pay a sufficient dowry rose from cases in to cases in .
In the s dowry killings were not very common with about killings per year. However with the rise of consumerism in India dowry killings have increased. Now goods and appliances that were originally scarce have become more widely available prompting a wave of greed and increasing the demand for dowry. Families that previously could not have dreamed of being able to afford goods such as cars are now within reach of being able to buy one and they rely on the bride who marries their son to help them fulfill their consumption desires.
Pravartika Gupta and her oneyear old daughter were killed by her inlaws in because Guptas parents were unable to afford the pounds Honda City car and new apartment that had been demanded as a dowry. Guptas case is unfortunately not unique. In yearold Annu Devi and her oneyearold daughter were burned to death by Devis husband and inlaws because her parents were unable to pay the dowry demanded. Many inlaws continue to demand more and more dowry even in the years after their son is married claiming that the dowry will be used to provide for children and pay living expenses throughout the years. Around of bank loans in India are taken in order to meet dowryrelated demands.
Dowry is also the reason for high levels of female feticide in India. Parents kill their female babies in the womb because they do not want to spend their whole lives saving money to pay for their daughters dowry. This has led to a skewed gender ratio in India where there are girls per boys.
In charges were brought in of dowryrelated death cases but only of cases led to convictions. Many husbands and inlaws claim that dowryrelated deaths were suicides in order to escape conviction. Parents of the bride are also sometimes reluctant to bring charges against the husbands family because they do not want to ruin their other daughters chances of marriage.
India has one of the fastest growing middle classes in the world and it has had a female president and a female prime minister. It is now common for women in India to have impressive careers. However India still ranks as the worlds fourth most dangerous country for a woman. If India wishes to really advance it needs to ensure that harmful practices such as dowries are not just legally unacceptable they are also socially unacceptable.
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the society of this practice which demeans women and cheapens the sacredness of marriage
the practice of dowry exists in many countries it has assumed the proportion of a challenge to the forces of modernity and change only in India. Many reasons are put forward for explaining this practice. It is said that a dowry is meant to help the
have spent in educating and upbringing their son. These explanations may seem logical in the present day context but they cannot explain how this practice originated. A search for the origins of dowry would have to move backwards into antiquity. Discussion about dowry has to take into account the less prevalent practice of bride price which is but a reversal or dowry. Although it may not be possible to ascertain when and where these practices originated it can be supposed that dowry and bride price are posterior to the institution of monogamy. This is the same as saying that dowry and bride price came into
animal promiscuity. Mans is the only species practicing monogamy all other species are promiscuous. Thus it is a logical corollary that Mans institution of monogamy came into being at sometime in the long evolution of his species. The practice of monogamy itself evolved in stages as is evident from historical anecdotes as in the Mahabharata where the
combinations monogamy became the established system. As long as promiscuity existed there was no question of dowry or bride price. The origin of these two practices could be linked up with the discarding of promiscuity in favour of Polygamy and Polyandry. These two forms of marriage are themselves mutual opposites. While in polygamy there is pairing between one male and multiple women and polyandry is the pairing of one woman with multiple men.
possibly owe their origin to polygamy and polyandry. The formation of polygamous and polyandrous forms of marriage could have been made necessary by changes in the demographic balance between the sexes. A rise in the number of females as compared to that of males is a congenial situation for the emergence of polygamy. Mere the chances of more than one female member of society being in wedlock with one male member are more. 
compared to males many female members would have to be deprived of marital life. The obligation to get more than one female member into wedlock with one male member could have been the situation which gave birth to dowry as a price exacted by the male and his family
The origin of brideprice could have taken place in opposite circumstances where the sex ratio favoured females and as there was a large number of males for every female
different situations which gave birth to dowry and brideprice. These factors can be identified with more certainty. In India s context these practices can be seen to be a result of the dialectics of our caste system. The conflict of opposing tendencies of the caste hierarchy as we know have resulted in endogamy preventing intermarriage between members of different castes. A reason for the origin of dowry and brideprice can also he seen in the same conflict. Hence discussion on these two practices would have to be
Dowry DahejHunda as we all know is paid in cash or kind by the brides family to the groom s family alongwith the giving away of the bride Kanyadanam. The ritual of A reason for the origin of dowry could perhaps be that the groom and his family had to take up the onerous responsibility of supporting the bride for the rest of her life. 
Brideprice on the other hand involves the receipt of presents in cash or kind by the brides family in return for giving away of the bride. Hence brideprice has the
prevalent among the tribals Vaishyas and Shudras whereas dowry was prevelent amongst Brahmins and Kshatriyas. We can only conjecture as to why this curious combination could
labour and menial work. The coming of a bride into the family meant an increase in the number of members who could work along with other members and become a source of income for the family. While the family from where the bride came sufferred the loss of one earning member. Hence a brideprice was paid to the brides parents to compensate for
them and no manual labour was assigned. A marriage meant an additional member who was to be supported and hence was a burden on the grooms family as the bride did not go out to earn and contribute to the family income. Thus a dowry was collected to provide the additional burden resulting from a brides entry into the grooms family. 
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Western men generally of Indian extraction come to rural India marry local women and then leave them behind with a promise to return. The women who are then disgraced in their communities are knows as holiday brides.
The tradition of giving a wedding dowry is causing growing division and domestic violence amongst Asian families in Britain and should be banned according to a leading British lawyer. 
It is a practice common among Sikhs Hindus Muslims Christians and Buddhists and in India is blamed for the death of thousands of women every year. 
Family members of Munish Dalal who were acquitted by a Noida court after being accused by Nisha Sharma in a dowry case said they have just been handed their freedom after a tenyearlong ordeal. 
Nisha a resident of Sector in Noida had hit the headlines in May after she refused to marry her groom for allegedly demanding lakh as dowry and a car on the day of the marriage. 
Following her complaint Munish his mother Vidya and his paternal aunt Savitri Sharma were arrested. The Noida court acquitted the Dalals on Wednesday. 
Munishs yearold widowed mother the only earning member of the family lost her job as a teacher in a government school after the incident. 
My mother gave years of her life to the governments education department. She had also represented India in hockey. But she was put behind bars for no reason. Her career came to an abrupt end and even her retirement benefits were withheld an anguished Munish said. 
And if this wasnt enough ignominy the government incorporated the incident in NCERT textbooks that is still taught to children in Class VI. 
The names of my mother and me were put in government textbooks as if we are the worst criminals in the country. The chapter says how my family was turned back for demanding dowry Munish said. 
I was to get married on the evening of May . The next morning I was in jail. You can well imagine my state of mind he added. 
My elderly mother and yearold aunt had to travel km to Noida for the hearings. In the last nine years we went to the court at least times whereas Nishas family was in court on hardly ten days.
Minutes before her wedding ceremony was about to be concluded Nisha Sharmas father was allegedly asked for more dowry money. 
Reports suggested the marriage in had nearly been solemnised with guests about to begin dinner when the grooms family allegedly demanded lakh in car and cash. The yearold decided to say no which quickly lead to a scuffle between the families forcing Sharma to call the cops.
The groom and his mother were later arrested and Sharma shot to fame as a rare example of a young woman willing to say no to dowryseekers.
Sharmas act would also be repeated by a number of other women who said they had been inspired by her story. Police later charged the groom and his mother with subjecting a woman to cruelty in connection with a dowry demand.
Both parties have moved on since then. While Nisha got married a few months after the incident Munish got married to a simple girl in at a temple in Delhi. And he didnt take any dowry Munish added. 
It was preplanned. Nishas father D.D. Sharma placed a matrimonial ad in a newspaper February the day when she and Navneet Rai allegedly got married at a temple. Sharma knew of Nishas alleged affair but still put the adVidya said recalling their ordeal.
According to her the baraat was stopped at the entrance to the wedding venue on May the fateful day. Nishas father apologising profusely said he hadnt been able to arrange rooms for the grooms wedding party. And Sharma didnt take any steps to remedy the situation even when Vidya told him that they had been insulted. 
While they were on their way home they got to know that the Sharmas had lodged an FIR for dowry against them she said. 
My son was arrested at six the next morning and I was arrested a few hours later. We spent two months behind bars Vidya added.
Their counsel Naresh Chand Gupta said they would file for damages against Nishas family. R.K. Rai the father of Navneet with whom Nisha was said to be in a relationship too said they would seek damages from the Sharma family. 
Later an affidavit surfaced before the media stating that Nisha had married Navneet at a temple on February . Nisha however denied in the court that the affidavit was signed by her. Nishas father said they would appeal against the courts order. 
A case of dowry torture has been lodged against beautician Shahnaz Hussain in Patna. 
The case was lodged on the directive of a Patna court following a petition of Rabiya Hussain widow of Shahnazs only son Sameer Hussain who died recently under mysterious circumstances.
The court has directed the police to lodge a case of dowry torture under Section A of the IPC against Shahnaz Hussain and to investigate into the case a subinspector in Patnas Gandhi Maidan police station told rediff.com on Saturday.
Rabiya who has filed a page complaint petition in the chief judicial magistrates court Patna said Shahnaz tortured her when she was pregnant for the first time.
She said that unbearable torture forced her to leave Shahnazs house and return to her parents house in Patna.
Rabiya also charged that when she visited Delhi after her husband committed suicide to collect her belongings which were given in dowry at the time of her marriage she was ill treated and denied rights to her belongings on the order of Shahnaz.
She alleged that her motherinlaw Shahnaz is solely responsibly for her husband Sameer Hussains suicide in Patna on January .
According to sources Rabiya in her petition said that her husband Sameer committed suicide due to stress and tension created by Shahnaz.
Rabiya pointed out that Sameer was under depression since his mother Shahnaz married a man soon after the death of his father.
She further stated that when Sameer opposed the second marriage of Shahnaz he was dropped from Shahnazs business empire and properties.
Last month the Bihar government recommended a CBI probe into the death of yearold Sameer.
Earlier Shahnaz said that her son Sameer was neither depressed nor an alcoholic. 
She also denied any rumour of her son being angry following her second marriage to noted entrepreneur R K Puri as suggested by Sameers fatherinlaw and advocate Mahfooz Alam.
A CONTEMPORARY liberal interpretation can be applied to numerous articles of the major international human rights treaties to argue that the prohibition of domestic violence is implied in those instruments and its violation will constitute the breach of the right to freedom from torture. For example article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights provides for right to life liberty and security. A violation of this article occurs when women experience domestic violence. This is because in that situation they suffer from an arbitrary deprivation of life lose their liberty and lack security. Article states that no one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Further article of the International Covenant on the Civil and Political Rights requires state parties to protect an individual from these forms of violence. Read together these provisions announce a legal framework for the prohibition of domestic violence. The implied sense and a close examination of objectives of these provisions essentially uphold the protection of women against violence regardless of the public or the private. No one shall be subjected to torture as specified in article of the human rights declaration neither belongs exclusively to any gender nor indicates any private or public.
Beyond these domestic violence has dominated numerous resolutions reports and recommendations of the convention and conferences respectively under the UN system that unequivocally recognise that it causes deprivation of womens rights and move the issue from the private to public responsibility. The following discussion explains how domestic violence shares a common experience with torture and why it should thereby warrant similar legal weight and remedies as the officially recognised torture does.
Firstly in most cases verbal or physical assault ranging from swearing beating kicking and the infliction of pain through various objects such as rods sticks and knives to death are repeatedly practised on women in Bangladesh who fail to meet the dowry demands of their inlaws. Such violence can reasonably be characterised as having the required severe physical or psychological pain and having similar effects on the victims of dowry. Forcing women to satisfy dowry in this manner creates a state of panic in mind. This state of panic keeps those women under constant mental pressure and in vulnerable situations coupled with a fear of further physical assault. This particular state constitutes mental suffering. In a similar situation to dowry violence it was found that battering produced a state of depression anxiety dependency and passivity among victims when they felt helpless to leave abusive relationships. The repeated violence of domestic abuse gradually destroys the victims mental capability to function independently and to resist that in turn increases their further vulnerability. This type of conduct produces the manipulation through stress of mind in much the same way as torture.
Secondly with the husbands explicit desire to earn dowry money threats and physical assault are recurrently committed on the unwilling women. Cruel treatment appears to be unnecessary where women deliberately want to help their domestic partners. Mental or physical assault thus implies the presence of some sort of undue force and that force exhibits an explicit intentional mala fides. Thirdly the dowryrelated repression originates with a specific purpose. The purpose is to obtain money or valuables and the inability of the women to satisfy this purpose results in cruel treatment or death. Fourthly in the present case the state is actively involved through enacting inter alia the Dowry Prohibition Act to protect women against dowry violence. The states passivity results from its failure to implement the dowry law or to remove the flaws in the law as required especially by the articles of the CEDAW. It fulfils the requirement of the fourth element of torture.
Furthermore Culliton concludes that even if a particular domestic violence case does not reach the level of torture international legal instruments prohibit cruel inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. This prohibition is also part of fundamental human rights and customary international human rights law. Thus it can be summed up that the physical and emotional assaults involved in a dowry satisfy the standard of abuse required by torture. The following section further emphasises the issue to provide domestic violence with the explicit recognition of torture.
Dowry refers to property cash or goods given to the bridegroom as a consideration of marriage. The Dowry Prohibition Act defines dowry as any property or valuable security given or agreed to be given either directly or indirectly by one party to a marriage by another party at any time before or after the marriage as a consideration of marriage. Originally dowry is a concept of Hindu law. In Hindu law unlike Muslim law marriage is a sacrament instead of a civil contract. Under this law women were not entitled to inherit property from their parents families. To compensate for this discrimination at the time of marriage women were voluntarily given some properties in kind or cash by their parents within their financial capacity. These properties constituted womens Stridhan womens property and reverted back to them in the event of termination of the marriage.
Among the lower caste the bride price a small amount of money was given to the brides family by the grooms family as a compensation for the loss of their daughter. However the contemporary perception of dowry as practiced in Bangladesh has no resemblance to the original concept. Over the course of time its voluntary nature has been transformed into a compulsion on the family of the bride. In recent years dowry has become an essential part of nearly every marriage and is obtained through applying constant coercion or pressure on the newly wedded women.
A number of factors such as traditional culture an unequal power relation between men and women the growing unemployment problem among young men and commercialisation of marriage contribute to the persistence of dowry despite legislative initiatives to eliminate it. The patriarchal society in Bangladesh acknowledges mens superiority over women. To establish this superiority men preferably receive family supports and attention in favour of developing their independent and productive careers. Consequently the bargaining power and rating of dowry depend on the level of educational and occupational status of the groom. This social practice eventually creates economic dependence and powerlessness of women and portrays them as an unproductive burden for the family. Thus womens staying in the parental home at the marriageable age or after is not welcome.
Another concern is about the virginity of women before they are married. Parents have to face a severe consequence with their adult daughters when scandal regarding their chastity ensues within the community. It becomes highly unlikely to find suitable grooms for those women. Within this social organisation parents try desperately to arrange a marriage at any cost even beyond their means and to provide some sort of incentives to have a qualified soninlaw so that the daughters life is better provided for.
The special attention from both sides develops the superfluous ego a feeling of power among grooms families that help dowry transform into a demand. Apart from this the decline in moral values and greed for the improved life make marriage a commercial transaction. In recent times marriage began to lose its sanctity and is used as a means of making money in which more value is given to property and cash money than that of the bride herself. As one of the potential means to change fate even a poor uneducated man may exploit a brides family. In numerous instances the grooms dowry demand does not match with the annual income and wealth of the brides father. On some occasions a ticket to the Middle East to find a job is demanded as dowry. The richer section of the country has also made a significant contribution to the present dimension of dowry. It offers luxury items ranging from ornaments to land properties from furniture and home appliances to arranging a grand formal gathering. It serves to display their wealth and status in the society on the one hand and to encourage young men to nurture dowry on the other. In this way the socioeconomic and cultural factors encourage the continuation of dowry in Bangladesh.
The Dowry Prohibition Act is the primary law of the country to deal with dowry. It makes dowry a criminal offence punishable with a maximum penalty of one year imprisonment or with a fine of Tk . or with both. The act is concerned with a series of issues including punishment for demanding or taking and giving dowry and its investigation and trial proceedings. Under section of the act a magistrate of the first class is empowered to try the dowry offence.
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PAYMENT of dowry referred to as Lobola by a man who wants to marry a woman in most African societies is one of the things that constitutes marriage under customary law.
However emphasis by the courts of law to validate marriage based on payment of dowry has become a source of concern to some women.
This is because many marriages in Zambia come about as a result of unplanned pregnancies.
In such cases men and women start to live together without any formal arrangement or payment a situation which is referred to as cohabiting.
As long as a relationship between a man and a woman does not involve payment of dowry courts do not regard such as marriage.
According to Women for Change WfC couples that opt out of relationships where dowry is not paid often fail to share property.
When a couple divorces all the property in the house remains with the man because no dowry was paid.
Not paying a woman compensation after divorce and dismissal of cases deemed to be cohabiting by the courts even after a couple had been living together for many years is what makes the law regarding dowry payment unfair towards women.
In the Zambian context the payment of dowry provides strong evidence that a man is committed to be in wedlock with a woman.
Payment of dowry shows that the importance of a woman has been appreciated by a man.
It is a demonstration by the man to the family of the woman that he is committed to marrying her and providing for her.
A man who cannot pay dowry is deemed to be lazy and incapable of providing for his own household.
But to put things in context dowry is not limited to Zambian tribes or cultural groupings.
The Encyclopaedia Britannica says dowry has a long history in Europe South Asia Africa and other parts of the world.
The encyclopaedia says dowry is most common in cultures that are strongly patrilineal were women are expected to reside with or near their husbands family patrilocality.
For example in India dowry is a form of money goods or estate that a woman takes to her husband or his family in marriage.
One of its basic functions is to serve as a form of protection for the woman or wife against the very real possibility of ill treatment by her husband and his family.
The dowry used in this way is actually a conditional gift that is supposed to be restored to the wife or her family if the husband divorces abuses or commits other grave offenses against her.
Land and precious metals have often been used in this form of dowry and are frequently inalienable by the husband though he might otherwise use and profit from them during the marriage.
In addition to that dowry sometimes serves to help a new husband to discharge the responsibilities that go with marriage.
In some societies dowry provides the wife with a means of support in case of her husbands death. In this latter case the dowry may be seen as a substitute for her inheritance of all or part of her husbands estate.
In many Indian societies dowries have served as a reciprocal gesture by the brides kin to the grooms kin for the expenses incurred by the latter in payment of bride wealth.
These exchanges are not purely economic but instead serve to ratify the marriage and consolidate
The encyclopedia further gives an example of medieval and Renaissance Europe where dowry frequently served not only to enhance the desirability of a woman for marriage but also to build the power and wealth of great families and even to determine the frontiers and policies of states.
In South Asia for instance parents of the groom have sometimes demanded compensation for their sons higher education and future earnings which the bride would ostensibly share says the encyclopedia.
In the Zambian scenario different tribes and cultural groupings look at dowry in terms of animals a sum of money or other gifts paid prior to a wedding.
The Tonga people of Southern Province normally ask for cattle from men who want to marry their women or daughters.
Among the Bemba people in Northern and Munchinga provinces dowry is paid by men for their brides.
The payment is in form of money and other gifts like goats and farming implements among them.
It is paid to appreciate the hard work that the parents of the pride put in raising and grooming the bride who is supposed to look after her husband once the two are married.
With the coming of modernity most Zambian tribes and families are quantifying all dowry related requirements in monetary terms.
But generally speaking whatever form it takes dowry is used in most cultural settings in Zambia as a barometer to gauge the economic capacity of a suitor.
It is the bottom line that cements all discussions that eventually lead to marriage and even when it comes to divorce the issue of dowry is raised by the parties involved before a marriage can be annulled.
Therefore it is indisputable that dowry payment is regarded not only as a symbol of love and a way to appreciate the parents of a bride but also as something that forms a basis on which marriage can thrive.
Given the predicament that women who cohabit with men have experienced traditional marriage councilors suggest that it is for a good cause that dowry payment is made.
They say requirements for dowry must be followed as it is also a way of bringing the two families of the man and the women together and creating an existence as well as a bond.
But some women who have fallen prey to being made pregnant by some men in the course of dating believe validating marriage through payment of dowry is unfair.
Such women wonder how many men actually finish paying dowry before they marry their wives especially with focus in overpopulated areas like townships where most men are unemployed and have no regular income.
Gender Minister Nkandu Luo is cognisant of the fact that the law supports the payment of dowry which she believes puts women at a disadvantage.
This is because some men have a tendency of making women pregnant as many as they prefer since they know that having not paid any dowry they could not be burdened with the responsibility of providing for such women whom they only flirt with.
Professor Luo said it was sad that most women suffered after divorce since the Marriage Act was based on dowry payment.
She disclosed that her ministry was looking at the possibility of enacting laws that would benefit a woman and her children even if the marriage was seen to be not legal.
There is no responsibility of men under this law where marriage is legalised through dowry payment. It has disadvantaged women and children.
For that reason the ministry is working towards bringing up laws that will force men to maintain both the woman and the children whether legally married or not she said.
She said in as much as dowry payment is vital in a marriage it is unhelpful for the courts of law to stop men from paying maintenance fees to a woman just because the man never paid any dowry.
National Director for Women and Law in Southern Africa Maureen Tresha said calling a marriage illegal on account of dowry not being paid is devastating to women who are not certain about their marital state.
She said most people in the community do not know that a marriage is only legalised through dowry payment.
She said most people think that when a couple stayed together for more than six months that automatically meant they were married.
Ms Tresha said in most cases some men see no relevance in paying dowry because most marriages arose from women getting pregnant.
She said the law of legalising a marriage through dowry payment does not benefit women.
Mercy Mwila a divorcee who lived with her husband for ten years in Matero Township in Lusaka said she was shocked that the local court dismissed her case where she sued her husband for maintenance.
She was told that her husband did not pay dowry to her family and therefore she was merely cohabiting with him.
She said it was sad that all the property the couple attained together was given to her husband since she was not considered to be his legal wife.
Ms Mwila said she had struggled in her marriage and that most of the property they had was acquired through her hard work.
She said it was unfair that the court dismissed the case of divorce and ordered the couple to go separate ways without sharing property and no maintenance fees were awarded in her favour.
Caroline Kazembe a mother of five also expressed sadness that the courts dismissed her divorce case after she had lived with a man for seventeen years and the couple had five children.
Ms Kazembe was unaware that her marriage was not legal since her husband did not pay dowry.
She thought her marriage could have been legalised by virtue of having lived with the man for more than ten years.
I have lived with my husband for more than ten years. Why should the court dismiss our case on grounds that it is not a marriage simply because he did not pay dowry she asked.
Perhaps it was time society realised that many women are often too excited and rush into marriage without their parents permission.
Many women especially in rural areas move into a mans house and start living as a mans wife.
It is therefore expedient that communities are fully sensitised on what constitutes marriage so that problems of women being victimised are avoided.
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The dowry or mahar is the gift of money or goods given by the groom to his future wife at the time of the wedding.
Under the accord reached by the tribes the dowry to be handed to a bride who is getting married for the first time was fixed at SR.
A divorcee or a widow receives SR from the groom the tribes said under the accord to facilitate marriages and remarriages. Grooms may offer an extra SR for outfits and up to bangles.
The amount includes all the financial requirements for the wedding Saudi news site Sabq reported on Wednesday.
The marriage ceremonies will be reduced to only two one for the engagement and one for the wedding.
Tribes have been celebrating marriages over several evenings in lavish ceremonies under various names that invariably made heavy financial demands on the groom and the bride and their families.
We highly welcome this initiative that will have positive effects on people planning to get married and their families Majed Bin Khatla the governor of Damad in Jizan Region said. We have noticed the high dowries imposed on grooms and the high number of ceremonies held to celebrate the wedding. It was way too much for families and for grooms and brides and we talked with tribe leaders and explained the situation they agreed to sit together and reach an accord that is beneficial to all he said.
Following the agreement the new clauses will be included in the marriage contract to ensure there will be no abuses.
According to Sabq young people in several other governorates have called for the emulation of the Jizan accord and impose ceilings for dowries and limit the weddingrelated ceremonies.
Islam requires the payment of a small dowry as a token of care and compassion between the bride and groom and their families.
However and although in Islamic marriages the dowry is purely symbolic just like white dresses in Western weddings many statusconscious families in the Gulf regard it as a source of prestige or as an insurance policy payable to the wife in case of divorce.
Traditionally the dowry of a Gulf woman comprised of silver jewellery but brides today prefer gold and cash sums often inflated by demanding families.
Extravagant dowries and hyperinflated bills from lavish wedding celebrations ornate garments lavish receptions and dinner banquets have often led young Gulf men reluctant to fall into debt to turn to other countries to find brides mainly in Egypt Syria and Jordan among Arabs India Pakistan Thailand and The Philippines.
However Gulf women have regularly complained that by taking foreign wives the men effectively contributed to the increase in the number of spinsters in their countries.
Seeking to curb the phenomenon of men taking wives from abroad authorities have imposed conditions to restrict international marriages. They also sought alongside religious societies and community centres to organize mass weddings to help couples alleviate the burden of wedding costs.
We need to ease marriages and facilitate their norms particularly by lowering dowries and doing away with traditions that pile up financial pressure on young people and steer them away from marriage Bahrains Prime Minister Prince Khalifa Bin Salman Al Khalifa said in . We need to promote the culture of mass weddings and look at them from the social point of view because they bolster cohesion and solidarity and help deepen the sense of togetherness. There is also the economic aspect that helps cut down the costs of celebrations.
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A CONTEMPORARY liberal interpretation can be applied to numerous articles of the major international human rights treaties to argue that the prohibition of domestic violence is implied in those instruments and its violation will constitute the breach of the right to freedom from torture. For example article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights provides for right to life liberty and security. A violation of this article occurs when women experience domestic violence. This is because in that situation they suffer from an arbitrary deprivation of life lose their liberty and lack security. Article states that no one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Further article of the International Covenant on the Civil and Political Rights requires state parties to protect an individual from these forms of violence. Read together these provisions announce a legal framework for the prohibition of domestic violence. The implied sense and a close examination of objectives of these provisions essentially uphold the protection of women against violence regardless of the public or the private. No one shall be subjected to torture as specified in article of the human rights declaration neither belongs exclusively to any gender nor indicates any private or public.
Beyond these domestic violence has dominated numerous resolutions reports and recommendations of the convention and conferences respectively under the UN system that unequivocally recognise that it causes deprivation of womens rights and move the issue from the private to public responsibility. The following discussion explains how domestic violence shares a common experience with torture and why it should thereby warrant similar legal weight and remedies as the officially recognised torture does.
Firstly in most cases verbal or physical assault ranging from swearing beating kicking and the infliction of pain through various objects such as rods sticks and knives to death are repeatedly practised on women in Bangladesh who fail to meet the dowry demands of their inlaws. Such violence can reasonably be characterised as having the required severe physical or psychological pain and having similar effects on the victims of dowry. Forcing women to satisfy dowry in this manner creates a state of panic in mind. This state of panic keeps those women under constant mental pressure and in vulnerable situations coupled with a fear of further physical assault. This particular state constitutes mental suffering. In a similar situation to dowry violence it was found that battering produced a state of depression anxiety dependency and passivity among victims when they felt helpless to leave abusive relationships. The repeated violence of domestic abuse gradually destroys the victims mental capability to function independently and to resist that in turn increases their further vulnerability. This type of conduct produces the manipulation through stress of mind in much the same way as torture.
Secondly with the husbands explicit desire to earn dowry money threats and physical assault are recurrently committed on the unwilling women. Cruel treatment appears to be unnecessary where women deliberately want to help their domestic partners. Mental or physical assault thus implies the presence of some sort of undue force and that force exhibits an explicit intentional mala fides. Thirdly the dowryrelated repression originates with a specific purpose. The purpose is to obtain money or valuables and the inability of the women to satisfy this purpose results in cruel treatment or death. Fourthly in the present case the state is actively involved through enacting inter alia the Dowry Prohibition Act to protect women against dowry violence. The states passivity results from its failure to implement the dowry law or to remove the flaws in the law as required especially by the articles of the CEDAW. It fulfils the requirement of the fourth element of torture.
Furthermore Culliton concludes that even if a particular domestic violence case does not reach the level of torture international legal instruments prohibit cruel inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. This prohibition is also part of fundamental human rights and customary international human rights law. Thus it can be summed up that the physical and emotional assaults involved in a dowry satisfy the standard of abuse required by torture. The following section further emphasises the issue to provide domestic violence with the explicit recognition of torture.
Dowry refers to property cash or goods given to the bridegroom as a consideration of marriage. The Dowry Prohibition Act defines dowry as any property or valuable security given or agreed to be given either directly or indirectly by one party to a marriage by another party at any time before or after the marriage as a consideration of marriage. Originally dowry is a concept of Hindu law. In Hindu law unlike Muslim law marriage is a sacrament instead of a civil contract. Under this law women were not entitled to inherit property from their parents families. To compensate for this discrimination at the time of marriage women were voluntarily given some properties in kind or cash by their parents within their financial capacity. These properties constituted womens Stridhan womens property and reverted back to them in the event of termination of the marriage.
Among the lower caste the bride price a small amount of money was given to the brides family by the grooms family as a compensation for the loss of their daughter. However the contemporary perception of dowry as practiced in Bangladesh has no resemblance to the original concept. Over the course of time its voluntary nature has been transformed into a compulsion on the family of the bride. In recent years dowry has become an essential part of nearly every marriage and is obtained through applying constant coercion or pressure on the newly wedded women.
A number of factors such as traditional culture an unequal power relation between men and women the growing unemployment problem among young men and commercialisation of marriage contribute to the persistence of dowry despite legislative initiatives to eliminate it. The patriarchal society in Bangladesh acknowledges mens superiority over women. To establish this superiority men preferably receive family supports and attention in favour of developing their independent and productive careers. Consequently the bargaining power and rating of dowry depend on the level of educational and occupational status of the groom. This social practice eventually creates economic dependence and powerlessness of women and portrays them as an unproductive burden for the family. Thus womens staying in the parental home at the marriageable age or after is not welcome.
Another concern is about the virginity of women before they are married. Parents have to face a severe consequence with their adult daughters when scandal regarding their chastity ensues within the community. It becomes highly unlikely to find suitable grooms for those women. Within this social organisation parents try desperately to arrange a marriage at any cost even beyond their means and to provide some sort of incentives to have a qualified soninlaw so that the daughters life is better provided for.
The special attention from both sides develops the superfluous ego a feeling of power among grooms families that help dowry transform into a demand. Apart from this the decline in moral values and greed for the improved life make marriage a commercial transaction. In recent times marriage began to lose its sanctity and is used as a means of making money in which more value is given to property and cash money than that of the bride herself. As one of the potential means to change fate even a poor uneducated man may exploit a brides family. In numerous instances the grooms dowry demand does not match with the annual income and wealth of the brides father. On some occasions a ticket to the Middle East to find a job is demanded as dowry. The richer section of the country has also made a significant contribution to the present dimension of dowry. It offers luxury items ranging from ornaments to land properties from furniture and home appliances to arranging a grand formal gathering. It serves to display their wealth and status in the society on the one hand and to encourage young men to nurture dowry on the other. In this way the socioeconomic and cultural factors encourage the continuation of dowry in Bangladesh.
The Dowry Prohibition Act is the primary law of the country to deal with dowry. It makes dowry a criminal offence punishable with a maximum penalty of one year imprisonment or with a fine of Tk . or with both. The act is concerned with a series of issues including punishment for demanding or taking and giving dowry and its investigation and trial proceedings. Under section of the act a magistrate of the first class is empowered to try the dowry offence.
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Dowry murder is a brutal practice involving a woman being killed by her husband or inlaws because her family is unable to meet their demands for her dowry a payment made to a womans inlaws upon her engagement or marriage as a gift to her new family. It is not uncommon for dowries to exceed a familys annual income. 
While cultures throughout the world have dowries or analogous payments dowry murder occurs predominantly in South Asia. According to official crime statistics in India women were killed in as a result of such violence. Small community studies have also indicated that dowry demands have played an important role in women being burned to death and in deaths of women labelled as suicides . In Bangladesh there have been many incidents of acid attacks due to dowry disputes leading often to blindness disfigurement and death. In women and girls in Bangladesh were victims of acid attacks . 
Domestic violence was widespread. Although violence against women was difficult to quantify recent research showed that up to percent of all women were victims of domestic violence. Much of the reported violence against women was related to disputes over dowries. During the year there were reported dowryrelated killings. .
Laws specifically prohibit certain forms of discrimination against women provide for special procedures for persons accused of violence against women and children call for harsher penalties provide compensation to victims and require action against investigating officers for negligence or willful failure of duty however enforcement of these laws was weak. In parliament passed an amendment weakening provisions for dowry crimes.. 
Not only in the cities and towns but even in the villages of Bangladesh terror has come stalking. Now the weapon of fear is not only the gun but a can of petrol or kerosene and a matchbox. A woman on fire has made dowry deaths the most vicious of social crimes. It is an evil prevalent in the society and despite efforts by some activists and womens rights organisation to eliminate this menace the numbers have continued to climb. In villages marriage was once considered a very sanctified bond united in the worst or best of times in sickness or in health through the vicissitudes of life. But dowry related deaths have shattered that bond of peaceful and happy relationship. 
A recent survey by the Bangladesh Human Rights Organisation and Bangladesh Women Lawyers Association revealed that in there were cases of women repression in the figure rose to and in the year ending in the figure climbed to . 
The grisly act of a brute and greedy husband in Chapai Nawabganj as reported in the newspapers on December last is a story better not be heard. Having failed to realise a dowry claim of Tk. Shamsher killed her wife Marina just on the nd day of their marriage. The most grisly side of the story is that Shamsher hired three other monsters for Tk and Marina was slaughtered by Shamsher after she was forced to be gangraped by four human monsters including himself. 
Reports appearing in local dailies on September last indicated that one housewife at Dupchachia Upazila in the district of Bogra and the other at Jhalakathi Fatema and Sajeda respectively aged around years were killed by their inlaws in collusion with their husbands on their inability to meet increasing demands of dowry money. Its the brutality of these crimes that has awakened the country to the beast that runs loose in these greedy monsterturned husbands. Criminologists as well as Crime Assessment Wing of the government and some NGOs assert that crime rate among the youth especially such deviant young husbands has gone up by as much as percent. And though crime wave flows across all races classes and life styles the survey makes particular mention of the fact that there is a noticeable increase in the dowry related crimes by young husbands from middle class or upper middle class families. 
The country wide survey conducted by the Bangladesh Women Lawyers Association revealed that women repression incidents mostly dowry related has increased alarmingly over the last few years. 
Although many cases of dowry harassment cases were reported of late a staggering number of such cases were not. Despite all attempts to prevent it an epidemic appears to be in the making. It is a phenomenon that escapes easy answers due to complex mix of social trends. The sudden affluence of course of a section of people that emerged starting from rural areas to the cities in the midtolate s is the primary factor. The money as social scientists say was not channelised productively. Instead of using it to enhance womens education for instance it was used to perpetuate ostentatious living. With getrichquick becoming the new goal of life dowry became the perfect instrument for upward material mobility.
Growing consumerism flashy life styles and in most cases joblessness and drug addiction are fuelling these crimes. If once a bicycle a wrist watch or a small money for starting a business sufficed for the lower income groups now a TV home appliances and a motorbike or scooter other than cash money are the common demand. For the upper middle class and better educated grooms the demand is soaring. They look for a flat ownership a plot of land at Dhaka or a chunk of share in business. People are inclined to believe that the quantum of dowry may still be higher among the upper classes but percent of the dowry deaths and nearly percent of dowry harassments occur at the middle and lower strata.
It is hard to believe but harder still to comprehend. Some of these tales are so horrifying. Beauty Akhtar of Dhamrai Upazila was married to Muntaj Ahmed of Arpara village in Manikganj about two and a half years ago. Beautys father met his soninlaws dowry demand by paying three lakh taka. But Muntajs greed was insatiable. He started torturing her for more money and at one stage locked her in a room for three days without food. It so happened that on November last the entire family including husband fatherinlaw motherinlaw and other inlaws beat her with iron rod in a row. Somehow this incident of torture reached her father and he lodged an FIR Savar thana.
As reports go Beauty is recuperating at the Manikganj Hospital and her husband Muntaj Ahmed fatherinlaw Ashrafuddin Ahmed and brotherinlaw Ariful Hossain have since been arrested. Unhappily there are more stories of dowry harassment that ultimately lead to death than are reported in the newspapers. For women it is a difficult battle to win. They are handicapped by history victims of a firmly embedded gender system. 
Some recent dowry related harassments and tortures leading to deaths that have created ripples at home and abroad have prompted Prime Minister Khaleda Zia to issue an appeal to all heads of public and private universities and Education Boards to wage a war against dowry in the country. All findings indicate that dowry demands in the country have multiplied tenfold over the last one decade. Precisely speaking there is a sticky web of issues surrounding it. The much hyped luxury needs of the consumerist society is one. Most upper middle class families due to lack of proper education and culture have realised that this is an easy way to acquire wealth and live comfortably in the society. Unhappily there exists a toothless attitude in a majority of modern families who participate in dowry based marriages instead of opposing them. People talk glibly about dowry prohibition or antidowry movement but when it comes to the wedding of their own sons and daughters most people would do the same thing. P.M.s D.O. letter to heads of educational institutions will not create any tangible impact unless the political parties have made it mandatory for members to take an oath that they shall neither give nor receive dowry. Shockingly true down the years the lack of collective political will to curb dowry has become obvious. 
The sons of land owners in the Dhaka Metropolitan city owners of apartment blocks besides the grooms with MBA degrees and computer related degrees and diplomas are considered topnotch catches in the groom bazaar. The rich revel in the exchange of black money but the pressure on other classes to ape them has serious social consequences. In most cases affluent parents think that big dowries will strengthen their daughters position in the husbands family. But appallingly should the marriage go wrong there is no way that this fabulous gifts in the form of cash jewellery and property can be retrieved.
More intriguing in most cases girls do not have any knowledge or participation in the deal. Dowry is often a monetary deal between two men the brides father and the groom. Despite promulgation of Acid Control Act and Dowry Prohibition Act the numbers of dowry related atrocities and deaths are climbing up and it is true as the P.M. has indicated a big social movement is a must to stop giving and taking of money. The law may help take temporary punitive action but later women need real social financial moral and ideological support to stand firmly against an age old system that has almost got an unwritten societal sanction. Women face double peril. Inside the barred doors is humiliation outside awaits public ire. Harassed and tortured women are now going to court or police for protection. But even if appeals for protection are met only scorn greets them when they return home. Despite every stigma dowry continues to be the signature of marriage. The odd NGO groups or women activists or Women Lawyers Association may pursue one or two cases and rehabilitate some tortured women but appallingly by and large any major success or breakthrough is hardly possible because social intervention is low and ignorance high.
No doubt the laws remain stringent. But a dowry death is a relatively easier crime than murder to prosecute and so the crime continues. Due to several factors most go unreported. And in the court a majority of the victims belong to the under privileged classes and they have hardly any means to fight out the lengthy legal battles. While court appearances and seeking police protection in all these types of torture and violence by husbands appear to be a traumatic experience most women prefer to sweep their bitter experiences under the carpet. However the strength must come from the society and the government. Almost all agencies tend to exploit womens labour without supporting it maintaining it and enhancing it. In a bid to weed out this menace from the system that scenario must be changed.
In addition to the rise in domestic violence in previous years there have been a number of deaths of IndoFijian women that appeared to be bride burnings. Bride burning is an attack on a wife by members of the grooms family dissatisfied with dowry payments. These attacks are often staged as kitchen accidents or suicides and result in the fatal burning of a victim. Police investigations concluded that the victims had committed suicide burning themselves so severely as to cause death. However the womens rights community asserted that these deaths were bride burnings. There were no confirmed reports of such deaths during the year. 
In addition to the rise in domestic violence there have been approximately suicides by IndoFijian women that appeared to have been bride burning. Police investigations report that the women burned themselves so severely as to cause death but the womens rights community believes that the deaths are the result of bride burning. 
Rebecca Ruiz Indias AllWomen Police Pursue Dowry Complaints Womens eNews September .
India has established roughly allwomen police stations to help curb dowryrelated violence. One officer says the main benefit is establishing complaint records.
BANGALORE India WOMENSENEWSIn her three years working at the Basavangudi allwomen police station in Bangalore Constable Mylaaiah Rangajura has taken hundreds of statements of women with dowryrelated complaints. Some are freshly bruised others have been starved for days and some fear that their husbands or inlaws will burn or strangle them to death a tragically common end to a dowry dispute.
When a wifes husband and her inlaws are called in for lengthy interviews Rangajura listens as family members explain and often deny the accusations of abuse and harassment.
While dowry was once a gift from a brides family to a daughter often consisting of cash jewelry and fine clothing it has increasingly come to be seen as a payment to her husband and his family that reinforces or improves their financial and social standing. Abuse frequently begins when additional dowry demands are unmet. It is a form of emotional and physical blackmail that continues until the wifes family finally relents.
Rangajura takes notes as her supervisor tries to negotiate reconciliation the most common approach to solving dowry disputes. Sometimes there is no compromise she says referring to the more egregious cases that involve severe physical and mental abuse but you have to think about what both parties want.
Rangajura is part of Indias effort to address the problem of domestic violence particularly dowryrelated violence.
Though outlawed in dowry practices have continued to flourish regardless of religion caste educational background or whether marriages are arranged or love matches.
Dowryrelated violence increased more than threefold between and . Dowry deaths rose by percent during that same time period and since then about to women have been murdered each year.
In the National Crime Records Bureau recorded a dowry death every minutes. Still many argue that extremely low reporting and conviction rates mask the true number of dowry deaths which could reach as high as per year.
In the government of Tamil Nadu opened the first allfemale police station in Chennai largely in response to complaints that the social stigma of confessing ones family problems to a stranger and the possibility of being raped kept women away from maledominated stations.
Mangai Natarajan a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York has authored the most extensive studies on female police stations in Tamil Nadu. She says the stations give women a safer more comfortable place to report domestic violence. They dont want to talk about their personal relationships with a man Natarajan says. They think they wont get any justice.
In India adopted a federal domestic violence bill that offers victims statesponsored advocacy and aims to speed up the legal process by creating more courts and hiring additional judges.
India in addition to Brazil has pioneered the use of the allwomen police station. In India had units. Brazil which began opening the stations in the s now has more than . 
Part authority figure and part counselor the women who staff these stations are supposed to be trained to field complaints ranging from violence to neglect to infidelity to dowry harassment.
As leverage they often use the pressure of social embarrassment to remind an errant husband and his family that their behavior is unacceptable and in many cases illegal.
Families do have a great respect for police officers Natarajan says. Women will threaten their husbands with going to the police and its effective.
In the federal government created the National Commission for Women to ensure progress on issues such as female feticide poverty and sexual harassment. In the years that followed state commissions were mandated to address these problems at a local level.
Women who turn to branches of the womens commission often see it as a middle ground between reporting a dowry crime at the local police stationwhich can put women at odds with their familiesand seeking the help of an advocacy group that doesnt have the governments backing.
The emphasis on counseling and patching things up in the allwomen police stations has left some victims feeling betrayed says Ranjini Srikumar temporary chair of the Kerala State Commission for Women.
The women officers say Oh it doesnt matter my husband beats me too. Dont make such a big deal it happens to all of us Srikumar says adding that some women have told her they had better experiences at regular maledominated stations.
Though female officers do receive gender sensitivity and counseling training it often occurs infrequently and differs from station to station.
Shobana Khatavkhar investigated dowry cases at the Basavangudi womens police station in Bangalore from to and acknowledges that some officers can be callous and that training could be improved.
Of the or so dowry cases Khatavkhar examined she says only five resulted in a conviction. The main benefit of filing reports she says is that it creates a permanent police record.
When asked about dowry harassment they always deny it she says referring to the accused husbands and inlaws. But the station keeps the record and then they wont continue to harass because its on file.
When a husband is asked to appear in her office as part of the investigation Siddamma says she tries to restore the bond. When you took your husband or wife she says you took him or her to look after. I tell them that marriage is more important than dowry.
Gouramma Venkata Ramana is a staff member at Vimochana a Bangalore womens nonprofit organization that has scrutinized unnatural deaths for most of the last decade.
Through a translator she said that the police often fail women who come forward with complaints of abuse. The police are given training to see that while dealing with family matters they ought to make sure the family does not break up and instead comes to an understanding she says.
Of the unnatural death cases Ramana investigated last year she determined that at least of them were dowryrelated.
Rampant domestic violence she emphasizes is the underlying problem and a likely contributing factor to the other deaths. She believes reducing the level of domestic violence requires encouraging women to step forward and helping them once they do.
Education is important Ramana says. But we are also here to support the women when no one else will listen or help.
.As reported by the BBC on July dowries and the problems associated with them have meant that many Indian families are desperate to avoid having girls. Legislation against sex determination tests was passed nearly a decade ago but the practice is still widespread. The Prenatal Diagnostics Techniques Regulation and Prevention of Misuse Act amended bans sex determination tests. bb
The media often reported cases of dowry murder. On August yearold Charanpreet Kaur was set on fire and killed by her fatherinlaw because her parents could not meet her inlaws everincreasing demands for dowry. Kaur made a statement to police before she died and her husband and inlaws were arrested. At years end all accused were in New Delhis central jail awaiting formal murder charges. USSD c Section 
As reported by the BBC news service on June if convicted prison sentences can stretch to years. l
.As noted in a BBC news article dated July this type of murder is often referred to as bride burning in India. Payment and acceptance of a dowry has been illegal in India for years but is still widely practised. Dowry Prohibition Act amended in and bans paying and receiving dowries. bb As reported by the BBC on July in Nisha Sharma a prospective bride from Noida just outside Delhi had her groom arrested after he demanded a dowry. The groom and his mother were arrested under the rarely enforced AntiDowry Act. Both were awaiting trial. bb According to a BBC news item dated October Nisha Sharma became an instant celebrity as politicians and nongovernment organisations honoured her for her boldness in calling the police. cb According to the US State Department report in the case of Nisha Sharma the potential groom was detained for days while formal charges were filed for violating the countrys laws against dowries. The case received considerable publicity and the story has been included in the school curriculum in Delhi to teach children the problems of the dowry system. c Section 
.As reported in a BBC news article dated September The new English textbook for the sixth standard age to in schools run by the government of the Indian capital Delhi includes a chapter on Nisha Sharma. The State Council of Education Research and Training who prepared the book stated that the story was included to draw childrens attention to social problems. Nisha Sharma became a role model after calling off her wedding because her fiance asked her parents for more dowry money. fj
.As noted in a BBC news article dated September a triple suicide attempt was made by three sisters afraid any dowry demands for their potential marriage would financially cripple their father. The sisters were from a village in Calcutta. The three drank pesticides whereupon the youngest died and her two sisters survived but were in hospital. One of the sisters said that her mother had a brain disease and her father had struggled for months to get sufficient money together for dowries. In their suicide note the girls said they wanted to save the family from continuing struggles for dowry money which had led to bitter arguments. The father denied the situation was that bad but admitted that on occasion marriages have broken down because he could not find a dowry. He said the dowry system while technically illegal is a way of life If you have a daughter you have to give a dowry if you have a son you will receive one when you are married. It is the way of our society. The article further states that although the dowry system is officially illegal in India it is common outside the main cities. A doctor at the hospital where the girls were admitted stated that a survey was carried out some months earlier whereby it was found that people attempted suicide in that area every month. He said that extreme poverty was the principle cause of suicides linked to dowries. gb
The Home Ministry reported that in New Delhi during there were reported dowry deaths..
According to press reports the rate of acquittal in dowry death cases was high and due to court backlogs they took an average of six to seven years to conclude. .
Providing or taking a dowry is illegal under the Dowry Prohibition Act of however dowries continued to be offered and accepted and dowry disputes remained a serious problem. In a typical dowry dispute the grooms family harassed a new wife for not providing a sufficient dowry. This harassment sometimes ended in the womans death which the family often tried to portray as a suicide or accident. In the government registered dowry death cases under the Dowry Prohibition Act in which husbands or inlaws murdered women for not providing sufficient dowry. 
In September the Delhi Commission for Women reported cases of abuse against women from January to July of which percent were dowry related and percent a result of harassment by inlaws. In Delhi polices crime against women cell recorded dowryrelated cases. Of these police counseled families to a compromise filed criminal charges in another cases and in five thousand cases the victim did not pursue the matter. In there were dowryrelated deaths in Delhi. In March the West Tripura sessions court sentenced three persons to five years rigorous imprisonment for abetting the suicide of a woman by torturing her for dowry in . 
The Tamil Nadu government reported an increase in cases filed under the Dowry Prohibition Act from in to cases in . In the government won convictions in cases of dowry harassment including involving murder. Lawyers confirmed that wifebattering cut across all religions caste and educational levels. Convictions potentially took several years. For example during the year the Chennai high court convicted two accused persons of a dowry death case initially filed in . 
Usually at a disadvantage in dowry disputes women have begun to speak out against dowry demands. In February a woman from Bhiwani Haryana refused to join her husband after her marriage ceremony because of a dowry demand by her inlaws. The local panchayat stood by the womans decision. 
The media often reported cases of dowry murder. On August yearold Charanpreet Kaur was set on fire and killed by her fatherinlaw because her parents could not meet her inlaws everincreasing demands for dowry. Kaur made a statement to police before she died and her husband and inlaws were arrested. At years end all accused were in New Delhis central jail awaiting formal murder charges. 
Under the law courts must presume that the husband or the wifes inlaws are responsible for every unnatural death of a woman in the first seven years of marriageprovided that harassment was proven. In such cases police procedures required that an officer of the rank of deputy superintendent or above investigate and that a team of two or more doctors perform the postmortem procedures however in practice police did not follow these procedures consistently. 
John Lancaster Women on the Rise in India Feel the Riptide of Tradition. Course on How to Be a Dutiful Housewife Has Strong Resonance Washington Post November . 
Every year more than Indian women are murdered by their husbands and inlaws sometimes doused with kerosene and burned to death in purported kitchen accidents for failing to yield to demands for bigger dowries according to national crime statistics. 
Tim Sullivan In prospering India dowry crimes take toll on daughtersinlaw AP Worldstream July .
What they tend not to mention is that they are accused and sometimes convicted of involvement in those tragedies alleged accomplices to a tradition of dowry that is growing ever more voracious. 
Televisions and fridges sometimes even cars this is what people ask for now said Jyoti Chaudhary an assistant superintendent who oversees the jails dowry wing a cocoon of seemingly gentle women in a prison holding some of Indias most violent criminals. 
Instead of earning these things people now want to snatch them from someone else Chaudhary said. 
It can be dangerous to be a daughterinlaw in India where marriage and money are tied together in ancient traditions. 
According to official figures about Indian women were killed in dowry cases last year a number that rights groups say is perhaps half the actual total. The decade that ended in a time when Indias economy leaped forward saw a percent rise in killings and a tripling in harassment complaints. 
The fact that dowry has been illegal since means little. The vast majority of Indian families from the urban elite to illiterate farmers still pay some form of dowry to seal their daughters wedding agreements. Created long ago to ensure that brides had wealth of their own the tradition has essentially become a fee paid by the brides family to the grooms. 
When trouble arises it can be horrific. Authorities talk of brides held down by sistersinlaw as husbands douse them in kerosene and set them alight locked in closets until they starve or beaten in front of their husbands families. 
There has been a sharp spike in the number of dowryrelated crimes in recent years closely paralleling a galloping Indian economy that has brought the trophies of middleclass life TVs and motorbikes and matching dining room sets tantalizingly close for hundreds of millions of people. 
For some families the call of advertisers is impossible to resist and demands for cash and gifts often continue long after the weddings. 
The economic changes are not making things better theyre making people more greedy said Ranjana Kumari director of the Center for Social Research a prominent womens organization. 
The growing consumerism is reflected in the increasingly crowded cells of Tihars dowry wing where about women are held. A few have been convicted but most are awaiting trials in Indias torturously slow judicial system a wait that can last many years. 
A conviction can draw a life sentence though mothersinlaw are more commonly accused as accessories and face terms that seldom go higher than eight years. 
By prison standards the dowry wing is fairly comfortable. Theres a grassy yard cable television ceiling fans to stir the stifling heat and large communal cells where the prisoners ladies to their jailers unroll sleeping mats every night. 
Behind the foot steel gates barred doors and concrete walls topped by guard towers its an enclave of gray hair middleclass dreams and the prisoners insist universal innocence. 
Not even one person here is guilty said Durga Sharma a fiftyish schoolteacher jailed after the death of her sons wife. These are people from good families. 
Sharma insists her daughterinlaw died of an unknown stomach ailment. The police says she was killed in a dowry dispute. 
The prisoners blame their fates on conniving inlaws corrupt policemen and investigations that often entail arresting entire households. The husbands and sons of most of these women were also imprisoned though many are out on bail leaving wives and daughters behind bars. 
I didnt commit any crime . no one in my family did said Shanti Devi a softspoken yearold housewife whose daughterinlaw depending on whom you believe either committed suicide or was pushed from a thfloor apartment. Who is said to have pushed her isnt clear. 
I never asked for dowry insisted Devi who said her daughterinlaw was mentally ill constantly screaming and pulling at her own hair. But if her family wanted to give us something as a gift we would happily accept it. 
In India the relationship between mothers and daughtersinlaw is often deeply complicated. Sons commonly remain at home with their parents and their wives are expected to move in too taking over many household chores. 
Its a situation rife with potential clashes and the relationship between mothers and daughtersinlaw has long been a staple of neighborhood gossip and Indian soap operas. 
Often the murders are disguised as suicides or kitchen injuries from burst kerosene stoves authorities say. Sometimes the crimes are actual suicides where authorities say husbands or inlaws drove the women to kill themselves. 
The grim statistics in part reflect increased awareness and more reporting of dowry crimes. More police units today are dedicated to protecting women and prosecutions of dowrydemanding families occur fairly regularly. By law women who die within seven years of marriage must be autopsied. 
For all that filing charges remains difficult for the vast majority of women requiring them to confront generations of tradition and often to find ways around lessthanhelpful authorities. 
For a few particularly in sections of the educated elite dowry payments have become symbolic. 
But for many marriage remains a hardfought negotiation and courtship is often replaced by husbandshopping. 
Lower down the economic ladder among the middleclass aspirants who fill Tihar the numbers have also changed. 
Where grooms families once asked for bicycles today theyll demand motorcycles or cars. Those who would have asked for furniture now submit long requests for electronic goods. 
But days after her marriage another new bride moved in down the street bringing a new motorbike for her inlaws. 
My husbands family saw the motorcycle and they told me I had to bring one for them she said. 
When Mamta refused her husband beat her and locked her in the house. When her brother paid the rupees her inlaws demanded a car. 
I feel nothing for my husband and he never had any feelings for me she said in an interview two weeks after running away her bruises only recently faded. 
But she still wants to go back. Shes hoping a shelter counselor can work out an arrangement with her husband and his family to guarantee her safety. 
Her alternatives she says are limited. Divorce would bring shame possible poverty and no guarantees. 
Amanda Hitchcock Rising number of dowry deaths in India World Socialist Web Site July .
These three chilling reports from the Times of India are typical of the many accounts of dowryrelated deaths that take place in the country every year. One cannot help but be struck by the offhand way in which a young womans life and death is summed up matter of factly without any undue cause for alarm or probing of the causes. It is much as one would report a traffic accident or the death of a cancer patienttragic certainly but such things are to be expected.
The character of the articles points to the fact that the harassment beating and in some cases murder of women over dowry is both common and commonly ignored or even tacitly condoned in official circlesby the police the courts politicians and media. These crimes are not isolated to particular groups social strata geographical regions or even religions. Moreover they appear to be on the rise.
According to an article in Time magazine deaths in India related to dowry demands have increase fold since the mids from a year to around a year by the middle of the s. Some commentators claim that the rising number simply indicates that more cases are being reported as a result of increased activity of womens organisations. Others however insist that the incidence of dowryrelated deaths has increased.
An accurate picture is difficult to obtain as statistics are varied and contradictory. In the National Crime Bureau of the Government of India reported about dowry deaths every year. A more recent police report stated that dowry deaths had risen by percent in the decade to . All of these official figures are considered to be gross understatements of the real situation. Unofficial estimates cited in a article by Himendra Thakur Are our sisters and daughters for sale put the number of deaths at women a year with many more left maimed and scarred as a result of attempts on their lives.
Some of the reasons for the underreporting are obvious. As in other countries women are reluctant to report threats and abuse to the police for fear of retaliation against themselves and their families. But in India there is an added disincentive. Any attempt to seek police involvement in disputes over dowry transactions may result in members of the womans own family being subject to criminal proceedings and potentially imprisoned. Moreover police action is unlikely to stop the demands for dowry payments.
The antidowry laws in India were enacted in but both parties to the dowrythe families of the husband and wifeare criminalised. The laws themselves have done nothing to halt dowry transactions and the violence that is often associated with them. Police and the courts are notorious for turning a blind eye to cases of violence against women and dowry associated deaths. It was not until that domestic violence became punishable by law.
Many of the victims are burnt to deaththey are doused in kerosene and set light to. Routinely the inlaws claim that what happened was simply an accident. The kerosene stoves used in many poorer households are dangerous. When evidence of foul play is too obvious to ignore the story changes to suicidethe wife it is said could not adjust to new family life and subsequently killed herself.
Research done in the late s by Vimochana a womens group in the southern city of Bangalore revealed that many deaths are quickly written off by police. The police record of interview with the dying womanoften taken with her husband and relatives presentis often the sole consideration in determining whether an investigation should proceed or not. As Vimochana was able to demonstrate what a victim will say in a state of shock and under threat from her husbands relatives will often change markedly in later interviews.
Young married women are particularly vulnerable. By custom they go to live in the house of their husbands family following the wedding. The marriage is frequently arranged often in response to advertisements in newspapers. Issues of status caste and religion may come into the decision but money is nevertheless central to the transactions between the families of the bride and groom.
The wife is often seen as a servant or if she works a source of income but has no special relationship with the members of her new household and therefore no base of support. Some percent of women are married before the legal age of . Illiteracy among women is high in some rural areas up to percent. As a result they are isolated and often in no position to assert themselves.
Demands for dowry can go on for years. Religious ceremonies and the birth of children often become the occasions for further requests for money or goods. The inability of the brides family to comply with these demands often leads to the daughterinlaw being treated as a pariah and subject to abuse. In the worst cases wives are simply killed to make way for a new financial transactionthat is another marriage.
A recent survey of Indian women conducted by Indias Health Ministry found that more than half of those interviewed considered violence to be a normal part of married lifethe most common cause being the failure to perform domestic duties up to the expectations of their husbands family.
The underlying causes for violence connected to dowry are undoubtedly complex. While the dowry has roots in traditional Indian society the reasons for prevalence of dowryassociated deaths have comparatively recent origins.
Traditionally a dowry entitled a woman to be a full member of the husbands family and allowed her to enter the marital home with her own wealth. It was seen as a substitute for inheritance offering some security to the wife. But under the pressures of cash economy introduced under British colonial rule the dowry like many of the structures of precapitalist India was profoundly transformed.
What Oldenburg explains about the impact of money relations on dowry is underscored by the fact that dowry did not wither away in India in the th century but took on new forms. Dowry and dowryrelated violence is not confined to rural areas or to the poor or even just to adherents of the Hindu religion. Under the impact of capitalism the old custom has been transformed into a vital source of income for families desperate to meet pressing social needs.
A number of studies have shown that the lower ranks of the middle class are particularly prone. According to the Institute of Development and Communication The quantum of dowry exchange may still be greater among the middle classes but percent of dowry death and percent of dowry harassment occurs in the middle and lower stratas. Statistics produced by Vimochana in Bangalore show that percent of the cases of dowry violence involve women from poorer families who are unable to meet dowry demands.
There is a definite market in India for brides and grooms. Newspapers are filled with pages of women seeking husbands and men advertising their eligibility and social prowess usually using their caste as a bargaining chip. A good marriage is often seen by the wifes family as a means to advance up the social ladder. But the catch is that there is a price to be paid in the form of a dowry. If for any reason that dowry arrangements cannot be met then it is the young woman who suffers.
One critic Annuppa Caleekal commented on the rising levels of dowry particularly during the last decade. The price of the Indian groom astronomically increased and was based on his qualifications profession and income. Doctors charted accountants and engineers even prior to graduation develop the divine right to expect a fat dowry as they become the most sought after cream of the graduating and educated dowry league.
The other side of the dowry equation is that daughters are inevitably regarded as an unwelcome burden compounding the already oppressed position of women in Indian society. There is a high incidence of genderbased abortionsalmost two million female babies a year. One article noted the particularly crass billboard advertisements in Bombay encouraging pregnant women to spend rupees on a gender test to save a potential rupees on dowry in the future. According to the UN Population Fund report for the year female infanticide has also increased dramatically over the past decade and infant mortality rates are percent higher for girl babies than boys.
Critics of the dowry system point to the fact that the situation has worsened in the s. As the Indian economy has been opened up for international investment the gulf between rich and poor widened and so did the economic uncertainty facing the majority of people including the relatively welloff. It was a recipe for sharp tensions that have led to the worsening of a number of social problems.
Domestic violence against women is certainly not isolated to India. The official rate of domestic violence is significantly lower than in the US for example where according to UN statistics a woman is battered somewhere in the country on average once every seconds. In all countries this violence is bound up with a mixture of cultural backwardness that relegates women to an inferior status combined with the tensions produced by the pressures growing economic uncertainty and want.
In India however where capitalism has fashioned out of the traditions of dowry a particularly naked nexus between marriage and money and where the stresses of everyday life are being heightened by widening social polarisation the violence takes correspondingly brutal and grotesque forms.
Surinder Awasthi Crime against women on the rise in Punjab Times of India January .
Dowry deaths have also increased from in to in an increase of about eight percent. Besides the cases of cruelty towards women by their husbands and family members have increased in the recent past and according to one estimate about cases of such cruelty were reported in alone.Only two cases of dowry death were reported in while the first case of dowry harassment was registered three decades ago in . 
Each year several thousand women are burned to death driven to suicide or otherwise killed and countless others are harassed beaten or deserted by husbands in the context of dowry disputes. Although dowry is illegal convictions in dowry deaths continued to be rare.
Dowry has always been part of marriage in India but the dramatic increase in dowrygiving in the postindependence period reflects the declining value of women in the Indian society. Though the giving and taking of dowry is a legal offense since the passage of a legislation in the custom has flourished invading lower castes and working class communities among whom this was not a practice.
Such requested products as videocassette recorders washing machines refrigerators and scooters reflect the higher dowry demands asked from the girls family. Sudha Tiwari of Shakti Shalini a womens shelter in Delhi blames the excessive demands by the boys family on the western influence of capitalist materialism and the promotion of mindless consumerism by the mass media.
The harassment of Dr. Shakuntala Arora started at the time of her wedding when the bridegroom insisted on a scooter as an item in the brides dowry. Shakuntalas parents had to comply with this demand or else the wedding would have been called off. When Shakuntala moved into her inlaws house she was asked to pay off wedding costs of rupees which she was forced to obtain from her parents. Any resistance on Shakuntalas part led to physical and emotional abuse. Shakuntala was allowed a meager pocket money from her salary as a lecturer for food and transport. At the birth of her first child she received no help from her husband. Her husband became increasingly more violent at her second delivery he kicked her in the stomach before taking her to the hospital. Only a few weeks after her cesarean section Shakuntala badly beaten and in tears with a small baby in her arms entered her mothers house to seek temporary respite from the tortures of her husband. She had no money to pay off the taxi. These were some of the economic physical and emotional tortures that turned Shakuntalas life into a nightmare. Two days before her death she was beaten up and forbidden to attend her brothers marriage ceremony because she had failed to get money from her widowed mother.
The term dowry and dowry deaths has become synonymous with wifebattering and domestic violence. It has become a key issue and rallying cry in practically all movements in which women are active. However we need to remember that dowry is only an excuse used by patriarchal families to continue to torture and kill women. The unfortunate consequence of using this term as a rallying cry is that it minimizes the regular abuse and killing of women. The result is that dowryrelated wife murders and suicides are criticized but other domestic violence may not be since it is thought that the wife could have been provoking the abuse.
Parvathi Menon Dowry Deaths in Bangalore Frontline August pp. .
Investigations by a womens group in Bangalore point to a high incidence of unnatural deaths among newly married women following dowryrelated incidents with the persons responsible for them largely being acquitted.
Hoardings put up by the traffic police at prominent places along Bangalores trafficcongested road exhort reckless drivers to go slow. Grim statistics loom over traffic snarls men and women died in traffic accidents in the city in in and until June . Reckless driving is truly a problem in Indias sixth largest metropolis and the seriousness with which it is being addressed is gratifying to the citizens of the city. 
There is however another category of deaths that occur on a daily basis in the city for which no such public recognition or concern is awarded. These figures far outnumber trafficrelated deaths or indeed any category of avoidable death. 
They are exclusively of women mainly young newly married women. In police records they are classified under three specific categories which invoke different sections of the law. They are dowry murders committed by the womans husband or members of his family for additional dowry or nonpayment of promised dowry suicides forced or voluntary but in most cases related to dowry demands and accidents a majority classed under stoveburst or kitchenaccident. Deaths under these three categories add up to an alarming figure. In Bangalore city women died in murders suicides and accidents in in and till mid July see Table . 
On an average therefore almost one hundred women have been dying violent deaths every month in the privacy of their homes. And these are the official figures. When persons died of plague by September in Surat the epicentre of the plague outbreak of that year the epidemic assumed the proportions of a national crisis. Yet public acknowledgement of the unnatural deaths of young women in Bangalore city is restricted to perfunctory twoline news items in the daily newspapers where they are reported as accidents or suicides over dowry harassment. Thereafter they drop from public consciousness into the anonymity of a police or court case. 
A dowry murder comes under a distinct class of violence. Motivated mainly by greed the crime is committed within the four walls of a home on an unsuspecting wife by her own husband or his family there are rarely any eyewitnesses who are prepared to give evidence against the murderers. The large number of these deaths is an indication that the law is not a sufficient deterrent for those who commit these crimes. Nor have these grotesquely violent murders sparked the kind of social outrage that could pressure the government and its lawenforcing machinery into acting swiftly and firmly in enforcing the law. The scale of this problem its causes and consequences have not been adequately acknowledged by the state and its agencies the media or the public at large. Such figures certainly impress upon us the need to relook at what we understand by the police classification of unnatural deaths says Donna Fernandes of Vimochana a womens Organisation which first uncovered the horrifying dimensions of the problem in Bangalore. Our investigations have proved that for large numbers of married women the right to live in safety and in a climate free from intimidation and violence is under great threat. Why is there this social unconcern when women are dying in such large numbers 
DOWRYRELATED violence against married women by the families they marry into is a phenomenon that is on the increase all over the country particularly in urban areas where such violence gets reported on. Womens groups have been engaging with this issue at various levels in different parts of the country. In the absence of comparable data from other cities it may be premature to conclude that the high incidence of unnatural deaths of young women in Bangalore is in some way a problem specific to this city. What has put Bangalore on the map of cities with a high incidence of dowryrelated atrocities against women is an exceptional researchcum socialintervention project by Vimochana. This study has for the first time quantified this problem and put it firmly in the public realm. Vimochanas sustained twoandhalfyear campaign on the issue of unnatural deaths of women resulted in the setting up on April of a Joint House Committee on Atrocities against women to investigate these deaths and make recommendations for their prevention. The Joint Committee which was chaired by BJP MLA Premila Nesargi presented its report on July . There are therefore two detailed public documents on the phenomenon of the high rate of unnatural deaths of women in Bangalore the Vimochana documentation and campaign material and the House Committee Report. There is also detailed monthwise statistics compiled and maintained by the State Crime Records Bureau which Vimochana has collated and analysed in its study. Together these provide a reliable database on the numbers of women dying the classification of their deaths by the police whether murder suicide accident the ways by which they die burning hanging poisoning and so on the reasons for the death the nature of the police investigation into each of these cases the reasons for the slow pace of judicial redress and the reasons why so many dowry death cases end in acquittal of the accused. Vimochanas database which it began compiling from early also includes a detailed register of the women who are admitted into the burns ward of the Victoria Hospital their ages marital status reasons for death and case details. .
Regarding unnatural deaths and stovebursts in the early phase of the study as it collated police statistics Vimochana noted a major anomaly between its figures and those of the police. 
It found that a large number of deaths were being classified in police records as accidents under UDR Unnatural Death Register. The category of dowry deaths in a technical sense only included those cases that had been booked by the police under the relevant sections of the law. The Accident cases that were closed for want of evidence however were largely due to stovebursts or kitchen accidents. On the basis of its followup investigations with the families of the victims of these cocalled accidents Vimochana camp up with some startling findings that changed the whole perception of this social problem the assumptions that underlay it its causes and the course that remedial action must take. Vimochana alleged that a large number of murders and suicides punishable under law were being made to look like accidents by the husband and members of his family. These cases were closed by the investigating police officers for want of hard evidence of a crime. When a professional eye looked at the whole category of unnatural deaths and not just dowry deaths the number of women dying in suspicious circumstances rose sharply. Vimochanas contention is that a large number of the cases simply escape detection and punishment in the prevailing social conditions. 
Since September two Vimochana volunteers have been posted permanently at the burns ward of the Victoria Hospital where most of the serious burns cases in the city are admitted. About seven cases are admitted on an average every day with the numbers going up to ten following certain traditional festivals when it is the practice for women to be sent to their natal homes with additional demands for dowry explained Donna Fernandes. The burnings usually take place past a.m. well past cooking time which itself throws the stoveburst theory into doubt. Women come with burns of O per cent and more and on their death leave behind babies and small children. 
There are several reasons why murders or forced suicides often get registered as a stoveburst. The first reaction of a woman who has been burnt by her husband or his family is to say it is a stove burst says Rudrappa Hanagavadi Special Executive Magistrate for Bangalore who is responsible for the conduct of inquests in cases relating to women who have died under suspicious circumstances. Her dying declaration which is supposed to be taken in private by the policeman in the presence of a doctor is invariably a public procedure and she is afraid to tell the truth. Members of the husbands family often threaten to harm her children and her natal family if she does not say she was injured in a cooking accident. Often relatives and friends of the victim are reluctant to raise doubts about the nature of the death as they fear harassment by the victims husband and his family. They also do not want to get involved in laborious police and legal proceedings. The police for their part do not try to penetrate this community resistance to look for evidence of what really could have happened. 
HERE are pressures on women to conceal the truth about what happened to them even when they know they are dying. This correspondent visited the Victoria Hospital burns ward on July . On that day five women were admitted. There was Shabrin Begum who had been married for one month and had been admitted with per cent burns Selvi married for two years and admitted with per cent burns Lalitha married for eight years and admitted with per cent burns Aniyamma with five children admitted with per cent burns and Rehana Taj from Kolar district unmarried and admitted with to per cent burns. 
Manjula smiles shyly from out of her marriage photographs. She was married in May when she was just to Vruthesh Prasad a mechanic in the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation. Her father gave her a dowry worth almost Rs. lakhs. Manjula used to complain to her mother and sister that she was being harassed by her husband his brother and other members of his family for more dowry but her family told her she must adjust and that they would try to meet the demand. On July more than a year after her marriage Manjula was dead. She was found in her brotherinlaws bathroom a pool of blood under her head and between her legs her upper torso and face burnt. Her husbands family said she had committed suicide there was a tin of turpentine and a box of matches lying near her but her own family filed a police complaint. A case has been booked against four persons under Section A and B of the IPC FIR Crime No. . 
I never imagined that he would be like this a shaken B.P. Krishnaswamy said of his soninlaw H. Narasimhamurthy a primary school teacher at Bapu Palika Mahila Prautha Salai in Yeshwantpur. Krishnaswamy trades in vegetables. His daughter B.K. Rojavathi a primary school teacher in Seshadripuram Primary School in Yelahanka narrowly escaped an attempt on her life by her husband. She was married in May her husband was given a dowry of Rs. in cash and another lakh of rupees worth of jewellery and household goods soon after the marriage Rojavathis husband and fatherinlaw demanded more dowry from her. On July her husband under the pretext of taking her to a temple took her instead to the isolated Soldevanahalli forest and tried to strangle her with a chain that she was wearing. When that was not successful he returned with a cane of kerosene from his scooter and poured it over her. A forest guard saw him just as he tried to light a flame. Narasimhamurthy fled the scene the police was informed and Rojavathi was quickly taken to hospital. Cases have been booked against her husband under Sections A and of the IPC FIR Crime No. files on July at the Nelamangala police station. He is absconding as is the rest of his family. Rojavathi the whites of her eyes suffused with blood owing to the effects of strangulation and her body bruised from the blows she sustained is slowly recovering from her injuries and shock. 
H.T. Indira a young wife and mother died in November her husbands family tried to pass it off as suicide by hanging. A chargesheet CC No. was filed within a month of her death under Sections A and B of the IPC it names four accused her husband P.Thyagaraj brothersinlaw P. Sivakumar and P. Krishnamurthy and motherinlaw Padmamma. Says Indiras sister Chandramma who has undertaken a out of the house with the child an s slept on the steps that night. She told a neighbour that she was leaving as she could bear it no longer. According to Chandrammal Inctras brother was to have brought her home but she died before that. This is not a suicide I know asserts Chandramma. My sister was forced to commit suicide. 
These three recent incidents share a certain pattern of social behaviour and individual response. The giving of dowry an act illegal in itself is not perceived by the victims families as socially condemnable or as having made the womans position vulnerable right from the day of the marriage. The husband and his family view her primarily as a moneysource and increase their pressure until it results in her death or suicide. What is also significant is the absence of support structures for the woman a counselling centre a shelter home concerned neighbourhoods which could prevent the worst from happening. She cannot even turn to her own family when in the throes of distress. 
Some broad generalisations have been made from the database now available on unnatural deaths of women. Its victims are generally young Vimochanas study in fact looks only at the death of married women between the ages of and and in a large number of cases the death occurs within the first two years of marriage. A large number of victims and perpetrators of the violence are from poor or lower middleclass back grounds although this is not an issue that affects poor women alone. In most cases the woman would have undergone mental and physical harassment prior to her death. Lastly a majority of dowry murders and suicides are by burning. Police figures made available to Frontline on suicide deaths alone show that more than per cent of suicides are committed by the woman setting herself on fire. In one of the several studies that Vimochana undertook it found for example that out of women who died in under unnatural circumstances died of burns. Significantly were between the ages of and . 
In per cent of the cases I deal with the women are from poor backgrounds Hanagavadi told Frontline. Migrants like construction workers and those who live in slums account for a large number of those involved in such cases. 
Vimochana and the House Committee concur on one point. The special laws that are in place to deal with atrocities against women are undermined at every stage of investigation at both the police and judicial levels. The House Committee made exhaustive recommendations covering every stage of the police investigation and judicial procedure the registration of the complaint when a death or injury under suspicious circumstances takes place the preparing of the First Information Report FIR the recording of a victims dying declaration the inquest proceedings the postmortem and forensic investigations the framing of the chargesheet and the judicial process after that. The Committee presented five draft bills to the House dealing with atrocities against women. One of these the Karnataka Prevention of Domestic Violence and Atrocities Against Women Bill deals specifically with the issue of marital violence and dowryrelated deaths. 
Deaths whether murders or suicides that are related to the relentless demand for dowry constitute a special category of crime. Given the cultural context tremendous social pressures operate upon the victim and her family pressures that seek to obscure truth and scuttle the investigation. In Bangalore there is a swell of resentment among the families of victims and activist groups against the police department for what is perceived as a lack of thoroughness and integrity in pursuing cases of unnatural deaths among women. The House Committee was severe in its criticism of police investigations and set out elaborate ecommendations on how the investigative mechanism could be sensitised streamlined and improved. 
There is only one institution in this society that is charged by law to intervene in a situation like this and that is the police says Revannasiddaiah. But you must understand this institution too is a product of this society. We have not been structured resourced motivated and kept in readiness to meet this requirement and we too proceed on the old track. But he adds that the old mindset of the police force is changing and that he is making a conscious effort to sensitise the force in its perceptions and investigative approach towards domestic violence against women. 
The Vanitha Sahaya Vani was set up seven months ago by the police department for women in distress to call in for help and counselling. While this was initially welcomed by womens activists it has come in for some criticsm as the success of this facility they say is now being measured in terms of the numbers of reconciled cases and not by the additonal number of offences detected. For a woman desparate enough to call the helpline advice to adjust to the unequal terms of her marriage closes one more door or escape route. 
Under Revannasiddaihs initiative the police department work with Vimochana and a group of concerned IAS officers to bring out a manual of guidelines for investigating offences against women. He has also constituted a new forum Parihar under the police department which he hopes will meet the needs of women in crisis in homes or at workplaces. 
The House Committee Report has drawn attention to the need for the police to register a complaint immediately after receiving information about grievous injuries sustained by a woman under suspicious circumstances. After they receive a complaint the police should go to the house and seal it off which they do not always do notes Hanagavadi. They tend to wait until the death of the woman by which time valuable evidentiary material slips out of their hands. The FIR must on the basis of initial investigations book a case under the relevant sections of the law. Who decides whether a death in suspicious circumstances is a murder or a suicide or caused by a cooking accident or a stoveburst asks Donna Fernandes. If done by an incompetent investigating officer a chance of a cursory investigation is very high. We believe from our investigations that the temptation to classify and reduce unnatural deaths as accidents and suicidal burns is high as it reduces workload and suits the purposes of reporting. Members of families of victims who testified before the House Committee had grievances relating to the FIRs and the carelessness with which they were made. It is mandatory for a Deputy Superintendent of Police DSP and in cities an Assistant Commissioner of Police to investigate all cases of attempted suicide and death under suspicious circumstances of young married women within the first five years of marriage. However according to Vimochana activists the police do not always follow this injunction. 
The recording of the statement of the victim which often becomes her dying declaration is a part of the investigative procedure but it often turns into a procedure for absolving the real perpetrator of the crime. It is quite common to find a burns victim giving more than one dying declaration. Meant to be recorded in privacy the dying declaration is often taken in the presence of the victims husband and his relatives. As mentioned earlier in the story when this correspondent visited the burns ward of Victoria Hospital there were three women who gave more than one dying declaration each. One of them Selvi gave three in the course of one afternoon. Such a case is unlikely to stand in court. The defendant lawyer will present it as conflicting evidence a Special Public Prosecutor in Bangalore told Frontline. 
A crucial part of the investigative process the inquest is to be conducted by an officer of the level of a magistrate. He must visit the spot of the death examine the body collect physical and verbal evidence and give a report that indicates the cause of death. Both Vimochana and the House Committee have recommended that the inquest be made an independent inquiry accountable to a higher review committee. The House Committee has also recommended that the magistrate hold a public hearing within a week of the womans death at which all evidence including the postmortem and forensic reports should be presented. The final report should be a public document. 
Because of the alarming increase in the incidence of dowryrelated deaths Assistant Commissioner were appointed to assist Tahsildars in conducting inquests explains Special Executive Magistrate Hanagavadi as we drive to Kengeri where he is to conduct an inquest in the case of a death by hanging that had been reported. It is a horrible job seeing the deaths of young women every day. As an Assistant Commissioner Hanagavadi has three other charges and is on the move the whole day. The post of Special Executive Magistrate SEM was created in March to look exclusively into unnatural deaths of women. A person is appointed to it for a year and this is extendable by another year. Bangalore has two SEMs. 
A large crowd had gathered outside the oneroom dwelling where Bhagyamma a young wife and mother had hanged herself from the ceiling her fourmonthold baby lay in a crib nearby. On examination of her body it was found that she had written her suicide note on her two legs obviously hoping that it would escape detectin until the police arrived. In it she squarely blamed her husband a grounds man at the stadium of the Sports Authority of India for her death. She could no longerbear his torture the suicide note said She asked that her child be taken care of by her mother after her death. Bhhdammas inquest report No. was sent on July to the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrates Court. 
Once a case enters the courts it often takes months for it to be heard and tried. In Bangalore there used to be only one Special Court to try cases of atrocities against women. By August there were pending cases in the court the highest pendency rate for a sessions court anywhere in the country a Special Public Prosecutor told Frontline. Three new courts were set up that month to clear the backlog of cases. The average time taken for case to be disposed of is six to seven years. 
There is a high rate of acquittals in cases of dowry murders or suicides. The same Special Public Prosecutor told Frontline that of the cases pending in his court at the end of resulted in acquittals and only in convictions. At the end of June out of cases pending resulted in acquittals and eight in convictions. 
What are the reasons for this Families of the victims ignorant of the law and its procedure get demoratised with the long wait before a case can be decided. In per cent of the cases witnesses turn hostile the Special Public Prosecutor told Frontline. Money plays a major role. Since most of the aggrieved families are poor they are willing to make outofcourt settlements. It is common to find that during the trial they will suddenly change their story and say that the victim had a health problem or that her death was an accident. In fact in eight of my cases the parents gave their second daughter in marriage to the same person after the case was filed The second reason according to him is the perfunctory police investigation that spoils the case right from the start. The halfhearted presentation of cases by the prosecutors who are burdened with to cases at any given point of time is yet another reason he cites for the high rate of acquittal. However the most important reason according to him is the liberal view taken by the judiciary in cases of dowry deaths. 
Why do dowry deaths occur PUCL People Union for Civil Liberties IndiaBulletin Sept. . 
Why do dowry deaths occur This was the central point of concern of a sociological study by Nalini Singh based on a survey of the marriages of young women aged years in each of which the wife died an unnatural death reportedly due to harassment over dowry. She suggested that it is primarily the societal perception of woman being less productive than man that define womans place in society. This manifests in what she calls Zeropolitical Status and denial of basic civil rights to them. She observes that dowry is a clear affirmation of the fact that ones gender determines ones worth or significance. Since worth is distributed unequally amongst the sexes at birth worthdeficiency amongst females can be offset by material additives that is dowry. The roots of this worth deficiency of women are so deeprooted that even the brides who earn more than their husbands are made to feel an obligation to supply dowry goods and services along after their marriage just as are the women who earn nothing.
The dowry deaths therefore she observes do not occur because there is a mismatch between gifts demanded by inlaws and presents received but because young married women customarily have no political significance in their new families. The continuous demand for dowry is but one of the ways in which the deficient political status is exploited. This deficiency is used to maltreat her in countless other ways too. Therefore she says the term dowrydeaths is a misnomer because dowry related harassment occurs as part of a larger mandate to oppress a human with zeropolitical status. Dowry is hardly ever the single cause of so called dowry deaths. In other words even if demands for dowry were to be satisfied fully young women would continue to face torture and harassment in their inlaws homes because of their customsanctionedinferiority that robs them of their basic human rights.
According to Nalini Singh from the earliest days of a marriage the inlaws ruin the life of a bride on the assumption that the young woman has surrendered her total being to them she bends over backwards to demonstrate that she has no political status and slips in the bottom of the authority structure while her parents reassure her that selfeffacement is virtuous in woman. If there is much agreement on womens mute compliance with predetermined norms then why are our daughters dying in marriage As revealed by Singhs survey the truth is that young women do not reconcile themselves to the complete absence of political significance in their affinal family. Yet they simulate absolute obedience because that is what their fraudulent upbringing recommends. This obedience is taken for the real things by those in authority over them. In pursuance of inlaws perception that the brides parents owe them an unlimited amount of dowry or Compensation they the inlaws establish a conduit for this flow through the bride. Stripped of a political locus stand she cannot oppose this demand on grounds of injustice and appears to exercise either one or both of the two optionsone she succumbs and procures the demanded goods from her parents after initially deflecting some of the hard edge of the demand by tolerating physical brutality herself and two she does not comply clothing her stand with the unsurrendered fragment of her persona. It is noteworthy she states that many women finally adopt the second alternative at great personal risk and high emotional cost and offer sustained resistance to demands for dowry.
This resistance proves extremely provocative to authoritarian family members of the husbands family not so much because of the monetary deprivation but because of its real potential for destabilizing the power structure which sanctions exploitative behaviour within the family. The young womans subdued noncooperation with the demand for extortion of dowry from her parents might not be the solitary issue on which she resists blind authority but there might be some other issues which expose her as opinionated as for instance the desire to work or study despite family opposition. All such actions are regarded as signals of disrespect and revolt. When a young woman who is a political amputee by tradition resists prestigious traditions such as dowry she is a logical candidate for retaliation by the inlaws. Dowry death are a manifest example of this retaliation by the flagbearers of patriarchial authority. In some cases the retaliatory wrath of the inlaws expresses itself in murders of the young women by burning with kerosene most frequent in urban areas or drowning common in rural areas. Other methods employed to murder include poisoning and physical battery. 
During the year the press reported on hundreds of incidents of violence against women and drew attention to the killings of married women by relatives over dowry or other familyrelated disputes. Most of the victims were burned to death allegedly in kitchenstove accidents some women reportedly were burned with acid. For example in December Mohammed Sajid was convicted of attacking and blinding his yearold fiance with acid in Punjab. The court sentenced Sajid to seven years in jail and ruled that Sajid be blinded by acid in a public setting. Police said the defendant was likely to appeal his conviction and sentence. During the year in Punjab burn cases were reported. Human rights monitors asserted that many cases were not reported by hospitals and that even when they were the police were reluctant to investigate or file charges. Furthermore human rights monitors agree that most stove deaths in fact are killings based upon a suspicion of an illicit sexual relationship or upon dowry demands. Increased media coverage of cases of wife burnings spousal abuse spousal killing and rape has helped to raise awareness about violence against women. 
The Ugandan practice of wedding dowries known as the bride price is to blame for much of the countrys domestic violence experts say. 
A grassroots womens organisation Mifumi has been leading the campaign in Uganda for the abolition of the practice where a man pays his future wifes family for her hand in marriage. 
Should the marriage end the wife is expected to refund the bride price often paid in livestock. But as women tend to have less wealth than their husbands many are trapped advocates say. 
Because women are paid for with the bride price it is like they are bought Dr Dan Kaye a gynaecologist and student of womens studies at Makerere University told BBC World Services Outlook programme. 
Dr Kaye explained that this meant they had no decisionmaking ability and no option to do anything to which their partner did not consent. 
For contraception for immunisation even going out of the home to seek aid if they have a medical problem they need permission he said. 
Mifumi director Atuki Turner said the groom was able to treat or mistreat his wife as he wanted because the bride price was a contract between him and his wifes father. 
If the woman is in an abusive relationship she cannot leave because she is bonded to that marriage she said. 
You need to live in a rural area with women to see them beaten hurt humiliated burnt and all in the name of the cow. Because when men fight and beat women in our villages they say I am beating my cow. That is what we are fighting against. 
Bride price is defended as a traditional practice in Uganda. Dr Sylvia Tamale of Makerere Universitys womens studies department said it was important to look at its historical context. 
We should realise that it wasnt always a commercial issue as it is today she stressed. 
But she acknowledged there was now a strong link between bride price and domestic violence. 
What you have is something completely different and yes I believe it contributes to womens violence it contributes to the bondage of women in very abusive relationships she said. 
Beatrice Appolot a regional councillor described her experience of surviving a horrific attack by her husband. 
On that night my husband beat me badly stabbed my body all over including my private parts she said. 
However she added that getting rid of bride price would not in itself end domestic violence in Uganda. 
African men especially Ugandan men have the mentality of being violent to their spouses she said. 
Meanwhile on the streets of Kampala not all are keen to see the end of bride price. 
Bride price is gesture of appreciation that I have taken your daughter said one man Paul Kabile. 
Therefore if you bring me a car I will always look at that car and think this is my daughter she is doing well elsewhere. 
The government officially banned dowry in with the Dowry Prohibition Act but this law proved ineffective The New York Times Dec. ILSA Journal of International Law Calman . In fact the practice is reported to be on the increase San Francisco Chronicle Mar. Dallas Morning News Mar. The New York Times Dec. . The director general of the Anthropological Survey of India K.S. Singh in his report on an eightyear study of Indian habits and customs indicates that per cent of the communities in the study believed in dowry giving India Today Apr. . While it was formerly the practice only among Brahmins dowry giving has spread to all castes as well as other religions FEER Oct. India Today Apr. Calman Kumari .
The pressure to provide a dowry is keenly felt by families. Female foeticide and infanticide are said to occur in part because families consider girl children to be poor investments WIN News Autumn a Calman . Whereas a boy is viewed as an asset a girl can have a devastating economic impact on a family since dowries can cost up to five years salary ibid. ILSA Journal of International Law . The pressure to provide a dowry is also felt by female children themselves. In Kanpur three sisters were reported to have committed suicide in order to spare their parents the humiliation of not being able to provide a dowry without which they could not get married IHDSF Feb. . One study indicates that increasing development and education do not seem to be eradicating the practice of dowry Kumari .
The Dowry Prohibition Act was amended in The Dowry Prohibition Amendment Act of was strongly criticized by womens groups and in the media. See Calman pp. for a critique. and . The amendments reverse the burden of proving that there was no demand for dowry to the person accused of taking or abetting the taking of dowry ILSA Journal of International Law Calman . They also increase the minimum penalty for acceptance of a dowry or for assisting in the negotiations for a dowry from a month to a year jail term and a fine of around US . San Francisco Chronicle Mar. . The law however is rarely enforced ibid..
Through their daughterinlaws dowry families can acquire material goods that may otherwise have been outside their means and they commonly demand more dowry after the wedding The New York Times Aug. . Brides often become victims of mental and physical abuse when they fail to meet these demands. In a large number of cases the abuse culminates in suicide or murder ibid. FEER Oct. The Irish Times May Kumari ILSA Journal of International Law . A widower can remarry and collect a second dowry Dallas Morning News Mar. Calman . 
The census indicates that approximately dowryrelated deaths including suicides were reported in eight states and the capital. The highest number were recorded in Uttar Pradesh followed by Maharashtra Andhra Pradesh Madhya Pradesh Bihar Rajasthan Karnataka and Punjab . New Delhi reported dowryrelated deaths for that year The Irish Times May Press Association May . Official estimates are believed to underreport the actual number of cases and numerous cases are dismissed as attempted suicides or accidental deaths ILHR Mar. Calman ILSA Journal of International Law . Many of the deaths are attributed to accidental burns caused by kerosene stove explosions or mysterious kitchen fires ibid. The New York Times Aug. Kumari Calman . Reportedly some to per cent of all burn cases in India are young newlymarried women ILSA ILHR Mar. . Although most of this type of violence occurs in urban areas dowry deaths are reported to be increasing in rural areas as well ibid. .
The amendments to the Dowry Prohibition Act also address dowry violence making dowryrelated murder a crime under the Indian penal code ibid. ILSA Journal of International Law and creating a presumption of guilt against a husband or his relatives in cases where a woman has died under questionable circumstances and where it is proven that she was subjected to harassment or cruelty in relation to demands for dowry ibid. Country Reports . The Criminal Law Second Amendment Act which defines cruelty and makes it an offence under the Indian penal code requires authorities to conduct a postmortem in the death or suicide of any woman married less than seven years Calman ILSA Journal of International Law . The legislation attempts to strengthen the prosecution of dowry deaths further by making the abetment of suicide an offence it also introduces an amendment to the Indian Evidence Act which raises a presumption of abetment against a husband or his relatives whose wife has committed suicide in cases where they were married less than seven years and where there is proof that he or his relatives subjected her to cruelty ibid. Calman .
A number of sources consider these laws a serious effort on the part of the government to bring an end to dowry deaths but all point to the lack of adequate enforcement as a major problem Kumari ILHR Mar. BCTWLJ ILSA Journal of International Law . The number of reported cases has increased significantly since when according to government statistics dowry deaths were registered ibid. ILHR Mar. Country Reports . Country Reports points out that approximately per cent of reported dowry deaths do not result in convictions Country Reports see also ILSA Journal of International Law . There have been a few exceptions. For example in March three family members were sentenced to death in a dowry case Country Reports . According to the South Asia Human Rights Documentation Centre SAHRDC a documentation network which investigates documents and disseminates information on human rights in the region and Country Reports of the arrests for dowry deaths between and only cases went to trial and only persons were convicted SAHRDC Feb. Country Reports . At the same time government reports indicated that the total number of dowry deaths in alone was estimated at up about percent from ibid.. In most cases it is difficult for the plaintiff to meet the burden of proof ILSA Journal of International Law . Acquittals have reportedly been obtained due to corrupt police and physicians who tamper with evidence Human Rights in Developing Countries Yearbook Country Reports .
Critics suggest that there is tacit acceptance of the dowry system by the largely maledominated establishment and accuse the police of deliberate inaction in dowry cases ILHR Mar. see also ILSA Journal of International Law Rhoodie . Country Reports states that . lawyers handling dowry cases complain that judges and prosecutors usually men are uninterested in cases of domestic violence and are susceptible to bribes Country Reports see also ILSA Journal of International Law .
The amendments to the Dowry Prohibition Act call for the appointment of regional dowry prohibition officers to investigate claims of dowry abuse Calman . Another attempt to address the issue has been made by the Delhi Administration Directorate of Social Welfare which set up a reconciliationcumguidance bureau and AntiDowry Cell to educate the public and to provide counselling and mediation services or legal assistance. The AntiDowry Cells are intended to provide a place for women who are victims of dowry violence to discuss their situation in private Kapur Aug. . The organization has however been described as ineffective complaints reportedly remain unattended for too long and counselling lacks privacy and professional continuity Kumari . According to Naina Kapur some people have criticized the AntiDowry Cells for merely espousing traditional family values and counselling women to return to their husbands. She states that there are often complaints that the officers involved do not believe the women who approach them and will not file the case in the appropriate police records Kapur Aug. . 
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An intense lobbying battle is being fought as the Indian government prepares to amend landmark legislation introduced nearly three decades ago to protect women who were being attacked harassed and even murdered for refusing to pay dowries.
Amid an increasingly vocal campaign by mens rights organisations who claim the law has been misused in order to extort money from husbands the government has asked its legal advisers to investigate and suggest options for reform.
Womens groups say the legislation is vital to protect countless numbers of brides against violent demands for dowries and must not be watered down. They claim that up to Indian women are killed every year because of the inability or refusal of their families to make such payments to the family of grooms.
The payment of dowries was banned in India in but remains commonplace and may be on the rise. In Section a of the Indian penal code was introduced to offer additional protection to women by ruling that any husband or member of his family convicted of cruelty or violence associated with attempting to force such payments should face up to three years in jail.
The culture war being fought in newspapers and between activists highlights subtle changes in Indian society and an increasing willingness among some women to report domestic abuse. Womens groups say the campaign by men to change the law is nothing more than a backlash from those opposed to female empowerment.
Mithun Kumar is typical of those who say the antidowry laws are being misused. The yearold from Bangalore employed in the IT industry had an arranged marriage in . He claims he discovered his wife was continuing to keep in touch with a previous boyfriend and wanted to maintain an affair with him. She said if I didnt go along with it I would go to jail he said. Mr Kumar said his wife and her family then filed a case against him with the police claiming he had demanded a dowry from them. He told the police he was innocent but was arrested anyway. He is fighting the case in court.
Rajesh Vakharia a selfemployed yearold from Nagpur claimed his wife and her family made similar allegations five years after their arranged marriage in . I was held for six days in the police station he said. She wanted to extort money from me. I would not pay and fought the case. Eventually I won but for fours years I was not able to see my son. What is happening in India is very sad. There is no protection for men.
The government appears to agree with the men. Law minister M Veerappa Moily recently referred the legislation to the countrys law commission which advises the government on legal reform. The commissions chairman PV Reddy a former supreme court judge said they would soon be publishing a consultative paper. There is misuse its been referred to in court judgments he said. There is misuse in regard to any law not just this one. But this is not an ordinary crime. Its about marital discord. Its a very sensitive issue.
Womens rights campaigners say any dilution of the act would be a big mistake. They argue that women face widespread sexual and physical abuse in India and say that if a law is being misused then the police and courts need to act more efficiently rather than change it. They also argue that the continued practice of dowry payments in the country and the attendant preference for male children has helped contribute to the widespread abortion of female fetuses. The problem is so prevalent that in some parts of India there is a marked gender imbalance. A census found that in Punjab for every boys there were only girls.
Among those urging the authorities to retain the law is Girender Singh from Delhi. His yearold daughter Anshu was found dead in January last year just days after she was married. Mr Singh said Anshus husbands family had repeatedly made demands for money and while he did not pay a formal dowry he handed over around . His daughters husband was arrested on a charge of murder and the case is before the courts.
Mr Singh declined to talk about Anshus case but instead forwarded a copy of a letter he had sent to the authorities in which he expressed his pain and agony and asked they not dilute the legislation. In truth is there any law to save girls and married women in India except a he wrote. A little fear of a might save the girls and women from heinous crimes which are on a rising trend in our great Indian society.
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Dowry murder is a brutal practice involving a woman being killed by her husband or inlaws because her family is unable to meet their demands for her dowry a payment made to a womans inlaws upon her engagement or marriage as a gift to her new family. It is not uncommon for dowries to exceed a familys annual income. 
While cultures throughout the world have dowries or analogous payments dowry murder occurs predominantly in South Asia. According to official crime statistics in India women were killed in as a result of such violence. Small community studies have also indicated that dowry demands have played an important role in women being burned to death and in deaths of women labelled as suicides . In Bangladesh there have been many incidents of acid attacks due to dowry disputes leading often to blindness disfigurement and death. In women and girls in Bangladesh were victims of acid attacks . 
Domestic violence was widespread. Although violence against women was difficult to quantify recent research showed that up to percent of all women were victims of domestic violence. Much of the reported violence against women was related to disputes over dowries. During the year there were reported dowryrelated killings. .
Laws specifically prohibit certain forms of discrimination against women provide for special procedures for persons accused of violence against women and children call for harsher penalties provide compensation to victims and require action against investigating officers for negligence or willful failure of duty however enforcement of these laws was weak. In parliament passed an amendment weakening provisions for dowry crimes.. 
Not only in the cities and towns but even in the villages of Bangladesh terror has come stalking. Now the weapon of fear is not only the gun but a can of petrol or kerosene and a matchbox. A woman on fire has made dowry deaths the most vicious of social crimes. It is an evil prevalent in the society and despite efforts by some activists and womens rights organisation to eliminate this menace the numbers have continued to climb. In villages marriage was once considered a very sanctified bond united in the worst or best of times in sickness or in health through the vicissitudes of life. But dowry related deaths have shattered that bond of peaceful and happy relationship. 
A recent survey by the Bangladesh Human Rights Organisation and Bangladesh Women Lawyers Association revealed that in there were cases of women repression in the figure rose to and in the year ending in the figure climbed to . 
The grisly act of a brute and greedy husband in Chapai Nawabganj as reported in the newspapers on December last is a story better not be heard. Having failed to realise a dowry claim of Tk. Shamsher killed her wife Marina just on the nd day of their marriage. The most grisly side of the story is that Shamsher hired three other monsters for Tk and Marina was slaughtered by Shamsher after she was forced to be gangraped by four human monsters including himself. 
Reports appearing in local dailies on September last indicated that one housewife at Dupchachia Upazila in the district of Bogra and the other at Jhalakathi Fatema and Sajeda respectively aged around years were killed by their inlaws in collusion with their husbands on their inability to meet increasing demands of dowry money. Its the brutality of these crimes that has awakened the country to the beast that runs loose in these greedy monsterturned husbands. Criminologists as well as Crime Assessment Wing of the government and some NGOs assert that crime rate among the youth especially such deviant young husbands has gone up by as much as percent. And though crime wave flows across all races classes and life styles the survey makes particular mention of the fact that there is a noticeable increase in the dowry related crimes by young husbands from middle class or upper middle class families. 
The country wide survey conducted by the Bangladesh Women Lawyers Association revealed that women repression incidents mostly dowry related has increased alarmingly over the last few years. 
Although many cases of dowry harassment cases were reported of late a staggering number of such cases were not. Despite all attempts to prevent it an epidemic appears to be in the making. It is a phenomenon that escapes easy answers due to complex mix of social trends. The sudden affluence of course of a section of people that emerged starting from rural areas to the cities in the midtolate s is the primary factor. The money as social scientists say was not channelised productively. Instead of using it to enhance womens education for instance it was used to perpetuate ostentatious living. With getrichquick becoming the new goal of life dowry became the perfect instrument for upward material mobility.
Growing consumerism flashy life styles and in most cases joblessness and drug addiction are fuelling these crimes. If once a bicycle a wrist watch or a small money for starting a business sufficed for the lower income groups now a TV home appliances and a motorbike or scooter other than cash money are the common demand. For the upper middle class and better educated grooms the demand is soaring. They look for a flat ownership a plot of land at Dhaka or a chunk of share in business. People are inclined to believe that the quantum of dowry may still be higher among the upper classes but percent of the dowry deaths and nearly percent of dowry harassments occur at the middle and lower strata.
It is hard to believe but harder still to comprehend. Some of these tales are so horrifying. Beauty Akhtar of Dhamrai Upazila was married to Muntaj Ahmed of Arpara village in Manikganj about two and a half years ago. Beautys father met his soninlaws dowry demand by paying three lakh taka. But Muntajs greed was insatiable. He started torturing her for more money and at one stage locked her in a room for three days without food. It so happened that on November last the entire family including husband fatherinlaw motherinlaw and other inlaws beat her with iron rod in a row. Somehow this incident of torture reached her father and he lodged an FIR Savar thana.
As reports go Beauty is recuperating at the Manikganj Hospital and her husband Muntaj Ahmed fatherinlaw Ashrafuddin Ahmed and brotherinlaw Ariful Hossain have since been arrested. Unhappily there are more stories of dowry harassment that ultimately lead to death than are reported in the newspapers. For women it is a difficult battle to win. They are handicapped by history victims of a firmly embedded gender system. 
Some recent dowry related harassments and tortures leading to deaths that have created ripples at home and abroad have prompted Prime Minister Khaleda Zia to issue an appeal to all heads of public and private universities and Education Boards to wage a war against dowry in the country. All findings indicate that dowry demands in the country have multiplied tenfold over the last one decade. Precisely speaking there is a sticky web of issues surrounding it. The much hyped luxury needs of the consumerist society is one. Most upper middle class families due to lack of proper education and culture have realised that this is an easy way to acquire wealth and live comfortably in the society. Unhappily there exists a toothless attitude in a majority of modern families who participate in dowry based marriages instead of opposing them. People talk glibly about dowry prohibition or antidowry movement but when it comes to the wedding of their own sons and daughters most people would do the same thing. P.M.s D.O. letter to heads of educational institutions will not create any tangible impact unless the political parties have made it mandatory for members to take an oath that they shall neither give nor receive dowry. Shockingly true down the years the lack of collective political will to curb dowry has become obvious. 
The sons of land owners in the Dhaka Metropolitan city owners of apartment blocks besides the grooms with MBA degrees and computer related degrees and diplomas are considered topnotch catches in the groom bazaar. The rich revel in the exchange of black money but the pressure on other classes to ape them has serious social consequences. In most cases affluent parents think that big dowries will strengthen their daughters position in the husbands family. But appallingly should the marriage go wrong there is no way that this fabulous gifts in the form of cash jewellery and property can be retrieved.
More intriguing in most cases girls do not have any knowledge or participation in the deal. Dowry is often a monetary deal between two men the brides father and the groom. Despite promulgation of Acid Control Act and Dowry Prohibition Act the numbers of dowry related atrocities and deaths are climbing up and it is true as the P.M. has indicated a big social movement is a must to stop giving and taking of money. The law may help take temporary punitive action but later women need real social financial moral and ideological support to stand firmly against an age old system that has almost got an unwritten societal sanction. Women face double peril. Inside the barred doors is humiliation outside awaits public ire. Harassed and tortured women are now going to court or police for protection. But even if appeals for protection are met only scorn greets them when they return home. Despite every stigma dowry continues to be the signature of marriage. The odd NGO groups or women activists or Women Lawyers Association may pursue one or two cases and rehabilitate some tortured women but appallingly by and large any major success or breakthrough is hardly possible because social intervention is low and ignorance high.
No doubt the laws remain stringent. But a dowry death is a relatively easier crime than murder to prosecute and so the crime continues. Due to several factors most go unreported. And in the court a majority of the victims belong to the under privileged classes and they have hardly any means to fight out the lengthy legal battles. While court appearances and seeking police protection in all these types of torture and violence by husbands appear to be a traumatic experience most women prefer to sweep their bitter experiences under the carpet. However the strength must come from the society and the government. Almost all agencies tend to exploit womens labour without supporting it maintaining it and enhancing it. In a bid to weed out this menace from the system that scenario must be changed.
In addition to the rise in domestic violence in previous years there have been a number of deaths of IndoFijian women that appeared to be bride burnings. Bride burning is an attack on a wife by members of the grooms family dissatisfied with dowry payments. These attacks are often staged as kitchen accidents or suicides and result in the fatal burning of a victim. Police investigations concluded that the victims had committed suicide burning themselves so severely as to cause death. However the womens rights community asserted that these deaths were bride burnings. There were no confirmed reports of such deaths during the year. 
In addition to the rise in domestic violence there have been approximately suicides by IndoFijian women that appeared to have been bride burning. Police investigations report that the women burned themselves so severely as to cause death but the womens rights community believes that the deaths are the result of bride burning. 
Rebecca Ruiz Indias AllWomen Police Pursue Dowry Complaints Womens eNews September .
India has established roughly allwomen police stations to help curb dowryrelated violence. One officer says the main benefit is establishing complaint records.
BANGALORE India WOMENSENEWSIn her three years working at the Basavangudi allwomen police station in Bangalore Constable Mylaaiah Rangajura has taken hundreds of statements of women with dowryrelated complaints. Some are freshly bruised others have been starved for days and some fear that their husbands or inlaws will burn or strangle them to death a tragically common end to a dowry dispute.
When a wifes husband and her inlaws are called in for lengthy interviews Rangajura listens as family members explain and often deny the accusations of abuse and harassment.
While dowry was once a gift from a brides family to a daughter often consisting of cash jewelry and fine clothing it has increasingly come to be seen as a payment to her husband and his family that reinforces or improves their financial and social standing. Abuse frequently begins when additional dowry demands are unmet. It is a form of emotional and physical blackmail that continues until the wifes family finally relents.
Rangajura takes notes as her supervisor tries to negotiate reconciliation the most common approach to solving dowry disputes. Sometimes there is no compromise she says referring to the more egregious cases that involve severe physical and mental abuse but you have to think about what both parties want.
Rangajura is part of Indias effort to address the problem of domestic violence particularly dowryrelated violence.
Though outlawed in dowry practices have continued to flourish regardless of religion caste educational background or whether marriages are arranged or love matches.
Dowryrelated violence increased more than threefold between and . Dowry deaths rose by percent during that same time period and since then about to women have been murdered each year.
In the National Crime Records Bureau recorded a dowry death every minutes. Still many argue that extremely low reporting and conviction rates mask the true number of dowry deaths which could reach as high as per year.
In the government of Tamil Nadu opened the first allfemale police station in Chennai largely in response to complaints that the social stigma of confessing ones family problems to a stranger and the possibility of being raped kept women away from maledominated stations.
Mangai Natarajan a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York has authored the most extensive studies on female police stations in Tamil Nadu. She says the stations give women a safer more comfortable place to report domestic violence. They dont want to talk about their personal relationships with a man Natarajan says. They think they wont get any justice.
In India adopted a federal domestic violence bill that offers victims statesponsored advocacy and aims to speed up the legal process by creating more courts and hiring additional judges.
India in addition to Brazil has pioneered the use of the allwomen police station. In India had units. Brazil which began opening the stations in the s now has more than . 
Part authority figure and part counselor the women who staff these stations are supposed to be trained to field complaints ranging from violence to neglect to infidelity to dowry harassment.
As leverage they often use the pressure of social embarrassment to remind an errant husband and his family that their behavior is unacceptable and in many cases illegal.
Families do have a great respect for police officers Natarajan says. Women will threaten their husbands with going to the police and its effective.
In the federal government created the National Commission for Women to ensure progress on issues such as female feticide poverty and sexual harassment. In the years that followed state commissions were mandated to address these problems at a local level.
Women who turn to branches of the womens commission often see it as a middle ground between reporting a dowry crime at the local police stationwhich can put women at odds with their familiesand seeking the help of an advocacy group that doesnt have the governments backing.
The emphasis on counseling and patching things up in the allwomen police stations has left some victims feeling betrayed says Ranjini Srikumar temporary chair of the Kerala State Commission for Women.
The women officers say Oh it doesnt matter my husband beats me too. Dont make such a big deal it happens to all of us Srikumar says adding that some women have told her they had better experiences at regular maledominated stations.
Though female officers do receive gender sensitivity and counseling training it often occurs infrequently and differs from station to station.
Shobana Khatavkhar investigated dowry cases at the Basavangudi womens police station in Bangalore from to and acknowledges that some officers can be callous and that training could be improved.
Of the or so dowry cases Khatavkhar examined she says only five resulted in a conviction. The main benefit of filing reports she says is that it creates a permanent police record.
When asked about dowry harassment they always deny it she says referring to the accused husbands and inlaws. But the station keeps the record and then they wont continue to harass because its on file.
When a husband is asked to appear in her office as part of the investigation Siddamma says she tries to restore the bond. When you took your husband or wife she says you took him or her to look after. I tell them that marriage is more important than dowry.
Gouramma Venkata Ramana is a staff member at Vimochana a Bangalore womens nonprofit organization that has scrutinized unnatural deaths for most of the last decade.
Through a translator she said that the police often fail women who come forward with complaints of abuse. The police are given training to see that while dealing with family matters they ought to make sure the family does not break up and instead comes to an understanding she says.
Of the unnatural death cases Ramana investigated last year she determined that at least of them were dowryrelated.
Rampant domestic violence she emphasizes is the underlying problem and a likely contributing factor to the other deaths. She believes reducing the level of domestic violence requires encouraging women to step forward and helping them once they do.
Education is important Ramana says. But we are also here to support the women when no one else will listen or help.
.As reported by the BBC on July dowries and the problems associated with them have meant that many Indian families are desperate to avoid having girls. Legislation against sex determination tests was passed nearly a decade ago but the practice is still widespread. The Prenatal Diagnostics Techniques Regulation and Prevention of Misuse Act amended bans sex determination tests. bb
The media often reported cases of dowry murder. On August yearold Charanpreet Kaur was set on fire and killed by her fatherinlaw because her parents could not meet her inlaws everincreasing demands for dowry. Kaur made a statement to police before she died and her husband and inlaws were arrested. At years end all accused were in New Delhis central jail awaiting formal murder charges. USSD c Section 
As reported by the BBC news service on June if convicted prison sentences can stretch to years. l
.As noted in a BBC news article dated July this type of murder is often referred to as bride burning in India. Payment and acceptance of a dowry has been illegal in India for years but is still widely practised. Dowry Prohibition Act amended in and bans paying and receiving dowries. bb As reported by the BBC on July in Nisha Sharma a prospective bride from Noida just outside Delhi had her groom arrested after he demanded a dowry. The groom and his mother were arrested under the rarely enforced AntiDowry Act. Both were awaiting trial. bb According to a BBC news item dated October Nisha Sharma became an instant celebrity as politicians and nongovernment organisations honoured her for her boldness in calling the police. cb According to the US State Department report in the case of Nisha Sharma the potential groom was detained for days while formal charges were filed for violating the countrys laws against dowries. The case received considerable publicity and the story has been included in the school curriculum in Delhi to teach children the problems of the dowry system. c Section 
.As reported in a BBC news article dated September The new English textbook for the sixth standard age to in schools run by the government of the Indian capital Delhi includes a chapter on Nisha Sharma. The State Council of Education Research and Training who prepared the book stated that the story was included to draw childrens attention to social problems. Nisha Sharma became a role model after calling off her wedding because her fiance asked her parents for more dowry money. fj
.As noted in a BBC news article dated September a triple suicide attempt was made by three sisters afraid any dowry demands for their potential marriage would financially cripple their father. The sisters were from a village in Calcutta. The three drank pesticides whereupon the youngest died and her two sisters survived but were in hospital. One of the sisters said that her mother had a brain disease and her father had struggled for months to get sufficient money together for dowries. In their suicide note the girls said they wanted to save the family from continuing struggles for dowry money which had led to bitter arguments. The father denied the situation was that bad but admitted that on occasion marriages have broken down because he could not find a dowry. He said the dowry system while technically illegal is a way of life If you have a daughter you have to give a dowry if you have a son you will receive one when you are married. It is the way of our society. The article further states that although the dowry system is officially illegal in India it is common outside the main cities. A doctor at the hospital where the girls were admitted stated that a survey was carried out some months earlier whereby it was found that people attempted suicide in that area every month. He said that extreme poverty was the principle cause of suicides linked to dowries. gb
The Home Ministry reported that in New Delhi during there were reported dowry deaths..
According to press reports the rate of acquittal in dowry death cases was high and due to court backlogs they took an average of six to seven years to conclude. .
Providing or taking a dowry is illegal under the Dowry Prohibition Act of however dowries continued to be offered and accepted and dowry disputes remained a serious problem. In a typical dowry dispute the grooms family harassed a new wife for not providing a sufficient dowry. This harassment sometimes ended in the womans death which the family often tried to portray as a suicide or accident. In the government registered dowry death cases under the Dowry Prohibition Act in which husbands or inlaws murdered women for not providing sufficient dowry. 
In September the Delhi Commission for Women reported cases of abuse against women from January to July of which percent were dowry related and percent a result of harassment by inlaws. In Delhi polices crime against women cell recorded dowryrelated cases. Of these police counseled families to a compromise filed criminal charges in another cases and in five thousand cases the victim did not pursue the matter. In there were dowryrelated deaths in Delhi. In March the West Tripura sessions court sentenced three persons to five years rigorous imprisonment for abetting the suicide of a woman by torturing her for dowry in . 
The Tamil Nadu government reported an increase in cases filed under the Dowry Prohibition Act from in to cases in . In the government won convictions in cases of dowry harassment including involving murder. Lawyers confirmed that wifebattering cut across all religions caste and educational levels. Convictions potentially took several years. For example during the year the Chennai high court convicted two accused persons of a dowry death case initially filed in . 
Usually at a disadvantage in dowry disputes women have begun to speak out against dowry demands. In February a woman from Bhiwani Haryana refused to join her husband after her marriage ceremony because of a dowry demand by her inlaws. The local panchayat stood by the womans decision. 
The media often reported cases of dowry murder. On August yearold Charanpreet Kaur was set on fire and killed by her fatherinlaw because her parents could not meet her inlaws everincreasing demands for dowry. Kaur made a statement to police before she died and her husband and inlaws were arrested. At years end all accused were in New Delhis central jail awaiting formal murder charges. 
Under the law courts must presume that the husband or the wifes inlaws are responsible for every unnatural death of a woman in the first seven years of marriageprovided that harassment was proven. In such cases police procedures required that an officer of the rank of deputy superintendent or above investigate and that a team of two or more doctors perform the postmortem procedures however in practice police did not follow these procedures consistently. 
John Lancaster Women on the Rise in India Feel the Riptide of Tradition. Course on How to Be a Dutiful Housewife Has Strong Resonance Washington Post November . 
Every year more than Indian women are murdered by their husbands and inlaws sometimes doused with kerosene and burned to death in purported kitchen accidents for failing to yield to demands for bigger dowries according to national crime statistics. 
Tim Sullivan In prospering India dowry crimes take toll on daughtersinlaw AP Worldstream July .
What they tend not to mention is that they are accused and sometimes convicted of involvement in those tragedies alleged accomplices to a tradition of dowry that is growing ever more voracious. 
Televisions and fridges sometimes even cars this is what people ask for now said Jyoti Chaudhary an assistant superintendent who oversees the jails dowry wing a cocoon of seemingly gentle women in a prison holding some of Indias most violent criminals. 
Instead of earning these things people now want to snatch them from someone else Chaudhary said. 
It can be dangerous to be a daughterinlaw in India where marriage and money are tied together in ancient traditions. 
According to official figures about Indian women were killed in dowry cases last year a number that rights groups say is perhaps half the actual total. The decade that ended in a time when Indias economy leaped forward saw a percent rise in killings and a tripling in harassment complaints. 
The fact that dowry has been illegal since means little. The vast majority of Indian families from the urban elite to illiterate farmers still pay some form of dowry to seal their daughters wedding agreements. Created long ago to ensure that brides had wealth of their own the tradition has essentially become a fee paid by the brides family to the grooms. 
When trouble arises it can be horrific. Authorities talk of brides held down by sistersinlaw as husbands douse them in kerosene and set them alight locked in closets until they starve or beaten in front of their husbands families. 
There has been a sharp spike in the number of dowryrelated crimes in recent years closely paralleling a galloping Indian economy that has brought the trophies of middleclass life TVs and motorbikes and matching dining room sets tantalizingly close for hundreds of millions of people. 
For some families the call of advertisers is impossible to resist and demands for cash and gifts often continue long after the weddings. 
The economic changes are not making things better theyre making people more greedy said Ranjana Kumari director of the Center for Social Research a prominent womens organization. 
The growing consumerism is reflected in the increasingly crowded cells of Tihars dowry wing where about women are held. A few have been convicted but most are awaiting trials in Indias torturously slow judicial system a wait that can last many years. 
A conviction can draw a life sentence though mothersinlaw are more commonly accused as accessories and face terms that seldom go higher than eight years. 
By prison standards the dowry wing is fairly comfortable. Theres a grassy yard cable television ceiling fans to stir the stifling heat and large communal cells where the prisoners ladies to their jailers unroll sleeping mats every night. 
Behind the foot steel gates barred doors and concrete walls topped by guard towers its an enclave of gray hair middleclass dreams and the prisoners insist universal innocence. 
Not even one person here is guilty said Durga Sharma a fiftyish schoolteacher jailed after the death of her sons wife. These are people from good families. 
Sharma insists her daughterinlaw died of an unknown stomach ailment. The police says she was killed in a dowry dispute. 
The prisoners blame their fates on conniving inlaws corrupt policemen and investigations that often entail arresting entire households. The husbands and sons of most of these women were also imprisoned though many are out on bail leaving wives and daughters behind bars. 
I didnt commit any crime . no one in my family did said Shanti Devi a softspoken yearold housewife whose daughterinlaw depending on whom you believe either committed suicide or was pushed from a thfloor apartment. Who is said to have pushed her isnt clear. 
I never asked for dowry insisted Devi who said her daughterinlaw was mentally ill constantly screaming and pulling at her own hair. But if her family wanted to give us something as a gift we would happily accept it. 
In India the relationship between mothers and daughtersinlaw is often deeply complicated. Sons commonly remain at home with their parents and their wives are expected to move in too taking over many household chores. 
Its a situation rife with potential clashes and the relationship between mothers and daughtersinlaw has long been a staple of neighborhood gossip and Indian soap operas. 
Often the murders are disguised as suicides or kitchen injuries from burst kerosene stoves authorities say. Sometimes the crimes are actual suicides where authorities say husbands or inlaws drove the women to kill themselves. 
The grim statistics in part reflect increased awareness and more reporting of dowry crimes. More police units today are dedicated to protecting women and prosecutions of dowrydemanding families occur fairly regularly. By law women who die within seven years of marriage must be autopsied. 
For all that filing charges remains difficult for the vast majority of women requiring them to confront generations of tradition and often to find ways around lessthanhelpful authorities. 
For a few particularly in sections of the educated elite dowry payments have become symbolic. 
But for many marriage remains a hardfought negotiation and courtship is often replaced by husbandshopping. 
Lower down the economic ladder among the middleclass aspirants who fill Tihar the numbers have also changed. 
Where grooms families once asked for bicycles today theyll demand motorcycles or cars. Those who would have asked for furniture now submit long requests for electronic goods. 
But days after her marriage another new bride moved in down the street bringing a new motorbike for her inlaws. 
My husbands family saw the motorcycle and they told me I had to bring one for them she said. 
When Mamta refused her husband beat her and locked her in the house. When her brother paid the rupees her inlaws demanded a car. 
I feel nothing for my husband and he never had any feelings for me she said in an interview two weeks after running away her bruises only recently faded. 
But she still wants to go back. Shes hoping a shelter counselor can work out an arrangement with her husband and his family to guarantee her safety. 
Her alternatives she says are limited. Divorce would bring shame possible poverty and no guarantees. 
Amanda Hitchcock Rising number of dowry deaths in India World Socialist Web Site July .
These three chilling reports from the Times of India are typical of the many accounts of dowryrelated deaths that take place in the country every year. One cannot help but be struck by the offhand way in which a young womans life and death is summed up matter of factly without any undue cause for alarm or probing of the causes. It is much as one would report a traffic accident or the death of a cancer patienttragic certainly but such things are to be expected.
The character of the articles points to the fact that the harassment beating and in some cases murder of women over dowry is both common and commonly ignored or even tacitly condoned in official circlesby the police the courts politicians and media. These crimes are not isolated to particular groups social strata geographical regions or even religions. Moreover they appear to be on the rise.
According to an article in Time magazine deaths in India related to dowry demands have increase fold since the mids from a year to around a year by the middle of the s. Some commentators claim that the rising number simply indicates that more cases are being reported as a result of increased activity of womens organisations. Others however insist that the incidence of dowryrelated deaths has increased.
An accurate picture is difficult to obtain as statistics are varied and contradictory. In the National Crime Bureau of the Government of India reported about dowry deaths every year. A more recent police report stated that dowry deaths had risen by percent in the decade to . All of these official figures are considered to be gross understatements of the real situation. Unofficial estimates cited in a article by Himendra Thakur Are our sisters and daughters for sale put the number of deaths at women a year with many more left maimed and scarred as a result of attempts on their lives.
Some of the reasons for the underreporting are obvious. As in other countries women are reluctant to report threats and abuse to the police for fear of retaliation against themselves and their families. But in India there is an added disincentive. Any attempt to seek police involvement in disputes over dowry transactions may result in members of the womans own family being subject to criminal proceedings and potentially imprisoned. Moreover police action is unlikely to stop the demands for dowry payments.
The antidowry laws in India were enacted in but both parties to the dowrythe families of the husband and wifeare criminalised. The laws themselves have done nothing to halt dowry transactions and the violence that is often associated with them. Police and the courts are notorious for turning a blind eye to cases of violence against women and dowry associated deaths. It was not until that domestic violence became punishable by law.
Many of the victims are burnt to deaththey are doused in kerosene and set light to. Routinely the inlaws claim that what happened was simply an accident. The kerosene stoves used in many poorer households are dangerous. When evidence of foul play is too obvious to ignore the story changes to suicidethe wife it is said could not adjust to new family life and subsequently killed herself.
Research done in the late s by Vimochana a womens group in the southern city of Bangalore revealed that many deaths are quickly written off by police. The police record of interview with the dying womanoften taken with her husband and relatives presentis often the sole consideration in determining whether an investigation should proceed or not. As Vimochana was able to demonstrate what a victim will say in a state of shock and under threat from her husbands relatives will often change markedly in later interviews.
Young married women are particularly vulnerable. By custom they go to live in the house of their husbands family following the wedding. The marriage is frequently arranged often in response to advertisements in newspapers. Issues of status caste and religion may come into the decision but money is nevertheless central to the transactions between the families of the bride and groom.
The wife is often seen as a servant or if she works a source of income but has no special relationship with the members of her new household and therefore no base of support. Some percent of women are married before the legal age of . Illiteracy among women is high in some rural areas up to percent. As a result they are isolated and often in no position to assert themselves.
Demands for dowry can go on for years. Religious ceremonies and the birth of children often become the occasions for further requests for money or goods. The inability of the brides family to comply with these demands often leads to the daughterinlaw being treated as a pariah and subject to abuse. In the worst cases wives are simply killed to make way for a new financial transactionthat is another marriage.
A recent survey of Indian women conducted by Indias Health Ministry found that more than half of those interviewed considered violence to be a normal part of married lifethe most common cause being the failure to perform domestic duties up to the expectations of their husbands family.
The underlying causes for violence connected to dowry are undoubtedly complex. While the dowry has roots in traditional Indian society the reasons for prevalence of dowryassociated deaths have comparatively recent origins.
Traditionally a dowry entitled a woman to be a full member of the husbands family and allowed her to enter the marital home with her own wealth. It was seen as a substitute for inheritance offering some security to the wife. But under the pressures of cash economy introduced under British colonial rule the dowry like many of the structures of precapitalist India was profoundly transformed.
What Oldenburg explains about the impact of money relations on dowry is underscored by the fact that dowry did not wither away in India in the th century but took on new forms. Dowry and dowryrelated violence is not confined to rural areas or to the poor or even just to adherents of the Hindu religion. Under the impact of capitalism the old custom has been transformed into a vital source of income for families desperate to meet pressing social needs.
A number of studies have shown that the lower ranks of the middle class are particularly prone. According to the Institute of Development and Communication The quantum of dowry exchange may still be greater among the middle classes but percent of dowry death and percent of dowry harassment occurs in the middle and lower stratas. Statistics produced by Vimochana in Bangalore show that percent of the cases of dowry violence involve women from poorer families who are unable to meet dowry demands.
There is a definite market in India for brides and grooms. Newspapers are filled with pages of women seeking husbands and men advertising their eligibility and social prowess usually using their caste as a bargaining chip. A good marriage is often seen by the wifes family as a means to advance up the social ladder. But the catch is that there is a price to be paid in the form of a dowry. If for any reason that dowry arrangements cannot be met then it is the young woman who suffers.
One critic Annuppa Caleekal commented on the rising levels of dowry particularly during the last decade. The price of the Indian groom astronomically increased and was based on his qualifications profession and income. Doctors charted accountants and engineers even prior to graduation develop the divine right to expect a fat dowry as they become the most sought after cream of the graduating and educated dowry league.
The other side of the dowry equation is that daughters are inevitably regarded as an unwelcome burden compounding the already oppressed position of women in Indian society. There is a high incidence of genderbased abortionsalmost two million female babies a year. One article noted the particularly crass billboard advertisements in Bombay encouraging pregnant women to spend rupees on a gender test to save a potential rupees on dowry in the future. According to the UN Population Fund report for the year female infanticide has also increased dramatically over the past decade and infant mortality rates are percent higher for girl babies than boys.
Critics of the dowry system point to the fact that the situation has worsened in the s. As the Indian economy has been opened up for international investment the gulf between rich and poor widened and so did the economic uncertainty facing the majority of people including the relatively welloff. It was a recipe for sharp tensions that have led to the worsening of a number of social problems.
Domestic violence against women is certainly not isolated to India. The official rate of domestic violence is significantly lower than in the US for example where according to UN statistics a woman is battered somewhere in the country on average once every seconds. In all countries this violence is bound up with a mixture of cultural backwardness that relegates women to an inferior status combined with the tensions produced by the pressures growing economic uncertainty and want.
In India however where capitalism has fashioned out of the traditions of dowry a particularly naked nexus between marriage and money and where the stresses of everyday life are being heightened by widening social polarisation the violence takes correspondingly brutal and grotesque forms.
Surinder Awasthi Crime against women on the rise in Punjab Times of India January .
Dowry deaths have also increased from in to in an increase of about eight percent. Besides the cases of cruelty towards women by their husbands and family members have increased in the recent past and according to one estimate about cases of such cruelty were reported in alone.Only two cases of dowry death were reported in while the first case of dowry harassment was registered three decades ago in . 
Each year several thousand women are burned to death driven to suicide or otherwise killed and countless others are harassed beaten or deserted by husbands in the context of dowry disputes. Although dowry is illegal convictions in dowry deaths continued to be rare.
Dowry has always been part of marriage in India but the dramatic increase in dowrygiving in the postindependence period reflects the declining value of women in the Indian society. Though the giving and taking of dowry is a legal offense since the passage of a legislation in the custom has flourished invading lower castes and working class communities among whom this was not a practice.
Such requested products as videocassette recorders washing machines refrigerators and scooters reflect the higher dowry demands asked from the girls family. Sudha Tiwari of Shakti Shalini a womens shelter in Delhi blames the excessive demands by the boys family on the western influence of capitalist materialism and the promotion of mindless consumerism by the mass media.
The harassment of Dr. Shakuntala Arora started at the time of her wedding when the bridegroom insisted on a scooter as an item in the brides dowry. Shakuntalas parents had to comply with this demand or else the wedding would have been called off. When Shakuntala moved into her inlaws house she was asked to pay off wedding costs of rupees which she was forced to obtain from her parents. Any resistance on Shakuntalas part led to physical and emotional abuse. Shakuntala was allowed a meager pocket money from her salary as a lecturer for food and transport. At the birth of her first child she received no help from her husband. Her husband became increasingly more violent at her second delivery he kicked her in the stomach before taking her to the hospital. Only a few weeks after her cesarean section Shakuntala badly beaten and in tears with a small baby in her arms entered her mothers house to seek temporary respite from the tortures of her husband. She had no money to pay off the taxi. These were some of the economic physical and emotional tortures that turned Shakuntalas life into a nightmare. Two days before her death she was beaten up and forbidden to attend her brothers marriage ceremony because she had failed to get money from her widowed mother.
The term dowry and dowry deaths has become synonymous with wifebattering and domestic violence. It has become a key issue and rallying cry in practically all movements in which women are active. However we need to remember that dowry is only an excuse used by patriarchal families to continue to torture and kill women. The unfortunate consequence of using this term as a rallying cry is that it minimizes the regular abuse and killing of women. The result is that dowryrelated wife murders and suicides are criticized but other domestic violence may not be since it is thought that the wife could have been provoking the abuse.
Parvathi Menon Dowry Deaths in Bangalore Frontline August pp. .
Investigations by a womens group in Bangalore point to a high incidence of unnatural deaths among newly married women following dowryrelated incidents with the persons responsible for them largely being acquitted.
Hoardings put up by the traffic police at prominent places along Bangalores trafficcongested road exhort reckless drivers to go slow. Grim statistics loom over traffic snarls men and women died in traffic accidents in the city in in and until June . Reckless driving is truly a problem in Indias sixth largest metropolis and the seriousness with which it is being addressed is gratifying to the citizens of the city. 
There is however another category of deaths that occur on a daily basis in the city for which no such public recognition or concern is awarded. These figures far outnumber trafficrelated deaths or indeed any category of avoidable death. 
They are exclusively of women mainly young newly married women. In police records they are classified under three specific categories which invoke different sections of the law. They are dowry murders committed by the womans husband or members of his family for additional dowry or nonpayment of promised dowry suicides forced or voluntary but in most cases related to dowry demands and accidents a majority classed under stoveburst or kitchenaccident. Deaths under these three categories add up to an alarming figure. In Bangalore city women died in murders suicides and accidents in in and till mid July see Table . 
On an average therefore almost one hundred women have been dying violent deaths every month in the privacy of their homes. And these are the official figures. When persons died of plague by September in Surat the epicentre of the plague outbreak of that year the epidemic assumed the proportions of a national crisis. Yet public acknowledgement of the unnatural deaths of young women in Bangalore city is restricted to perfunctory twoline news items in the daily newspapers where they are reported as accidents or suicides over dowry harassment. Thereafter they drop from public consciousness into the anonymity of a police or court case. 
A dowry murder comes under a distinct class of violence. Motivated mainly by greed the crime is committed within the four walls of a home on an unsuspecting wife by her own husband or his family there are rarely any eyewitnesses who are prepared to give evidence against the murderers. The large number of these deaths is an indication that the law is not a sufficient deterrent for those who commit these crimes. Nor have these grotesquely violent murders sparked the kind of social outrage that could pressure the government and its lawenforcing machinery into acting swiftly and firmly in enforcing the law. The scale of this problem its causes and consequences have not been adequately acknowledged by the state and its agencies the media or the public at large. Such figures certainly impress upon us the need to relook at what we understand by the police classification of unnatural deaths says Donna Fernandes of Vimochana a womens Organisation which first uncovered the horrifying dimensions of the problem in Bangalore. Our investigations have proved that for large numbers of married women the right to live in safety and in a climate free from intimidation and violence is under great threat. Why is there this social unconcern when women are dying in such large numbers 
DOWRYRELATED violence against married women by the families they marry into is a phenomenon that is on the increase all over the country particularly in urban areas where such violence gets reported on. Womens groups have been engaging with this issue at various levels in different parts of the country. In the absence of comparable data from other cities it may be premature to conclude that the high incidence of unnatural deaths of young women in Bangalore is in some way a problem specific to this city. What has put Bangalore on the map of cities with a high incidence of dowryrelated atrocities against women is an exceptional researchcum socialintervention project by Vimochana. This study has for the first time quantified this problem and put it firmly in the public realm. Vimochanas sustained twoandhalfyear campaign on the issue of unnatural deaths of women resulted in the setting up on April of a Joint House Committee on Atrocities against women to investigate these deaths and make recommendations for their prevention. The Joint Committee which was chaired by BJP MLA Premila Nesargi presented its report on July . There are therefore two detailed public documents on the phenomenon of the high rate of unnatural deaths of women in Bangalore the Vimochana documentation and campaign material and the House Committee Report. There is also detailed monthwise statistics compiled and maintained by the State Crime Records Bureau which Vimochana has collated and analysed in its study. Together these provide a reliable database on the numbers of women dying the classification of their deaths by the police whether murder suicide accident the ways by which they die burning hanging poisoning and so on the reasons for the death the nature of the police investigation into each of these cases the reasons for the slow pace of judicial redress and the reasons why so many dowry death cases end in acquittal of the accused. Vimochanas database which it began compiling from early also includes a detailed register of the women who are admitted into the burns ward of the Victoria Hospital their ages marital status reasons for death and case details. .
Regarding unnatural deaths and stovebursts in the early phase of the study as it collated police statistics Vimochana noted a major anomaly between its figures and those of the police. 
It found that a large number of deaths were being classified in police records as accidents under UDR Unnatural Death Register. The category of dowry deaths in a technical sense only included those cases that had been booked by the police under the relevant sections of the law. The Accident cases that were closed for want of evidence however were largely due to stovebursts or kitchen accidents. On the basis of its followup investigations with the families of the victims of these cocalled accidents Vimochana camp up with some startling findings that changed the whole perception of this social problem the assumptions that underlay it its causes and the course that remedial action must take. Vimochana alleged that a large number of murders and suicides punishable under law were being made to look like accidents by the husband and members of his family. These cases were closed by the investigating police officers for want of hard evidence of a crime. When a professional eye looked at the whole category of unnatural deaths and not just dowry deaths the number of women dying in suspicious circumstances rose sharply. Vimochanas contention is that a large number of the cases simply escape detection and punishment in the prevailing social conditions. 
Since September two Vimochana volunteers have been posted permanently at the burns ward of the Victoria Hospital where most of the serious burns cases in the city are admitted. About seven cases are admitted on an average every day with the numbers going up to ten following certain traditional festivals when it is the practice for women to be sent to their natal homes with additional demands for dowry explained Donna Fernandes. The burnings usually take place past a.m. well past cooking time which itself throws the stoveburst theory into doubt. Women come with burns of O per cent and more and on their death leave behind babies and small children. 
There are several reasons why murders or forced suicides often get registered as a stoveburst. The first reaction of a woman who has been burnt by her husband or his family is to say it is a stove burst says Rudrappa Hanagavadi Special Executive Magistrate for Bangalore who is responsible for the conduct of inquests in cases relating to women who have died under suspicious circumstances. Her dying declaration which is supposed to be taken in private by the policeman in the presence of a doctor is invariably a public procedure and she is afraid to tell the truth. Members of the husbands family often threaten to harm her children and her natal family if she does not say she was injured in a cooking accident. Often relatives and friends of the victim are reluctant to raise doubts about the nature of the death as they fear harassment by the victims husband and his family. They also do not want to get involved in laborious police and legal proceedings. The police for their part do not try to penetrate this community resistance to look for evidence of what really could have happened. 
HERE are pressures on women to conceal the truth about what happened to them even when they know they are dying. This correspondent visited the Victoria Hospital burns ward on July . On that day five women were admitted. There was Shabrin Begum who had been married for one month and had been admitted with per cent burns Selvi married for two years and admitted with per cent burns Lalitha married for eight years and admitted with per cent burns Aniyamma with five children admitted with per cent burns and Rehana Taj from Kolar district unmarried and admitted with to per cent burns. 
Manjula smiles shyly from out of her marriage photographs. She was married in May when she was just to Vruthesh Prasad a mechanic in the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation. Her father gave her a dowry worth almost Rs. lakhs. Manjula used to complain to her mother and sister that she was being harassed by her husband his brother and other members of his family for more dowry but her family told her she must adjust and that they would try to meet the demand. On July more than a year after her marriage Manjula was dead. She was found in her brotherinlaws bathroom a pool of blood under her head and between her legs her upper torso and face burnt. Her husbands family said she had committed suicide there was a tin of turpentine and a box of matches lying near her but her own family filed a police complaint. A case has been booked against four persons under Section A and B of the IPC FIR Crime No. . 
I never imagined that he would be like this a shaken B.P. Krishnaswamy said of his soninlaw H. Narasimhamurthy a primary school teacher at Bapu Palika Mahila Prautha Salai in Yeshwantpur. Krishnaswamy trades in vegetables. His daughter B.K. Rojavathi a primary school teacher in Seshadripuram Primary School in Yelahanka narrowly escaped an attempt on her life by her husband. She was married in May her husband was given a dowry of Rs. in cash and another lakh of rupees worth of jewellery and household goods soon after the marriage Rojavathis husband and fatherinlaw demanded more dowry from her. On July her husband under the pretext of taking her to a temple took her instead to the isolated Soldevanahalli forest and tried to strangle her with a chain that she was wearing. When that was not successful he returned with a cane of kerosene from his scooter and poured it over her. A forest guard saw him just as he tried to light a flame. Narasimhamurthy fled the scene the police was informed and Rojavathi was quickly taken to hospital. Cases have been booked against her husband under Sections A and of the IPC FIR Crime No. files on July at the Nelamangala police station. He is absconding as is the rest of his family. Rojavathi the whites of her eyes suffused with blood owing to the effects of strangulation and her body bruised from the blows she sustained is slowly recovering from her injuries and shock. 
H.T. Indira a young wife and mother died in November her husbands family tried to pass it off as suicide by hanging. A chargesheet CC No. was filed within a month of her death under Sections A and B of the IPC it names four accused her husband P.Thyagaraj brothersinlaw P. Sivakumar and P. Krishnamurthy and motherinlaw Padmamma. Says Indiras sister Chandramma who has undertaken a out of the house with the child an s slept on the steps that night. She told a neighbour that she was leaving as she could bear it no longer. According to Chandrammal Inctras brother was to have brought her home but she died before that. This is not a suicide I know asserts Chandramma. My sister was forced to commit suicide. 
These three recent incidents share a certain pattern of social behaviour and individual response. The giving of dowry an act illegal in itself is not perceived by the victims families as socially condemnable or as having made the womans position vulnerable right from the day of the marriage. The husband and his family view her primarily as a moneysource and increase their pressure until it results in her death or suicide. What is also significant is the absence of support structures for the woman a counselling centre a shelter home concerned neighbourhoods which could prevent the worst from happening. She cannot even turn to her own family when in the throes of distress. 
Some broad generalisations have been made from the database now available on unnatural deaths of women. Its victims are generally young Vimochanas study in fact looks only at the death of married women between the ages of and and in a large number of cases the death occurs within the first two years of marriage. A large number of victims and perpetrators of the violence are from poor or lower middleclass back grounds although this is not an issue that affects poor women alone. In most cases the woman would have undergone mental and physical harassment prior to her death. Lastly a majority of dowry murders and suicides are by burning. Police figures made available to Frontline on suicide deaths alone show that more than per cent of suicides are committed by the woman setting herself on fire. In one of the several studies that Vimochana undertook it found for example that out of women who died in under unnatural circumstances died of burns. Significantly were between the ages of and . 
In per cent of the cases I deal with the women are from poor backgrounds Hanagavadi told Frontline. Migrants like construction workers and those who live in slums account for a large number of those involved in such cases. 
Vimochana and the House Committee concur on one point. The special laws that are in place to deal with atrocities against women are undermined at every stage of investigation at both the police and judicial levels. The House Committee made exhaustive recommendations covering every stage of the police investigation and judicial procedure the registration of the complaint when a death or injury under suspicious circumstances takes place the preparing of the First Information Report FIR the recording of a victims dying declaration the inquest proceedings the postmortem and forensic investigations the framing of the chargesheet and the judicial process after that. The Committee presented five draft bills to the House dealing with atrocities against women. One of these the Karnataka Prevention of Domestic Violence and Atrocities Against Women Bill deals specifically with the issue of marital violence and dowryrelated deaths. 
Deaths whether murders or suicides that are related to the relentless demand for dowry constitute a special category of crime. Given the cultural context tremendous social pressures operate upon the victim and her family pressures that seek to obscure truth and scuttle the investigation. In Bangalore there is a swell of resentment among the families of victims and activist groups against the police department for what is perceived as a lack of thoroughness and integrity in pursuing cases of unnatural deaths among women. The House Committee was severe in its criticism of police investigations and set out elaborate ecommendations on how the investigative mechanism could be sensitised streamlined and improved. 
There is only one institution in this society that is charged by law to intervene in a situation like this and that is the police says Revannasiddaiah. But you must understand this institution too is a product of this society. We have not been structured resourced motivated and kept in readiness to meet this requirement and we too proceed on the old track. But he adds that the old mindset of the police force is changing and that he is making a conscious effort to sensitise the force in its perceptions and investigative approach towards domestic violence against women. 
The Vanitha Sahaya Vani was set up seven months ago by the police department for women in distress to call in for help and counselling. While this was initially welcomed by womens activists it has come in for some criticsm as the success of this facility they say is now being measured in terms of the numbers of reconciled cases and not by the additonal number of offences detected. For a woman desparate enough to call the helpline advice to adjust to the unequal terms of her marriage closes one more door or escape route. 
Under Revannasiddaihs initiative the police department work with Vimochana and a group of concerned IAS officers to bring out a manual of guidelines for investigating offences against women. He has also constituted a new forum Parihar under the police department which he hopes will meet the needs of women in crisis in homes or at workplaces. 
The House Committee Report has drawn attention to the need for the police to register a complaint immediately after receiving information about grievous injuries sustained by a woman under suspicious circumstances. After they receive a complaint the police should go to the house and seal it off which they do not always do notes Hanagavadi. They tend to wait until the death of the woman by which time valuable evidentiary material slips out of their hands. The FIR must on the basis of initial investigations book a case under the relevant sections of the law. Who decides whether a death in suspicious circumstances is a murder or a suicide or caused by a cooking accident or a stoveburst asks Donna Fernandes. If done by an incompetent investigating officer a chance of a cursory investigation is very high. We believe from our investigations that the temptation to classify and reduce unnatural deaths as accidents and suicidal burns is high as it reduces workload and suits the purposes of reporting. Members of families of victims who testified before the House Committee had grievances relating to the FIRs and the carelessness with which they were made. It is mandatory for a Deputy Superintendent of Police DSP and in cities an Assistant Commissioner of Police to investigate all cases of attempted suicide and death under suspicious circumstances of young married women within the first five years of marriage. However according to Vimochana activists the police do not always follow this injunction. 
The recording of the statement of the victim which often becomes her dying declaration is a part of the investigative procedure but it often turns into a procedure for absolving the real perpetrator of the crime. It is quite common to find a burns victim giving more than one dying declaration. Meant to be recorded in privacy the dying declaration is often taken in the presence of the victims husband and his relatives. As mentioned earlier in the story when this correspondent visited the burns ward of Victoria Hospital there were three women who gave more than one dying declaration each. One of them Selvi gave three in the course of one afternoon. Such a case is unlikely to stand in court. The defendant lawyer will present it as conflicting evidence a Special Public Prosecutor in Bangalore told Frontline. 
A crucial part of the investigative process the inquest is to be conducted by an officer of the level of a magistrate. He must visit the spot of the death examine the body collect physical and verbal evidence and give a report that indicates the cause of death. Both Vimochana and the House Committee have recommended that the inquest be made an independent inquiry accountable to a higher review committee. The House Committee has also recommended that the magistrate hold a public hearing within a week of the womans death at which all evidence including the postmortem and forensic reports should be presented. The final report should be a public document. 
Because of the alarming increase in the incidence of dowryrelated deaths Assistant Commissioner were appointed to assist Tahsildars in conducting inquests explains Special Executive Magistrate Hanagavadi as we drive to Kengeri where he is to conduct an inquest in the case of a death by hanging that had been reported. It is a horrible job seeing the deaths of young women every day. As an Assistant Commissioner Hanagavadi has three other charges and is on the move the whole day. The post of Special Executive Magistrate SEM was created in March to look exclusively into unnatural deaths of women. A person is appointed to it for a year and this is extendable by another year. Bangalore has two SEMs. 
A large crowd had gathered outside the oneroom dwelling where Bhagyamma a young wife and mother had hanged herself from the ceiling her fourmonthold baby lay in a crib nearby. On examination of her body it was found that she had written her suicide note on her two legs obviously hoping that it would escape detectin until the police arrived. In it she squarely blamed her husband a grounds man at the stadium of the Sports Authority of India for her death. She could no longerbear his torture the suicide note said She asked that her child be taken care of by her mother after her death. Bhhdammas inquest report No. was sent on July to the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrates Court. 
Once a case enters the courts it often takes months for it to be heard and tried. In Bangalore there used to be only one Special Court to try cases of atrocities against women. By August there were pending cases in the court the highest pendency rate for a sessions court anywhere in the country a Special Public Prosecutor told Frontline. Three new courts were set up that month to clear the backlog of cases. The average time taken for case to be disposed of is six to seven years. 
There is a high rate of acquittals in cases of dowry murders or suicides. The same Special Public Prosecutor told Frontline that of the cases pending in his court at the end of resulted in acquittals and only in convictions. At the end of June out of cases pending resulted in acquittals and eight in convictions. 
What are the reasons for this Families of the victims ignorant of the law and its procedure get demoratised with the long wait before a case can be decided. In per cent of the cases witnesses turn hostile the Special Public Prosecutor told Frontline. Money plays a major role. Since most of the aggrieved families are poor they are willing to make outofcourt settlements. It is common to find that during the trial they will suddenly change their story and say that the victim had a health problem or that her death was an accident. In fact in eight of my cases the parents gave their second daughter in marriage to the same person after the case was filed The second reason according to him is the perfunctory police investigation that spoils the case right from the start. The halfhearted presentation of cases by the prosecutors who are burdened with to cases at any given point of time is yet another reason he cites for the high rate of acquittal. However the most important reason according to him is the liberal view taken by the judiciary in cases of dowry deaths. 
Why do dowry deaths occur PUCL People Union for Civil Liberties IndiaBulletin Sept. . 
Why do dowry deaths occur This was the central point of concern of a sociological study by Nalini Singh based on a survey of the marriages of young women aged years in each of which the wife died an unnatural death reportedly due to harassment over dowry. She suggested that it is primarily the societal perception of woman being less productive than man that define womans place in society. This manifests in what she calls Zeropolitical Status and denial of basic civil rights to them. She observes that dowry is a clear affirmation of the fact that ones gender determines ones worth or significance. Since worth is distributed unequally amongst the sexes at birth worthdeficiency amongst females can be offset by material additives that is dowry. The roots of this worth deficiency of women are so deeprooted that even the brides who earn more than their husbands are made to feel an obligation to supply dowry goods and services along after their marriage just as are the women who earn nothing.
The dowry deaths therefore she observes do not occur because there is a mismatch between gifts demanded by inlaws and presents received but because young married women customarily have no political significance in their new families. The continuous demand for dowry is but one of the ways in which the deficient political status is exploited. This deficiency is used to maltreat her in countless other ways too. Therefore she says the term dowrydeaths is a misnomer because dowry related harassment occurs as part of a larger mandate to oppress a human with zeropolitical status. Dowry is hardly ever the single cause of so called dowry deaths. In other words even if demands for dowry were to be satisfied fully young women would continue to face torture and harassment in their inlaws homes because of their customsanctionedinferiority that robs them of their basic human rights.
According to Nalini Singh from the earliest days of a marriage the inlaws ruin the life of a bride on the assumption that the young woman has surrendered her total being to them she bends over backwards to demonstrate that she has no political status and slips in the bottom of the authority structure while her parents reassure her that selfeffacement is virtuous in woman. If there is much agreement on womens mute compliance with predetermined norms then why are our daughters dying in marriage As revealed by Singhs survey the truth is that young women do not reconcile themselves to the complete absence of political significance in their affinal family. Yet they simulate absolute obedience because that is what their fraudulent upbringing recommends. This obedience is taken for the real things by those in authority over them. In pursuance of inlaws perception that the brides parents owe them an unlimited amount of dowry or Compensation they the inlaws establish a conduit for this flow through the bride. Stripped of a political locus stand she cannot oppose this demand on grounds of injustice and appears to exercise either one or both of the two optionsone she succumbs and procures the demanded goods from her parents after initially deflecting some of the hard edge of the demand by tolerating physical brutality herself and two she does not comply clothing her stand with the unsurrendered fragment of her persona. It is noteworthy she states that many women finally adopt the second alternative at great personal risk and high emotional cost and offer sustained resistance to demands for dowry.
This resistance proves extremely provocative to authoritarian family members of the husbands family not so much because of the monetary deprivation but because of its real potential for destabilizing the power structure which sanctions exploitative behaviour within the family. The young womans subdued noncooperation with the demand for extortion of dowry from her parents might not be the solitary issue on which she resists blind authority but there might be some other issues which expose her as opinionated as for instance the desire to work or study despite family opposition. All such actions are regarded as signals of disrespect and revolt. When a young woman who is a political amputee by tradition resists prestigious traditions such as dowry she is a logical candidate for retaliation by the inlaws. Dowry death are a manifest example of this retaliation by the flagbearers of patriarchial authority. In some cases the retaliatory wrath of the inlaws expresses itself in murders of the young women by burning with kerosene most frequent in urban areas or drowning common in rural areas. Other methods employed to murder include poisoning and physical battery. 
During the year the press reported on hundreds of incidents of violence against women and drew attention to the killings of married women by relatives over dowry or other familyrelated disputes. Most of the victims were burned to death allegedly in kitchenstove accidents some women reportedly were burned with acid. For example in December Mohammed Sajid was convicted of attacking and blinding his yearold fiance with acid in Punjab. The court sentenced Sajid to seven years in jail and ruled that Sajid be blinded by acid in a public setting. Police said the defendant was likely to appeal his conviction and sentence. During the year in Punjab burn cases were reported. Human rights monitors asserted that many cases were not reported by hospitals and that even when they were the police were reluctant to investigate or file charges. Furthermore human rights monitors agree that most stove deaths in fact are killings based upon a suspicion of an illicit sexual relationship or upon dowry demands. Increased media coverage of cases of wife burnings spousal abuse spousal killing and rape has helped to raise awareness about violence against women. 
The Ugandan practice of wedding dowries known as the bride price is to blame for much of the countrys domestic violence experts say. 
A grassroots womens organisation Mifumi has been leading the campaign in Uganda for the abolition of the practice where a man pays his future wifes family for her hand in marriage. 
Should the marriage end the wife is expected to refund the bride price often paid in livestock. But as women tend to have less wealth than their husbands many are trapped advocates say. 
Because women are paid for with the bride price it is like they are bought Dr Dan Kaye a gynaecologist and student of womens studies at Makerere University told BBC World Services Outlook programme. 
Dr Kaye explained that this meant they had no decisionmaking ability and no option to do anything to which their partner did not consent. 
For contraception for immunisation even going out of the home to seek aid if they have a medical problem they need permission he said. 
Mifumi director Atuki Turner said the groom was able to treat or mistreat his wife as he wanted because the bride price was a contract between him and his wifes father. 
If the woman is in an abusive relationship she cannot leave because she is bonded to that marriage she said. 
You need to live in a rural area with women to see them beaten hurt humiliated burnt and all in the name of the cow. Because when men fight and beat women in our villages they say I am beating my cow. That is what we are fighting against. 
Bride price is defended as a traditional practice in Uganda. Dr Sylvia Tamale of Makerere Universitys womens studies department said it was important to look at its historical context. 
We should realise that it wasnt always a commercial issue as it is today she stressed. 
But she acknowledged there was now a strong link between bride price and domestic violence. 
What you have is something completely different and yes I believe it contributes to womens violence it contributes to the bondage of women in very abusive relationships she said. 
Beatrice Appolot a regional councillor described her experience of surviving a horrific attack by her husband. 
On that night my husband beat me badly stabbed my body all over including my private parts she said. 
However she added that getting rid of bride price would not in itself end domestic violence in Uganda. 
African men especially Ugandan men have the mentality of being violent to their spouses she said. 
Meanwhile on the streets of Kampala not all are keen to see the end of bride price. 
Bride price is gesture of appreciation that I have taken your daughter said one man Paul Kabile. 
Therefore if you bring me a car I will always look at that car and think this is my daughter she is doing well elsewhere. 
The government officially banned dowry in with the Dowry Prohibition Act but this law proved ineffective The New York Times Dec. ILSA Journal of International Law Calman . In fact the practice is reported to be on the increase San Francisco Chronicle Mar. Dallas Morning News Mar. The New York Times Dec. . The director general of the Anthropological Survey of India K.S. Singh in his report on an eightyear study of Indian habits and customs indicates that per cent of the communities in the study believed in dowry giving India Today Apr. . While it was formerly the practice only among Brahmins dowry giving has spread to all castes as well as other religions FEER Oct. India Today Apr. Calman Kumari .
The pressure to provide a dowry is keenly felt by families. Female foeticide and infanticide are said to occur in part because families consider girl children to be poor investments WIN News Autumn a Calman . Whereas a boy is viewed as an asset a girl can have a devastating economic impact on a family since dowries can cost up to five years salary ibid. ILSA Journal of International Law . The pressure to provide a dowry is also felt by female children themselves. In Kanpur three sisters were reported to have committed suicide in order to spare their parents the humiliation of not being able to provide a dowry without which they could not get married IHDSF Feb. . One study indicates that increasing development and education do not seem to be eradicating the practice of dowry Kumari .
The Dowry Prohibition Act was amended in The Dowry Prohibition Amendment Act of was strongly criticized by womens groups and in the media. See Calman pp. for a critique. and . The amendments reverse the burden of proving that there was no demand for dowry to the person accused of taking or abetting the taking of dowry ILSA Journal of International Law Calman . They also increase the minimum penalty for acceptance of a dowry or for assisting in the negotiations for a dowry from a month to a year jail term and a fine of around US . San Francisco Chronicle Mar. . The law however is rarely enforced ibid..
Through their daughterinlaws dowry families can acquire material goods that may otherwise have been outside their means and they commonly demand more dowry after the wedding The New York Times Aug. . Brides often become victims of mental and physical abuse when they fail to meet these demands. In a large number of cases the abuse culminates in suicide or murder ibid. FEER Oct. The Irish Times May Kumari ILSA Journal of International Law . A widower can remarry and collect a second dowry Dallas Morning News Mar. Calman . 
The census indicates that approximately dowryrelated deaths including suicides were reported in eight states and the capital. The highest number were recorded in Uttar Pradesh followed by Maharashtra Andhra Pradesh Madhya Pradesh Bihar Rajasthan Karnataka and Punjab . New Delhi reported dowryrelated deaths for that year The Irish Times May Press Association May . Official estimates are believed to underreport the actual number of cases and numerous cases are dismissed as attempted suicides or accidental deaths ILHR Mar. Calman ILSA Journal of International Law . Many of the deaths are attributed to accidental burns caused by kerosene stove explosions or mysterious kitchen fires ibid. The New York Times Aug. Kumari Calman . Reportedly some to per cent of all burn cases in India are young newlymarried women ILSA ILHR Mar. . Although most of this type of violence occurs in urban areas dowry deaths are reported to be increasing in rural areas as well ibid. .
The amendments to the Dowry Prohibition Act also address dowry violence making dowryrelated murder a crime under the Indian penal code ibid. ILSA Journal of International Law and creating a presumption of guilt against a husband or his relatives in cases where a woman has died under questionable circumstances and where it is proven that she was subjected to harassment or cruelty in relation to demands for dowry ibid. Country Reports . The Criminal Law Second Amendment Act which defines cruelty and makes it an offence under the Indian penal code requires authorities to conduct a postmortem in the death or suicide of any woman married less than seven years Calman ILSA Journal of International Law . The legislation attempts to strengthen the prosecution of dowry deaths further by making the abetment of suicide an offence it also introduces an amendment to the Indian Evidence Act which raises a presumption of abetment against a husband or his relatives whose wife has committed suicide in cases where they were married less than seven years and where there is proof that he or his relatives subjected her to cruelty ibid. Calman .
A number of sources consider these laws a serious effort on the part of the government to bring an end to dowry deaths but all point to the lack of adequate enforcement as a major problem Kumari ILHR Mar. BCTWLJ ILSA Journal of International Law . The number of reported cases has increased significantly since when according to government statistics dowry deaths were registered ibid. ILHR Mar. Country Reports . Country Reports points out that approximately per cent of reported dowry deaths do not result in convictions Country Reports see also ILSA Journal of International Law . There have been a few exceptions. For example in March three family members were sentenced to death in a dowry case Country Reports . According to the South Asia Human Rights Documentation Centre SAHRDC a documentation network which investigates documents and disseminates information on human rights in the region and Country Reports of the arrests for dowry deaths between and only cases went to trial and only persons were convicted SAHRDC Feb. Country Reports . At the same time government reports indicated that the total number of dowry deaths in alone was estimated at up about percent from ibid.. In most cases it is difficult for the plaintiff to meet the burden of proof ILSA Journal of International Law . Acquittals have reportedly been obtained due to corrupt police and physicians who tamper with evidence Human Rights in Developing Countries Yearbook Country Reports .
Critics suggest that there is tacit acceptance of the dowry system by the largely maledominated establishment and accuse the police of deliberate inaction in dowry cases ILHR Mar. see also ILSA Journal of International Law Rhoodie . Country Reports states that . lawyers handling dowry cases complain that judges and prosecutors usually men are uninterested in cases of domestic violence and are susceptible to bribes Country Reports see also ILSA Journal of International Law .
The amendments to the Dowry Prohibition Act call for the appointment of regional dowry prohibition officers to investigate claims of dowry abuse Calman . Another attempt to address the issue has been made by the Delhi Administration Directorate of Social Welfare which set up a reconciliationcumguidance bureau and AntiDowry Cell to educate the public and to provide counselling and mediation services or legal assistance. The AntiDowry Cells are intended to provide a place for women who are victims of dowry violence to discuss their situation in private Kapur Aug. . The organization has however been described as ineffective complaints reportedly remain unattended for too long and counselling lacks privacy and professional continuity Kumari . According to Naina Kapur some people have criticized the AntiDowry Cells for merely espousing traditional family values and counselling women to return to their husbands. She states that there are often complaints that the officers involved do not believe the women who approach them and will not file the case in the appropriate police records Kapur Aug. . 
The punishment for violating the law is yrs imprisonment and Rs. fine or the value of dowry given whichever is more
Any demand made by the groomhis family which involves a directindirect deal with the family is considered as dowry.
Includes anything that the grooms side may ask for directly or indirectly by dropping hints
Giving of anything as a precondition to marriage without which the brides side anticipates that the marriage might be called off
Negotiation for a lesser deal from the grooms side when the brides side is unable to fulfil the actual demandreal deal
Making the brides family fulfil demands as compensation for marrying their daughter after the wedding
Gifts of their own choosing by the brides parents to the newly married couple without being pressured or asked
List of such gifts should be drawn up by their lawyer along with their cost and a declaration that that they were given to the couple out of their own choosing
Anything gifted by the brides parents to her and not to the groom is the sole property of the bride and is called streedhan the wifes property
Also includes gifts given in cash or kind by her own family andor husbands family
In case of unforeseen death of the bride streedhan is returned to the brides family
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Anindita has accused her husband Sayantan fatherinlaw Sambaran and motherinlaw Apu of physically and mentally torturing her and demanding dowry Getty Images Representational Image
Former Ranji winning Bengal captain Sambaran Banerjee along with his son and wife has been accused of torturing his daughterinlaw Anindita Banerjee for dowry. She has filed a police complaint under the relevant antidowry laws police said Thursday.
In her complaint filed with the Jadavpur Police Oct Anindita has accused her husband Sayantan fatherinlaw Sambaran and motherinlaw Apu of physically and mentally torturing her and demanding dowry.
We have registered a case against the trio under various sections of the Dowry Prohibition Act Officerin Charge of Jadavpur police station V.K. Singh told IANS.
We have initiated investigation in the matter but the complainant currently is out of the country. When she comes back we will record her statement and if need be we will make arrests added Singh.
Married to Sayantan in Anindita has alleged that her husband repeatedly assaulted her physically during their stay in Dubai in and the ordeal continued even after coming back to the city.
Rohit Sharma Cheteshwar Pujara cautioned for interviews former players question BCCIs logic
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Comments Off on Stark images of Bangladesh dowry death reveal severeinjustice
antidowry asia violence asia violence against women asia womens rights bangladesh bangladesh crimes bangladesh family bangladesh family violence bangladesh news bangladesh poverty bangladesh violence bangladesh women bibi zohora bride dowry dhaka bangladesh dhaka dowry dhaka medical college hospital dowry dowry and abuse dowry and psychological abuse dowry attack dowry culture dowry death dowry destruction dowry extortion dowry killing dowry killing laws dowry laws dowry murder dowry related murders dowry rights dowry suicide dowry violence dowry violence prosecution family extortion groom dowry hindu dowry india dowry india dowry culture india dowry violence Lys Anzia marriage and dowry marriage bangladesh marriage violence muslim dowry poverty in bagladesh stop dowry turjoy chowdhury un declaration on the elimination of violence against women VAW vaw asia vaw bangladesh vaw india victims of dowry death violence against women wnn women news network women bangladesh news women in bagladesh Womens News womens rights bangladesh
When yearold teenager and wife Bibi Zohora was admitted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital DMCH her condition was critical. On admittance to the hospital it was determined she had a broken neck but she was still alive.
Psychologically tortured by her inlaws to pay money for a marriage dowry the story of Bibis life was a troubled one. Under increasing pressure Bibi and her family were unable to pay the dowry fees that seemed more like extortion.
On the day Bibi had come to the hospital emergency room with her parents she faced what too many women in Bangladesh and India face when they are unable to pay their dowry fee. Fear and abuse from her husband and his family. Bibi tried to commit suicide by hanging herself from a mango tree.
Did psychological pressure indignity and harassment lead to her death Some experts say yes.
the effects of harassment have driven some young girls and women in Bangladesh to commit suicide says UNICEF United Nations Childrens Fund.
In the Hem Chand v. State of Haryana dowry death case in Indias High Court of Punjab Haryana murder charges and sentencing against a husband after his wife committed suicide found that her hanging suicide was staged. It was determined under the law that if the deceased had been subjected by such person the husband to cruelty or harassment for or in connection with demand for dowrythen the court shall presume that such a person has caused the dowry death.
At the time it was found in court that Hem Chand had in fact strangled his wife and simulated what appeared to be her suicide. For this he was initially charged with a life sentence. But on appeal Chands sentence was changed to years in prison.
Perhaps the Mango tree where Bibi attempted to end her own life was the only option Bibi felt she had left after facing intimidation and threats to pay money to her husband and his family. There is no answer available to know the firsthand details of her suffering. No formal case ever reached the court following her death.
Tied to her bed in the Intensive Care Unit ICU in the Dhaka hospital among other criticalneeds patients Bibi was left marginalized even in death. Instead of attending to her medical needs a group of doctors largely ignored her as they seemed engrossed in their own personal group conversation in another part of the room conveyed photojournalist Turjoy Chowdhury who was present as he documented Bibis death in the hospital.
Her parents were the only attendants in the room trying to look after their gasping daughter at the time Chowdhury said. It was only when Bibis mother realized her daughter had stopped breathing that she began to grieve publicly and loudly. This was when the previously occupied medical team moved closer to Bibis bed.
The doctors hurried to Bibi Zohora and pretended to do everything possiblethumping pumping and what not outlined Chowdhury.
Sensing the presence of a camera one of the doctors gaped at the ECG monitor reading outloud LOSS OF SIGNAL. He posed as if doing a grave serious job though the ECG monitor was not connected with the patient the photojournalist added.
Suicide is not the only form these deaths can take. Poisoning burning beating acid attack and other forms of violence inflicted on a woman can be used. Cases have also revealed that some dowry deaths have been disguised to appear to be suicide or an accidental death when in fact they are not. This type of deception is made when an attacker or attackers work to escape legal prosecution. But how can the law in Bangladesh move to protect women
Law Drafters should take into account that dowryrelated murders may be disguised as suicides outlines UN superagency UN Women covering the issue of aiding and abetting suicide in their End Violence Against Women and Girls Now campaign.
The culture of dowry worldwide is now being used in too many circumstances to raise monies by abusing harming and killing women say advocates. The lack of a legal court case for BibiZohora is only one of many unreported cases that are too often happening under the radar of the courts.
While I was shooting my very first photostory of dowry victim Zohorashe passed away in front of me added photojournalist Turjoy Chowdhury. At that moment the experience made me mentally unstable and I wasnt able to sleep for at least a week he continued.
Amendment and enforcement of the law in Bangladesh is the only way women like Bibi Zohora can remain safe say advocates who are working to stop violence against women inside Bangladesh.
Husbands consider their wives income as a source of wealth accumulation. This must be acknowledged as reality and the Dowry Prohibition Act amended outlines Bangladeshborn author political science professor and Canada postdoctoral fellow Farah Deeba Chowdhury in her report for the International Journal of Law Policy and the Family at Oxford Journals.
In the first six months of women in Bangladesh suffered severely under dowryrelated violence outlined journalist Udisa Islam with the Dhaka Tribune. Out of those women the number of those who died from their suffering reveals a critical epidemic in dowrybased violence in the region.
Of them women were harassed and tortured were murdered for failing to meet demands for dowry and six women committed suicide the Dhaka Tribune reporter added.
Attitudes about dowry in Bangladesh may be swayed by a traditional interpretation of religion especially for those who are Muslim or Hindu. The practice spans centuries to preGreek asia Endo Japan and China as well as Rome. Later it moved from exclusive money meant for the bride alone to money that is given to the brides husband and his family.
While Bangladesh recognizes Islam as its official religion dowry continuously contradicts both religion and the law. According to the Quran receiving dowry from the brides family is haram forbidden by the Islamic law it is the husbands family that should provide mohorana money for the brides family shares Sri Lankan reporter Kaushalya Ruwanthika Ariyathilaka in a story for Dispatches International.
Statistics show that of the recently married Muslim wives in Dhaka the capital of Bangladesh did not receive their mohorana but were forced to give a dowryAriyathilaka added.
Regardless of the origin of dowry culture and the fact that dowry is outlawed in both India and the Bangla region a large number of women in Bangladesh and India are showing a steep rise in violence connected to dowry. As a fatal victim of dowry violenceBibiZohora has been joined by women in India who according to the Indias National Crime Bureau who die from dowryrelated violence everyday once each hour.
Women in Bangladesh are still in a vulnerable situation in the society outlined photojournalist Chowdhury. To reduce violence against women society should ensure gender equality no economic gap between genders social consciousness and proper implementation of law and order he added.
Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women United Nations General Assembly December 
Dowry Related Violence Against Women in Bangladesh Commission on Human Rights Asian Legal Resource Centre February 
Legal Approaches Reforms Different Areas of Laws Assessment of the Effectiveness of Particular Legal FrameworkProvisions Lesson Learned Good Practices Highlighted Promising Practices in Bangladesh United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women June 
The Economics of Dowry and Brideprice Siwan Anderson Journal of Economic Perspectives May .
Turjoy Chowdhury has been working in the field of photography since . Documentary Photography attracts me most because of the opportunity to capture the truth he says. As a Peace Ambassador for the AsianPacific Children Convention APCC organized by BRIDGE Club International Organization BCIOJapan Chowdhury is currently in his fourth year of college level studies in Architecture at BRAC University in Dhaka Bangladesh.
Human rights and social justice journalist Lys Anzia is the founder and former executive editor of international awardwinning WNN Women News Network. In addition to WNN her written and copyediting work can be seen in The Guardian Development Network Thomson Reuters Trustlaw AlertNet Vital Voices The Nobel Womens Initiative and many other publications.
No part of the text in this article release may be used or reproduced in any form without prior permissions from WNN. All other media is copyright of the owners and may not be used or reproduced without their permissions.
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A CONTEMPORARY liberal interpretation can be applied to numerous articles of the major international human rights treaties to argue that the prohibition of domestic violence is implied in those instruments and its violation will constitute the breach of the right to freedom from torture. For example article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights provides for right to life liberty and security. A violation of this article occurs when women experience domestic violence. This is because in that situation they suffer from an arbitrary deprivation of life lose their liberty and lack security. Article states that no one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Further article of the International Covenant on the Civil and Political Rights requires state parties to protect an individual from these forms of violence. Read together these provisions announce a legal framework for the prohibition of domestic violence. The implied sense and a close examination of objectives of these provisions essentially uphold the protection of women against violence regardless of the public or the private. No one shall be subjected to torture as specified in article of the human rights declaration neither belongs exclusively to any gender nor indicates any private or public.
Beyond these domestic violence has dominated numerous resolutions reports and recommendations of the convention and conferences respectively under the UN system that unequivocally recognise that it causes deprivation of womens rights and move the issue from the private to public responsibility. The following discussion explains how domestic violence shares a common experience with torture and why it should thereby warrant similar legal weight and remedies as the officially recognised torture does.
Firstly in most cases verbal or physical assault ranging from swearing beating kicking and the infliction of pain through various objects such as rods sticks and knives to death are repeatedly practised on women in Bangladesh who fail to meet the dowry demands of their inlaws. Such violence can reasonably be characterised as having the required severe physical or psychological pain and having similar effects on the victims of dowry. Forcing women to satisfy dowry in this manner creates a state of panic in mind. This state of panic keeps those women under constant mental pressure and in vulnerable situations coupled with a fear of further physical assault. This particular state constitutes mental suffering. In a similar situation to dowry violence it was found that battering produced a state of depression anxiety dependency and passivity among victims when they felt helpless to leave abusive relationships. The repeated violence of domestic abuse gradually destroys the victims mental capability to function independently and to resist that in turn increases their further vulnerability. This type of conduct produces the manipulation through stress of mind in much the same way as torture.
Secondly with the husbands explicit desire to earn dowry money threats and physical assault are recurrently committed on the unwilling women. Cruel treatment appears to be unnecessary where women deliberately want to help their domestic partners. Mental or physical assault thus implies the presence of some sort of undue force and that force exhibits an explicit intentional mala fides. Thirdly the dowryrelated repression originates with a specific purpose. The purpose is to obtain money or valuables and the inability of the women to satisfy this purpose results in cruel treatment or death. Fourthly in the present case the state is actively involved through enacting inter alia the Dowry Prohibition Act to protect women against dowry violence. The states passivity results from its failure to implement the dowry law or to remove the flaws in the law as required especially by the articles of the CEDAW. It fulfils the requirement of the fourth element of torture.
Furthermore Culliton concludes that even if a particular domestic violence case does not reach the level of torture international legal instruments prohibit cruel inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. This prohibition is also part of fundamental human rights and customary international human rights law. Thus it can be summed up that the physical and emotional assaults involved in a dowry satisfy the standard of abuse required by torture. The following section further emphasises the issue to provide domestic violence with the explicit recognition of torture.
Dowry refers to property cash or goods given to the bridegroom as a consideration of marriage. The Dowry Prohibition Act defines dowry as any property or valuable security given or agreed to be given either directly or indirectly by one party to a marriage by another party at any time before or after the marriage as a consideration of marriage. Originally dowry is a concept of Hindu law. In Hindu law unlike Muslim law marriage is a sacrament instead of a civil contract. Under this law women were not entitled to inherit property from their parents families. To compensate for this discrimination at the time of marriage women were voluntarily given some properties in kind or cash by their parents within their financial capacity. These properties constituted womens Stridhan womens property and reverted back to them in the event of termination of the marriage.
Among the lower caste the bride price a small amount of money was given to the brides family by the grooms family as a compensation for the loss of their daughter. However the contemporary perception of dowry as practiced in Bangladesh has no resemblance to the original concept. Over the course of time its voluntary nature has been transformed into a compulsion on the family of the bride. In recent years dowry has become an essential part of nearly every marriage and is obtained through applying constant coercion or pressure on the newly wedded women.
A number of factors such as traditional culture an unequal power relation between men and women the growing unemployment problem among young men and commercialisation of marriage contribute to the persistence of dowry despite legislative initiatives to eliminate it. The patriarchal society in Bangladesh acknowledges mens superiority over women. To establish this superiority men preferably receive family supports and attention in favour of developing their independent and productive careers. Consequently the bargaining power and rating of dowry depend on the level of educational and occupational status of the groom. This social practice eventually creates economic dependence and powerlessness of women and portrays them as an unproductive burden for the family. Thus womens staying in the parental home at the marriageable age or after is not welcome.
Another concern is about the virginity of women before they are married. Parents have to face a severe consequence with their adult daughters when scandal regarding their chastity ensues within the community. It becomes highly unlikely to find suitable grooms for those women. Within this social organisation parents try desperately to arrange a marriage at any cost even beyond their means and to provide some sort of incentives to have a qualified soninlaw so that the daughters life is better provided for.
The special attention from both sides develops the superfluous ego a feeling of power among grooms families that help dowry transform into a demand. Apart from this the decline in moral values and greed for the improved life make marriage a commercial transaction. In recent times marriage began to lose its sanctity and is used as a means of making money in which more value is given to property and cash money than that of the bride herself. As one of the potential means to change fate even a poor uneducated man may exploit a brides family. In numerous instances the grooms dowry demand does not match with the annual income and wealth of the brides father. On some occasions a ticket to the Middle East to find a job is demanded as dowry. The richer section of the country has also made a significant contribution to the present dimension of dowry. It offers luxury items ranging from ornaments to land properties from furniture and home appliances to arranging a grand formal gathering. It serves to display their wealth and status in the society on the one hand and to encourage young men to nurture dowry on the other. In this way the socioeconomic and cultural factors encourage the continuation of dowry in Bangladesh.
The Dowry Prohibition Act is the primary law of the country to deal with dowry. It makes dowry a criminal offence punishable with a maximum penalty of one year imprisonment or with a fine of Tk . or with both. The act is concerned with a series of issues including punishment for demanding or taking and giving dowry and its investigation and trial proceedings. Under section of the act a magistrate of the first class is empowered to try the dowry offence.
ON June rd The Daily Star article A wifes darkest hour chronicled a wifes brutal murder at the hands of her husband for her inability to bring in the dowry which was negotiated during the marriage proposal. She was set on fire by her greedy husband. Such monstrous acts and gruesome murders are being carried out with impunity in our country.Many Asian countries including Bangladesh India Pakistan Sri Lanka and Nepal follow the practice of dowry. From the moment a baby girl is born especially in a lowincome family worries start that one day a dowry demand will have to be met. Society often undermines the role of a woman. The social customs in Bangladesh are such that in the st century a husband consumed by greed can brutally murder his wife when her family cannot meet the dowry demand.The Daily Star articles author emphasised that if girls got higher education it would make them assertive and independent. Undoubtedly getting an education will enhance women empowerment. Will that eliminate the dowry practiceThe dowry system has been in place for centuries. It is essentially a contract between the father of the bride and the father of the groom before a marriage takes place. Marriage is a social contract between a man and a woman where they promise in the name of God to love and honour one another. By taking dowry one undermines the entire sanctity of the institution of marriage.Accepting and demanding a dowry has become an accepted norm in our society. From upperclass to middleclass and the poor people in villages dowry is given to the grooms family. It determines a brides worth to that particular family. In the villages if a woman is not pretty enough the demand seems to be higher. In many of the families the dowry demand causes an unusual and enormous burden. Poor families often become destitute in providing a dowry for the daughter in order to marry her off.We read and hear about horrific dowryrelated deaths in Bangladesh. Other than greed poverty also plays a big role in accepting a dowry payment. Some people might argue that for a poor family dowry is a means to an end.What troubles me is that when a brides family is unable to pay the agreed upon amount the bride becomes a victim of abuse torture and in some cases faces death. Unusual cruelty is bestowed upon them from burning of their faces with acid to heavy beating gang rape and other unimaginable mental and psychological punishment. This is happening today in Bangladesh.Why is anything not being done about it Newspapers and other media agencies are reporting dowry deaths. The public is well aware of it. But the public scrutiny is not strong enough to have the dowry system totally abolished. In our government passed the dowry prohibition law by stating that acceptance of dowry was illegal. This law is not followed in practice.It is well documented that since the independence of Bangladesh the dowry problem has become more acute. Despite the passing of such laws dowry related violence has increased in Bangladesh. There is an unwritten custom where a new bride from all kinds of families and backgrounds will bring with her money goods such as furniture watch motorbike ornaments or property for her husband.The ironic thing is that the dowryrelated deaths are caused by the people their husbands and inlaws who are supposed to protect them after the marriage. Dowry deaths are nothing short of savagery. It again comes down to our society being patriarchal where women are devalued even when we are standing on the threshold of modernisation and claim to live in a civilised world.Sometimes a dowry agreement has to be fulfilled because that particular familys honour and social position are at stake. Dowry equals wealth and it becomes a status symbol. For an uneducated girl a dowry payment can be up to Tk but an educated girl often has to bring a much higher dowry to get the right bridegroom.This is undoubtedly a disgraceful custom. Dissatisfied families inflict enormous pain and suffering on the bride. Sometimes such dissatisfaction motivates them to murder the bride. In a bride was burnt to death on the twentysecond day of her marriage in Chapainawabganj.In order to eradicate such social evil the families with marriageable daughters have to band together. The girls need to be educated and selfconfident so that they do not feel like a commodity that is negotiated and contracted with the grooms family. The law should be strictly enforced.Media can play a pivotal role here by keeping the pressure on. Dowryrelated violence should be widely reported. Being proactive is the key to enforcing this law. New legislation making womens education compulsory should be supported. We need to also increase our level of social awareness to rid our society of such an archaic practice. The subtle form of discrimination against women has to stop.Zeenat Khan is a freelance writer based in the United States.
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A dowrythe money or property a bride brings to her husband at marriagewas common throughout much of the ancient world and also flourished in medieval Europe. 
In many places around the world weddings were formal occasions accompanied by much gift giving and ritual. The practice of dowries apparently originated when a brides parents gave her presents. As time went on the dowry developed various functions. A dowry of household goods often helped the newlyweds set up their own home. A dowry of property or jewelry would help the wife support herself if her husband died. Generally the husband returned the dowry to his inlaws if he and his wife divorced or if his wife died childless.
Sometimes the grooms family paid for the bride often to compensate her family for the money spent raising her. If the bride had been a valuable worker her family was sometimes compensated for the loss of her economic support.
Romans who had complicated traditions governing marriages had specific dowry laws. Traditional Chinese and Hindu engagements and weddings were also governed by specific rules and considerable ritual.
Today traditional wedding observances are losing ground all over the world. However some traditional cultures including gypsies many Hindus and certain African societies continue to see dowries as a usual part of marriage.
In the African nation of Sudan Dinka tribesmen celebrate an engagement with a party. During the dowry dance men try to impress the family of the bride by jumping as high as possible. 
Traditionally the family of the groom has offered cattle often as many as animals to the family of the bride. Families of men competing for the affection of one young woman would try to outdo each other by offering more cattle than their rivals. However the brutal civil war that has been raging in the Sudan for the past years has so disrupted agriculture that cattle are rarely given. Instead families pledge to give cattle once the war is over and they are again able to do so.
A groom of the Roma people or gypsies pays the brides family for the loss of their daughter. The bride price also ensures that the bride will be well treated by her new family. Negotiations between the families of the bride and groom can become quite extensive with the brides father calculating how much his daughter has cost him since her birth and how much she could be expected to earn during her lifetime. 
When agreement is reached a ceremony called a pliashka is held. The grooms father brings a bottle of wine or brandy wrapped in a colorful silk handkerchief and attached to a necklace of coins. He puts the necklace around the brides neck and embraces her. This indicates that she is now engaged and unavailable to any other man. The wine is drunk but the bottle is refilled for use at the wedding ceremony.
According to Hindu tradition a young man repaid his debt to his ancestors by marrying. Therefore everything surrounding a wedding including the dowry was imbued with ritual meaning.
Brides lived with their husbands family and poor families often saw the bride as another pair of hands. Therefore the grooms family compensated the brides family for their economic loss. On the other hand in Brahman or upper caste households the bride was seen as a burden requiring the support of her husbands family. The brides family had to pay the grooms family with a dowry for taking her off their hands. Traditional wedding rituals are often followed today in India especially in rural areas.
Traditionally Chinese courtships and weddings followed complicated traditions known as Three Letters and Six Etiquette. The engagement became official when the grooms family presented betrothal presents also known as tea gifts to the brides family. These might have included a fruit basket dried seafood tea a roast suckling pig tobacco and wine. The brides family sent a dowryclothes jewelry household decorations linen or kitchen utensilsto the grooms family shortly before or at the wedding ceremony.
Historically Sephardic Jewish brides in the Middle East received gifts of jewelry both from their own and their husbands families. The sole property of the bride this jewelry was an insurance policy in the event of a divorce or hard times. Welloff women were sometimes literally bedecked from head to toe with hair ornaments bracelets rings toe rings and pendants of gold and precious stones. 
Some jewelry served a dual purpose. Certain designs and stones were also amulets to ward off disease or evil. Women generally wore their wealth constantly since it was safer than storing it at home. In public the jewelry was hidden behind voluminous scarves. In fact some anthropologists believe the custom of the veil originated because women wanted to hide their finery from preying eyes. These customs generally died out in the th century.
During and after the Middle Ages young Eastern European girls in rural areas typically received a dowry bed when she turned followed by a wardrobe the next year. Furniture was often painted with designs representing family history and specific regions. Brides often entered marriage with enough goods to set up a household. Grooms received livestock and tools so they could begin farming.
The ancient Romans recognized different types of marriage. An in manum marriage meant the bride and all her property came under the control of her husband. If the marriage was not in manum the brides father controlled her and her property. Dowries were generally agreed upon at the time of betrothal and paid after the wedding. The brides family paid a dowry to the groom. The groom gave his bride a gift often money and an iron engagement ring anulus pronubis.
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Activists of JK Pradesh Mahila Congress during a protest against rising prices of vegetables.
People gather at the accident site where a passenger bus fell off a bridge at Sakhati in Kamrup.
Sumi Naga women perform a folk dance during the Tuluni festival at Thilixu village in Dimapur.
BSF guards keep vigil along TripuraBangladesh border in Lankamura area on Tuesday.
Actress and UNICEF Ambassador Priyanka Chopra waves at school children as she arrives.
A mahout paints his elephant on the eve of the annual Rath Yatra or chariot procession.
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A Rajasthani woman has alleged that she was harassment rape harassed beatenup raped and was tattooed with abuses for not paying the dowry money police said on Monday. 
The woman in her late twenties and a resident of Amber near Jaipur has filed a complaint with the police alleging that abuses including Mera baap chor hai my father is a thief were tattooed on her forehead and she was raped by two of her husbands relatives. 
Her ordeal began after getting married about two years ago to a man from Reni village in Alwar district . Months later her inlaws started beating her demanding Rs as dowry which her family was unable to cough up. 
Trouble for my daughter started after six months she got married. She tried to tolerate it for some months. But when it became unbearable for her she called me. After seeing her condition I was shocked to see that her inlaws had tattooed expletives or abuses on various parts of her body. I brought my daughter to my house and tried to rub off tattoos from her body including her forehead said her father Dinaram.
We have registered a case against the inlaws of the woman and started investigations into the complaint an official of Amber police station told IANS.
As tattoos have now been removed except for marks the words are not fully visible the official added.
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I WAS shocked to learn from a mainstream English newspaper and a report by Dawn News TV in October last year that the Council of Islamic ideology CII has advised the government not to legislate on dowry as it is a custom and may encourage the police to take bribe. 
Recently I had the chance to get this confirmed from the CII that they have actually done this with a view that the mindset needs to be changed before formulating any law. I respect the opinion of the experts but cannot agree with this stand. 
As a gender violence survivor and a researcher on gender issues including dowry I know that dowry violence is a living fact that remains hidden under domestic violence. The cultural institution of dowry as practised in Pakistan stimulates substantial violence toward not only womengirls but men as well. 
This takes the form of interfamilial harassment for the additional payments of goods and money which can conclude in divorce murder or suicide of the bride. Diminution of this abuse of the disadvantaged especially women must be attempted through law mass awareness and education. 
The primary means of controlling these abuses can be a Dowry Prohibition Act and an effective ban on the culture of demonstration at weddings. The distribution of dowry dowry abuses attitudes toward dowry and dowry violence and crosscultural dowry systems must be addressed by the state and a more effective approach should be the developed on related issues like bridal gifts dower divorce and inheritance laws. 
Until that occurs the question of whether dowry prohibition is actually in the interests of women may remain unresolved. 
What our network Fight Against Advocacy Network FADAN wants is as follows 
Acceptance of dowry violence as a public health issue and its reflection in health population and women development policy 
Suo motu action by the court on the stove death accidental death kitchen death death under unknown circumstances of any bride or a newlywed woman and these deaths must be treated as dowry death until and unless proved otherwise. 
Social and political advocacy on issues of dowry including dowry violence. 
Sindh to approach SC against decision to reverse devolution of healthcare institutions
A dowrythe money or property a bride brings to her husband at marriagewas common throughout much of the ancient world and also flourished in medieval Europe. 
In many places around the world weddings were formal occasions accompanied by much gift giving and ritual. The practice of dowries apparently originated when a brides parents gave her presents. As time went on the dowry developed various functions. A dowry of household goods often helped the newlyweds set up their own home. A dowry of property or jewelry would help the wife support herself if her husband died. Generally the husband returned the dowry to his inlaws if he and his wife divorced or if his wife died childless.
Sometimes the grooms family paid for the bride often to compensate her family for the money spent raising her. If the bride had been a valuable worker her family was sometimes compensated for the loss of her economic support.
Romans who had complicated traditions governing marriages had specific dowry laws. Traditional Chinese and Hindu engagements and weddings were also governed by specific rules and considerable ritual.
Today traditional wedding observances are losing ground all over the world. However some traditional cultures including gypsies many Hindus and certain African societies continue to see dowries as a usual part of marriage.
In the African nation of Sudan Dinka tribesmen celebrate an engagement with a party. During the dowry dance men try to impress the family of the bride by jumping as high as possible. 
Traditionally the family of the groom has offered cattle often as many as animals to the family of the bride. Families of men competing for the affection of one young woman would try to outdo each other by offering more cattle than their rivals. However the brutal civil war that has been raging in the Sudan for the past years has so disrupted agriculture that cattle are rarely given. Instead families pledge to give cattle once the war is over and they are again able to do so.
A groom of the Roma people or gypsies pays the brides family for the loss of their daughter. The bride price also ensures that the bride will be well treated by her new family. Negotiations between the families of the bride and groom can become quite extensive with the brides father calculating how much his daughter has cost him since her birth and how much she could be expected to earn during her lifetime. 
When agreement is reached a ceremony called a pliashka is held. The grooms father brings a bottle of wine or brandy wrapped in a colorful silk handkerchief and attached to a necklace of coins. He puts the necklace around the brides neck and embraces her. This indicates that she is now engaged and unavailable to any other man. The wine is drunk but the bottle is refilled for use at the wedding ceremony.
According to Hindu tradition a young man repaid his debt to his ancestors by marrying. Therefore everything surrounding a wedding including the dowry was imbued with ritual meaning.
Brides lived with their husbands family and poor families often saw the bride as another pair of hands. Therefore the grooms family compensated the brides family for their economic loss. On the other hand in Brahman or upper caste households the bride was seen as a burden requiring the support of her husbands family. The brides family had to pay the grooms family with a dowry for taking her off their hands. Traditional wedding rituals are often followed today in India especially in rural areas.
Traditionally Chinese courtships and weddings followed complicated traditions known as Three Letters and Six Etiquette. The engagement became official when the grooms family presented betrothal presents also known as tea gifts to the brides family. These might have included a fruit basket dried seafood tea a roast suckling pig tobacco and wine. The brides family sent a dowryclothes jewelry household decorations linen or kitchen utensilsto the grooms family shortly before or at the wedding ceremony.
Historically Sephardic Jewish brides in the Middle East received gifts of jewelry both from their own and their husbands families. The sole property of the bride this jewelry was an insurance policy in the event of a divorce or hard times. Welloff women were sometimes literally bedecked from head to toe with hair ornaments bracelets rings toe rings and pendants of gold and precious stones. 
Some jewelry served a dual purpose. Certain designs and stones were also amulets to ward off disease or evil. Women generally wore their wealth constantly since it was safer than storing it at home. In public the jewelry was hidden behind voluminous scarves. In fact some anthropologists believe the custom of the veil originated because women wanted to hide their finery from preying eyes. These customs generally died out in the th century.
During and after the Middle Ages young Eastern European girls in rural areas typically received a dowry bed when she turned followed by a wardrobe the next year. Furniture was often painted with designs representing family history and specific regions. Brides often entered marriage with enough goods to set up a household. Grooms received livestock and tools so they could begin farming.
The ancient Romans recognized different types of marriage. An in manum marriage meant the bride and all her property came under the control of her husband. If the marriage was not in manum the brides father controlled her and her property. Dowries were generally agreed upon at the time of betrothal and paid after the wedding. The brides family paid a dowry to the groom. The groom gave his bride a gift often money and an iron engagement ring anulus pronubis.

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Sydney May IANS The Australian state of Victoria is pushing for a ban on the Indian practice of dowry in marriages amid concerns that it is leading to domestic violence and abuse of women within the Indian community here a media report said Friday.
Economic abuse was made illegal under the Family Violence Act in but Australian politician Ted Baillieu and womens rights advocates also want a specific ban on dowry which would bring state law into line with Indian law The Melbourne Age reported Friday.
Baillieu a former premier of Victoria tabled a petition in state parliament in April calling for amendments to family violence laws.
Dowry is clearly part of the issue faced by these women The Age quoted Baillieu as saying.
Baillieu said the matter may be referred to the Victorian Law Reform Commission.
Manjula OConnor an Indianborn psychiatrist and research fellow at Melbourne University said that dowry must be outlawed.
OConnor said she witnessed many women plagued by dowryrelated domestic violence during her private practice in Melbourne.
Paying a dowry belittles the woman it reinforces their role as inferior in the relationship and it makes the marriage an economic transaction OConnor said.
Baillieu was contacted by OConnor who urged the Victorian government to ban the payment of dowries in the state.
Baillieu added that some young women who arrive in Australia in arranged marriages face pressure to provide more to their husbands which can trigger abuse.
The move has caused deep rifts within the states strong Indian community the report said.
A dowry can be gifts money or property that a wife or wifes family gives to her husband when they marry.
In India the payment of dowry has been prohibited since under Indian civil law with enactment of Sections B and A of the Indian Penal Code.
The provisions under Section A have been criticised in India in the wake of growing complaints about the misuse of antidowry laws by women.
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.Dowry is a multifaceted deeprooted gender issue with social economic and health consequences. This social evil has brought fatal effects to the lives of ordinary women of our society. This social crime has recently made footings in some countries which were traditionally free of this evil like Afghanistan and Bangladesh but our focus here remains Pakistan. The paper concentrates on the religious social and economic structures of the Pakistani society to explain the. 
.there are still some forced marriages and child brides.Which brings me to the issue of the dowry system..yes folks it still exists. Now before you make that grimace of distaste let me tell you a little about it. The dowry system has been in place since before the written record and it has been used by parents in every country imaginable including America in older times. The point of the dowry system. 
Mahr and Dowry are two concepts practiced by most Muslims from both the past and present. The concept is chosen according to the tradition or practice of their family or community. They are vastly different in both their process and outcome which therefore. 
Wedding gifts of the son of the imam of Delhi India with soldiers and guestsThe dowry system is thought to put great financial burden on. 
.society is the dowry system. This fact that it is condemned by every modern citizen of this country and yet it still flourishes at a very large scale in our society is a testimony of how deeply rooted this system is in the Indian society.Dowry dahej is one of the most ancient practices of India and Oxford dictionary defines it as an amount of property or money brought by a bride to her husband on their marriage. But the origins. 
.Dowry is derived from the ancient Hindu customs of kanyadan and stridhan. In kanyadan the father of the bride offers the father of the groom money or property etc whereas for stridhan the bride herself gets jewelry and clothes at the time of her marriage usually from her relatives or friends. In Varadakshina the father of the bride presents the groom cash or kind. All of these could be done voluntarily and out of affection and love.
.Dowry system is when the brides family gives goods money or estate to her husband and his family during marriage E. Pauls Prine Ed. . This practice is mostly common in South Asia specifically the Indian culture E. Pauls Prine Ed. . On the other hand is the practice of bride price system which is where the husband gives cattle land or goods in exchange for a womans hand in marriage Schwimmer . This is mostly practiced in. 
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A dowrythe money or property a bride brings to her husband at marriagewas common throughout much of the ancient world and also flourished in medieval Europe. 
In many places around the world weddings were formal occasions accompanied by much gift giving and ritual. The practice of dowries apparently originated when a brides parents gave her presents. As time went on the dowry developed various functions. A dowry of household goods often helped the newlyweds set up their own home. A dowry of property or jewelry would help the wife support herself if her husband died. Generally the husband returned the dowry to his inlaws if he and his wife divorced or if his wife died childless.
Sometimes the grooms family paid for the bride often to compensate her family for the money spent raising her. If the bride had been a valuable worker her family was sometimes compensated for the loss of her economic support.
Romans who had complicated traditions governing marriages had specific dowry laws. Traditional Chinese and Hindu engagements and weddings were also governed by specific rules and considerable ritual.
Today traditional wedding observances are losing ground all over the world. However some traditional cultures including gypsies many Hindus and certain African societies continue to see dowries as a usual part of marriage.
In the African nation of Sudan Dinka tribesmen celebrate an engagement with a party. During the dowry dance men try to impress the family of the bride by jumping as high as possible. 
Traditionally the family of the groom has offered cattle often as many as animals to the family of the bride. Families of men competing for the affection of one young woman would try to outdo each other by offering more cattle than their rivals. However the brutal civil war that has been raging in the Sudan for the past years has so disrupted agriculture that cattle are rarely given. Instead families pledge to give cattle once the war is over and they are again able to do so.
A groom of the Roma people or gypsies pays the brides family for the loss of their daughter. The bride price also ensures that the bride will be well treated by her new family. Negotiations between the families of the bride and groom can become quite extensive with the brides father calculating how much his daughter has cost him since her birth and how much she could be expected to earn during her lifetime. 
When agreement is reached a ceremony called a pliashka is held. The grooms father brings a bottle of wine or brandy wrapped in a colorful silk handkerchief and attached to a necklace of coins. He puts the necklace around the brides neck and embraces her. This indicates that she is now engaged and unavailable to any other man. The wine is drunk but the bottle is refilled for use at the wedding ceremony.
According to Hindu tradition a young man repaid his debt to his ancestors by marrying. Therefore everything surrounding a wedding including the dowry was imbued with ritual meaning.
Brides lived with their husbands family and poor families often saw the bride as another pair of hands. Therefore the grooms family compensated the brides family for their economic loss. On the other hand in Brahman or upper caste households the bride was seen as a burden requiring the support of her husbands family. The brides family had to pay the grooms family with a dowry for taking her off their hands. Traditional wedding rituals are often followed today in India especially in rural areas.
Traditionally Chinese courtships and weddings followed complicated traditions known as Three Letters and Six Etiquette. The engagement became official when the grooms family presented betrothal presents also known as tea gifts to the brides family. These might have included a fruit basket dried seafood tea a roast suckling pig tobacco and wine. The brides family sent a dowryclothes jewelry household decorations linen or kitchen utensilsto the grooms family shortly before or at the wedding ceremony.
Historically Sephardic Jewish brides in the Middle East received gifts of jewelry both from their own and their husbands families. The sole property of the bride this jewelry was an insurance policy in the event of a divorce or hard times. Welloff women were sometimes literally bedecked from head to toe with hair ornaments bracelets rings toe rings and pendants of gold and precious stones. 
Some jewelry served a dual purpose. Certain designs and stones were also amulets to ward off disease or evil. Women generally wore their wealth constantly since it was safer than storing it at home. In public the jewelry was hidden behind voluminous scarves. In fact some anthropologists believe the custom of the veil originated because women wanted to hide their finery from preying eyes. These customs generally died out in the th century.
During and after the Middle Ages young Eastern European girls in rural areas typically received a dowry bed when she turned followed by a wardrobe the next year. Furniture was often painted with designs representing family history and specific regions. Brides often entered marriage with enough goods to set up a household. Grooms received livestock and tools so they could begin farming.
The ancient Romans recognized different types of marriage. An in manum marriage meant the bride and all her property came under the control of her husband. If the marriage was not in manum the brides father controlled her and her property. Dowries were generally agreed upon at the time of betrothal and paid after the wedding. The brides family paid a dowry to the groom. The groom gave his bride a gift often money and an iron engagement ring anulus pronubis.
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Posted by Press Office on November in general news Research news Comments
Dowryrelated domestic abuse is still prevalent in India despite years of feminist campaigning.
Researchers at the University of Portsmouth have found dowry is still regularly practiced in parts of the country and dissatisfaction with the amount of dowry provided contributes to the domestic abuse suffered by newly married women as well as to gender inequalities on a wider scale.
The study also showed that motherinlaws were the main harassers and perpetrators of violence against young women nearly per cent of the time.
Dowry is the exchange of money andor goods from the brides family to the grooms at the point of marriage. Families give as much as possible which in some cases will involve selling land and homes or taking out loans.
The study carried out by researchers in the Universitys School of Languages and Area Studies is one of very few carried out on this topic since the last substantial study ten years ago. During this period the rise of westernisation and modernisation in India has led to increased employment and education opportunities for women.
Womens organisations in India have moved away from antidowry campaigning and focused more on increasing womens independence through better access to healthcare and advice education and employment and encouraging women to take on political roles.
However the study shows that these methods have been unsuccessful in reducing the practice of dowry and the domestic abuse women often suffer when the dowry amount is not satisfactory.
Our findings depressingly show that little has improved in the last decade and dowry remains a fundamental problem in womens lives said Dr Tamsin Bradley lead researcher.
The data shows that investing energy in securing better gender equality has not decreased rates of dowry and related abuse.
In India dowry is traditionally used as a way of displaying and increasing a familys status. As the daughter mirrors the status of her family it is also seen as a way to preserve the family honour. With the increase in wealth of those of a lower social status more families can now afford to give a dowry and families of a lower social status often use it to emulate the behaviour and status of the upper classes.
The study involved interviews with different age groups of both men and women. The older women said young brides not being properly prepared for marriage nor being able or willing to fit in with the behaviour of their new family were key factors contributing to domestic violence. Of the younger women who reported experience of abuse per cent said their motherinlaw was the perpetrator of the violence.
Our research highlights that many women once they reach the status of motherinlaw are so invested in the patriarchal system that they become the main harassers and perpetrators of violence against young women said Dr Bradley.
The study was conducted in Engandiyour village in Kerala south India and was split into two phases. The first phase involved structured interviews with women and eight men under the age of from various religions and social class groupings. The participants were asked questions about their experiences of married life and the part dowry played in this. The women were also asked whether they had experienced any form of violence physical or psychological.
During the second phase researchers conducted indepth interviews with three focus groups seven women aged a local prominent marriage broker and two members of a high profile womens organisation in Kerala. The three focus groups comprised a local womens selfhelp group whose members were aged a group of women aged and a group of three Hindu male community leaders. These interviews could be more personalised and allowed the researchers to be more flexible with their questioning.
Most of the younger women interviewed saw dowry as one of the main problems faced by women but also had no intention of stopping the practice. Those who had experienced mental or physical abuse linked to their dowry still intended to give a dowry when their daughter married as they feared negative repercussions if they didnt do this.
The study did find holes in the patriarchal system and ways of widening those holes. Although most of the men interviewed supported the practice of dowry and didnt see it as a problem their views differed on the role of the woman once she is married with some men supporting the idea of a married woman working and advancing her education. Some of the younger men seemed indifferent at the thought of dowry not being practised.
Dr Bradley believes this is a positive sign and suggests the way forward includes engaging more with men especially younger men whose views about dowry could be influenced for the better.
If young men have greater exposure to both the arguments against dowry and the evidence which highlights its negative impact their views may be transformed.
Other suggestions include strengthening the voice of those women who oppose the practice of dowry highlighting to whole communities the problems dowry can cause for women and monitoring the shift in attitudes towards dowry and marriage to see whether these actions are working.
Conversely in Thailand the dowry is given from the groom to the bride. It is often shown off at the wedding and now on Facebook etc.. I have sometimes heard complaints from wives comparing dowry sizes to others but have not myself heard of domestic abuse arising from it.
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Fears that dowryrelated violence in Australias Indian community is on the rise have prompted calls to change laws to protect women.
Psychiatrist Dr Mandula OConnor and lawyer Molina Asthana are lobbying to change dowry regulations in Australia to better reflect Indian laws and act as a disincentive for men.
The ancient dowry custom is outlawed in India but remains a widespread practice. There are fears that marriages are falling apart with husbands retaining the valuable offerings leaving women broke and vulnerable.
Jatinda claims domestic violence from dowry disputes contributed to the breakdown of her first marriage.
All he cared about was dowry. He didnt notice anything else love care compassion nothing. I think it was all about dowry.
She says percent of domestic violence referrals from the Indian community are dowry related.
One of her patients Kumla said she contemplated suicide after suffering violence at the hands of her husband because he and his family considered the dowry offer to be insufficient.
For acts of cruelty done any time after marriage or before marriage in relation to dowry could lead to imprisonment up to years and a fine said Molina Asthana.
This is a contentious issue as the dowry is still engrained in Indian culture and the practice still takes place often passed off as a gift.
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The sad case of Neha Chhikara who jumped from the Royal Caribbean cruise on December continues to receive widespreadattention in India. Her friends have expressed condolences to the Chhikara family for her untimely death.
Newspapers in India are now reporting that the family of the accused crew member Ankit Dalal has responded tothe charges. In an article Accused InLaws Speak Out the HinduTimes states that Mr. Dalals father Dr.Satyavir Dalal releaseda statementstating that hisdaughterinlaw was depressed andtookantidepressantmedications. Hesuggestedthat this may have led her to suicide.
Dr. Dalal is the chiefmedical officer for the Gurgaon Civil Hospital.His statementraises issues whether there is aconfidentiality privilege in India for medical information of this type.
The Indian newspapers are suggesting that an investigation may be underway in theBahamas which is the law of the flag and the incident may have occurred in Bahamian waters.
It is also reported that Ms. Chhikara a former air hostess for Indigo airlinescame to the U.S. in mid December. Shehad been acceptedto work as a crew member aboard a Royal Caribbean cruise ship. At the time of the incident she had apparently not yet begun to work and her status was technically thatas a passenger.
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It seems like Karisma Kapoor and Sunjay Kapurs divorce case is getting uglier as time passes. Now we hear that former actress Karisma Kapoor has filed a dowry harassment case against Sunjay Kapur and his mother Rani Surinder Kapur who holds the family finances. While the couple had filed for divorce on mutual grounds earlier Karisma later withdrew her consent after stating that Sunjay had failed to meet certain financial commitments they had agreed on. The case is currently pending before the Bandra family court. However post this the two had filed a fresh divorce application where in Sunjay claimed that Karisma had failed as a wife mother and daughterinlaw and that she had married him for money. He also claimed that the actress was using access to the children to demand money and added that she had denied his ailing father access to them as well.
Uttarakhand is becoming unsafe for brides with the latest police data showing that the state has witnessed percent rise in dowry deaths compared to even as there has been a drop in rape cases during the same period.
According to the data in the year cases of dowry deaths were reported from across the state as compared to when such cases were reported.
As per statistics maximum cases of murder for dowry took place in Haridwar followed by Udhamsingh Nagar Dehra Dun Nainital and Pauri Garhwal .
While the hilly districts of Pithoragarh and Champawat reported three dowry deaths during the year Bageshwar reported two deaths. Uttarkashi Tehri and Chamoli reported one case of dowry death each during the same year.
However the state witnessed a drop in rape cases during the year . As many as rape cases across the state were registered during the year which is slightly less than the previous years figure of .
Udhamsingh Nagar district saw a sharp increase in rape incidents with cases as against the figure of in .
Almora and Rudraprayag districts kept a clean record with no incident of dowry deaths or rape reported during the year .
According to the data police took quick action in most of the cases with . percent arrest being made in cases of dowry deaths and . percent in rape cases.
Police arrested people in connection with dowry deaths and people allegedly involved in rape cases. Chargesheets have been filed in most of the cases. 
Star News in India which offers viewers hour Hindi news has posted a video interview of the family of Neha Chhikara regarding the death of their daughter.
The family claimsthat Ms. Chhikarashusband Ankit Dalal tortured her. Thisalleged mistreatmentled to her suicide on theRoyal Caribbean cruise ship the Chhikara family contends.
The video containsphotographs of the married coupleand family members in earlier times emails sent by Ms. Chhikara from the cruise ship to her brothercomplaining of abuse thetearful comments in Hindu by the grieving familyand video of the police commenting onthe dowry complaint againstthe Dalal family.
The Press Trust of India reports that the police in the city of Gurgaon lodged a FIR dowry complaint of harassment against Royal Caribbean crew member Ankit Dalal and his familyafter his wife NehaChhikaraapparentlycommitted suicide by jumping off the Royal Caribbean cruise ship Monarch of the Seas on December .
Dowry is an agreementwherethe brides family agrees to pay a certain amount of money andor goods in kind to the grooms family as part of thearrangement of marriages in India.
The complaint policelodgedagainst the Dalal familyalso includescharges of beating andcriminal breach of trust.
This story raises issues of what happens to young womenwhose families are accused on not paying sufficient dowry. There are numerous reports of violence in dowry related disputes. Consider reading and reviewing the Flickr photographs ofRoopas Story the Voice of One Dowry Victim.
International cruise lines like Royal Caribbean employ crew members from countries around the world including many crew members from India who work in the food and beverage departments of the cruise ships.
This cruise line is suppose to have a zero tolerance program against harassment of women. If the reports of abusein the press are accuratethe issue arises why thecrew members supervisorsor other crew members did not intervene before this tragedy occurred.
Photograph of Neha Chhikara IBN Live Woman on cruise ship jumps to death inlaws booked
Dowry prices in some parts of the Kingdom are spiraling out of control at a time when the percentage of unmarried women has reached an unprecedented level. Recently Makkah Emir Prince Khalid AlFaisal ordered governors to hold meetings with the chiefs of tribes in the region and draft a document to cap dowry prices and wedding expenses to deal with the higher number of unmarried women and the increasing wedding expenses.
Young men wishing to get married nowadays can no longer afford the sizeable dowries. Serious steps need to be taken to avert future social and economic problems that can arise out of this social problem AlRiyadh daily reports.
Salma AlDawsari a college student believes that putting a cap on dowry prices is not enough expensive dowries are not the only reason why the percentage of unmarried women is increasing.
Look around and you will see how young men spend tens of thousands on cars or exquisite vacations. For me I want my dowry to be not less than SR. I do not want a big wedding because I do not want to start my marital life with debts AlDawsari.
She blames young men for the higher rate of unmarried women because men get their expectations high when it comes to the dream wife. They want a strikingly beautiful and pampered woman and on top of that she should be a teacher or an employee in the public education sector.
If a man really wants to get married he can take a loan from the charities that help young men and women get married. If there is a will there is a way AlDawsari said.
Wafa Muhammad a housewife believes that SR is a lot of money for dowry and the majority of young men cannot afford it. A reasonable dowry should be SR. Let us not forget that in addition to the dowry a young man has to provide accommodation put furniture in it pay for the wedding hall and food. Middleincome men find it difficult to afford all these expenses. I am not against small marriages where only the close relatives are invited she explained.
Hamad AlTamimi a real estate consultant is in favor of capping the dowry prices as most young men receive an average monthly salary of only SR. If their families do not help them these young men cannot afford all the expenses. Todays women want to live in separate accommodation and refuse to live in the same place with a husbands family. Besides they want a fancy wedding.
It is these traditions that make young men suffer financially and make a dent in their family budgets AlTamimi pointed out.
Naif AlQahtani is an official registrar of marriage contracts at the Ministry of Justice. He noticed that the average dowry for marriages contracts he executed was SR. In some cases the dowry written in the contract was as high as SR. Some parents believe that the value of a girl depends on the value of the dowry. Consenting to a less dowry means that the parents have undervalued their daughter. No doubt they will be stigmatized by other members of society AlQahtani said.
Hind AlDerayes a sociologist criticizes high dowries and blames social traditions and customs for this negative practice that if anything has resulted in an increase in the number of unmarried women.
When a young man graduates from college he will usually face great difficulty in finding a goodpaying job. If his family is a middleclass one it will be hard for him to get married paying a big dowry AlDerayes said.
She called upon parents and young women to take the difficult circumstances of young men into consideration. It is better for a wife to help her husband start their marriage without any debts.
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This is the heartbreaking moment young girls in Kenya are sold into arranged marriages for a dowry of livestock as part of a traditional ceremony which marks their passing into womanhood.
Clad in tribal jewellery and with their hair tied up in braids some of the women can be seen struggling as they are hauled away traded by their fathers for goats three camels and ten cows.
Many of the girls who are members of the Pokot tribe are not aware they have been bargained away until their husbands come to collect them after spending a month in isolation before the ceremony takes place.
Often their parents will keep the details of the marriage hidden for fear that their daughter will run away if she finds out about the deal they have made.
As part of the ritual which lasts a day and night the village men will also select a bull from the herd of cows which the women will punch into submission before it is executed with a spearthrust to the heart.
This particular ceremony took place in the bush around miles km from the town of Marigat in Baringo County which is home to around plains Pokot.
Many of the girls will be as young as despite Kenyan law now forbidding childhood marriage. As with many tribal customs however strict adherence to tradition is considered more important than complying with the law.
The Pokots developed their social structure and practices in order to maximise their chances of survival of each household in an often difficult and hostile environment but they are coming to be viewed as barbaric and unacceptable in modernday Kenya.
During the ceremony the girls will sing and stay standing from the afternoon through out the night and the morning after. At the end of the ceremony the girls and the boys of the community dance together supervised by elders.
While the images show the girls shock and distress at what is happening to them it is unlikely to be the first time they have suffered hardships at the hands of their parents and tribal tradition.
The Pokot people are also known to practice female genital mutilation a practice whereby parts of a womans sexual organs are removed using scissors a razor blade or glass before they are sewn up and have their legs bound together until the wounds heal.
The tradition is carried out at a much younger age than the forced marriages in the belief it will help to keep the girls pure until the time comes for them to undergo the ceremony that will see them become women.
However as the ceremonies are usually carried out by unskilled quack doctors operating miles from any hospital and with no anesthetic or antibiotics deaths are common due to blood loss or infection.
If the girls do not die then the stitches can cause them terrible pain and discomfort for the rest of their lives especially during childbirth.
As with child marriage the practice has now been outlawed in Kenya with a maximum penalty of life in jail if a girl dies but so far there have been no successful prosecutions.
Between Kenya and Uganda there are around native Pokot speakers with the vast majority living inWest Pokot county.
Pokot society is largely divided in two between the hills Pokot who live in rainy uplands and are mostly farmers and the plains Pokot who roam the dry lowlands and are mostly cattle herders.
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India MNN Outreach becomes part of the solution to Indias complex womens issues 
Lucknow. Chaman Lal a balding engineer in his mid twenties is facing serious trouble in cracking a perfect dowry deal due to constant hair fall.
Chamans hair fall problem started around a year back but it was in January this year when his parents realized its negative impact on cashing him off.
Last year when Chamans head was completely covered with hair I checked his market value after consulting experts from dowry business. They had valued him something around Rs lakh in cash and a Hyundai i Daman Lal Chamans father disclosed his sons worth in .
But Chamans market value started falling with his falling hair soon after and within a period of months it was reduced to Rs lakh in cash and the car model downgraded from Hyundai i to Hyundai i.
Chamans father was so shocked he took around a week to recover from the mental trauma caused by the loss.
I never realized that the hair which our maid was sweeping away every morning and throwing in the garbage bin was so precious Mr Daman Lal continued If his hair fall continues at this rate who knows we may have to settle down with a second hand Maruti .
Panicked Chamans parents have begun a massive search operation to find a suitable bride for him before his its too late.
We have informed all our relatives and created Chamans account on all matrimonial sites. I will not let him go Kingfishers way averred Chamans uncle a stock broker by profession.
However with each passing month Chamans value is decreasing despite taking hair control treatment from likes of Dr Batra.
Meanwhile doctors have advised Chaman to relax and not worry too much about the falling dowry rate as the stress caused by that might further speed up the hair fall rate.
The practice of Dowry is yet another symbol of the devalued status of women in parts of the world. In certain communities there is the belief that the low status of girls has to be compensated for through payment of a dowry by the parents of the girl to the husband at the time of marriage. This has resulted in a number of dowry crimes including mental and physical torture starvation rape and even the burning alive of women by their husbands andor inlaws in cases where dowry payments are not met.
Though the practice of dowry has demonstrated itself to be extremely detrimental and harmful o the wellbeing of women it is still a difficult practice for many families to give up due to social and cultural pressures. Originally the custom was meant to empower women in their new home. The rational was that with her dowry she would not be entering her husbands home empty handed. She could bring her own wealth and therefore be a more equal member of her new family and be less prone to maltreatment. Unfortunately the tradition has turned into a business for some. Many families rely on dowries as a source of income at the time of marriage. Many grooms and their families even request material goods such as cars houses and household items. Moreover if the brides family does not pay an amount that the grooms family finds suitable the women is harassed to ask her parents for more.
The government of India has taken formative steps to stop dowry as it was outlawed in under the Dowry Prohibition Act . Unfortunately the law is hard to enforce and has done little to change the belief system that sustains it. A recently enacted civil law called the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act PWDVA has however revamped hope in the Indian governments ability to curb the practice of dowry. Through the implementation of PWDVA women have been more successful in obtaining protection orders from courts in regards to claims of dowry related harassment . Furthermore officers appointed under the PWDVA operate under the direct control of the criminal courts which has proven greater effectiveness in reclaiming dowry items for women from their matrimonial homes 
In Canada the practice of dowry has been known to lead to harassment and extortion. That said many from South Asian communities have continued to exchange dowry at the time of marriage in Canada. This has led to another major social problem of abandoned brides in India. Countless reports are now emerging of young women being married to men from Canada only to learn that they did so to take the dowry and run. Typically in these cases after a dowry is paid and marriage consummated the new husbands return to their homes abroad and in many cases only bring their wives with them if their inlaws agree to cough up more money.
The man in entitled to divorce in case the wife falsely accuses him and the inlaws of any kind cruelty under Section A of the Indian Penal Code made clear a ruling by the Supreme Court.
In a landmark judgment the Bombay High Court strongly opposed a businessman fathers attempt to wriggle out of his responsibility to provide the necessary maintenance to his minor son. Further the court increasedMore.
According to an official in the Union Ministry of Women and Child Welfare the Centre is considering to introduce penal provisions in the Dowry Prohibition Act. The provisions will thus ensure punishment or penaltyMore.
The Supreme Court of India has expressed concern over how an increasing number of women in the country are misusing the anti dowry law toharasstheir husband andin laws. Solely created for the purpose of protectingMore.
It seems like Karisma Kapoor and Sunjay Kapurs divorce case is getting uglier as time passes. Now we hear that former actress Karisma Kapoor has filed a dowry harassment case against Sunjay Kapur and his mother Rani Surinder Kapur who holds the family finances. While the couple had filed for divorce on mutual grounds earlier Karisma later withdrew her consent after stating that Sunjay had failed to meet certain financial commitments they had agreed on. The case is currently pending before the Bandra family court. However post this the two had filed a fresh divorce application where in Sunjay claimed that Karisma had failed as a wife mother and daughterinlaw and that she had married him for money. He also claimed that the actress was using access to the children to demand money and added that she had denied his ailing father access to them as well.
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After six months of investigation and exhausting all leads Kingsport police are now seeking public assistance with a home burglary case where in jewelry was stolen.
According to a Thursday press release from the Kingsport Police Department officers were called to a Hillhurst Circle home on Nov. . The victims had returned from a fourday vacation to find the inside of their residence ransacked. Police say that the home had been left locked when they departed and there were no signs of forced entry.
Taken in the incident was a collection of jewelry that was part of a dowry from an Indian wedding. Police have released images of the items in hopes of soliciting tips noting that their various unique designs should make the pieces easily recognizable. They were valued at approximately .
Also stolen was several thousand dollars in computer equipment five Dell laptops two Lenova laptops two Lenova Think Pads and one Westin external hard drive. The suspect or suspects also unsuccessfully attempted to remove a large flat screen television from a wall.
Police say that while doing so they appear to have left a piece of evidence behind. A black ball cap with blue Under Armour logo was found on the floor near the TV. Police say it had been stained with what appears to be splotches of white paint.
The new Divine Worship missal which combines the ordinary Roman rite with Anglican liturgical texts dating back to will be introduced in Anglican ordinariate parishes this Sunday.
WASHINGTON When Susan White converted to the Catholic faith years ago she made the painful choice to leave behind the Anglican devotions prayers and traditions that had formed her Christian life up until that point.
I kept some of them privately and quietly she told the Register. I would say the Prayer of Humble Access under my breath before receiving Communion.
White said that for many Anglicans also called Episcopalians in the U.S. even the thought of crossing the Tiber and exile from these traditions can be very painful.
White said this new permanent missal is a gesture of love from Romefor Catholics from the Anglican tradition the Thames Anglican water now forever mingles with the Roman Tiber. It sends a signal they want all our separated brethren to come home.
Now what Rome has said is We want you to bring your treasures with you she said. It is tremendously moving. 
This is really a Roman liturgy just in an Anglican liturgical tradition and in a missal approved by Rome said Whites pastor Father Mark Lewis of St. Lukes ordinariate parish which worships at Immaculate Conception Church in Washington. It represents the good things of Anglicanism that held Catholic truth and developed Catholicminded men and women throughout the centuries even though they may have been separated from Rome.
Any Catholic can attend this new Roman rite in the Anglican tradition and fulfill his or her Sunday Mass obligation. All Catholics can participate in the ordinariate community life even if they are not formal members and attend Masses. Formal membership in the ordinariate is possible for Catholics who have an Anglican heritage Anglican Episcopalian Methodist or African Methodist Episcopal or who are baptized or confirmed in the ordinariate or who have family members baptized or confirmed in the ordinariate.
Father Lewis told the Register that the Divine Worship missal sends a powerful signal to Anglicans that they can become Catholics and keep their Anglican patrimony which is now permanently grounded in the Catholic Church.
With this missal it gives us stability. Were going to be here this is forever he said. The stability of the liturgy will not only help his parish evangelize but also provide a bridge for Anglicans that have taken a waitandsee posture toward joining the Church.
Father Lewis said the approved variation of the Roman rite also sends a powerful message to the entire Church that the faithful in the ordinariate are solid Catholics faithful to the magisterium and the teachings of the Church and are here to stay.
Accompanying the missal is a decree from Cardinal Robert Sarah prefect of the Congregation of Divine Worship declaring that by Pope Franciss authority the congregation now approves this missal as a legitimate part of the Roman rite. The cardinal explains that the new missal reflects the customs and traditions of the Anglican liturgical and spiritual patrimony that have developed over the course of years and are in accord with the Catholic faith.
The prefect stated the missal proceeds from the Holy Fathers desire to heal wounds of division in the Body of Christ. For this reason Pope Benedict XVI approved in the apostolic constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus which created personal ordinariates for Anglicans wishing to enter into the full communion of the Catholic Church.
Father Timothy Perkins director of worship for the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter which covers North America and pastor of the Catholic Church of St. Mary the Virgin in Arlington Texas told the Register that Catholics of Anglican heritage and Catholics who worship according to the ordinary or extraordinary uses will recognize familiar elements and patterns of the Mass.
All Latinrite Catholics will recognize the Roman canon on Sunday but hear it prayed in the elevated language that harkens back to Shakespeares time.
For instance instead of responding and with your spirit the congregation says and with thy spirit. The peoples response during the Offertory It is right and just is rendered in the Divine Worship missal as It is meet and right so to do. The phrase the living and the dead appears throughout the liturgy as the quick and the dead.
Catholics used to the extraordinary form of the Roman Missal also known as the Tridentine Mass will recognize such elements in the liturgy as the prayers at the foot of the altar the Asperges me and the Last Gospel.
In addition the ordinariate priest typically prays ad orientem facing the altar with the people and communicants receive under both forms while kneeling.
It is very clear we are grounded in the heritage of the ages in communion with the entire Church universal Father Perkins said.
Divine Worship also restores to the Roman rite a certain accent of English Christianity lostsince the Church of England split from the Catholic Church in .
Liturgical practices known to Merry Olde England before the Reformation when Catholics there prayed the Sarum use of the Roman rite are now recovered said Andrew Jordan a physics professor at the University of Rochester who belongs to St. Albans Fellowship in Rochester N.Y. Jordan who is helping his ordinariate community get ready for their first Mass with the new missal pointed to the Votive Mass of the Five Wounds as an example.
This was very popular in medieval England and seemed to have been lost to Western Christianity but it is right here as an option for a votive Mass he said.
There are also a series of Masses dedicated to the Virgin Mary drawn from that preReformation era when England was known as Our Ladys Dowry because its devotion to the Blessed Mother was so strong.
Its a Catholic missal in every sense Jordan said adding that former Anglicans now can experience a far richer English patrimony than they ever had in the Anglican Communion.
In terms of evangelization two of the most powerful things are truth and beauty he said. I think people who experience this missal will see truth and beauty and be drawn to God.
Father Perkins noted that Benedict XVI envisioned that the ordinariates would enrich other Catholics around them.
The new missal also allows Latinrite priests who do not belong to the ordinariate to concelebrate with an ordinariate priest. They can also obtain permission to celebrate this form of the Mass for a community of Catholics of Anglican heritage that lacks a regular ordinariate priest.
The Anglican tradition also includes morning and evening communal prayer known as Matins and Evensong from the Divine Office. At a number of Catholic parishes this coincides with Eucharistic adoration. The next step for the ordinariates will be working with Rome to produce an authoritative Divine Office in the Anglican tradition.
Filed under anglican ordinariate anglican patrimony cardinal robert sarah divine worship missal liturgy peter jesserer smith
This venerable worship should become the standard for all Englishspeaking Catholics.
Amazing to read article. Yet I for one feel something like the Older Brother in the Prodigal Son story. Mind you I dont want to complain exactly but to vent a bit. I mean Ive had to put up with Mass in shall we say a very poor standard of English for all these years. ICEL the International Committee for English in the Liturgy which is actually a sort of Catholic liturgical version of ISIS created in the English translation that we had to stumble through and endure all these years until recently and I mean just a few years ago as in . Thats years And remember that ICEL tried in to get an ever more awful version approved when the Vatican lost patience with em and slapped em down. 
So now as the Older Brother I see the Prodigals return and they get a far classier much more noble English Mass than the rest of us have to deal with and also elements of the Tridentine Mass that the standard Ordinary Form Mass doesnt have plus buckets of old preReformation England Catholic devotions to boot. And to top it off the priest faces the East ad orientem Wow. it sounds simply scrumptious 
And its pretty clear that if one has to attend Mass in English any language lover would want to attend an Ordinate Mass now. 
So ok Im very happy for the Anglicans. And my friends I think we SHOULD lobby the Church that we ourselves get to participate in this gorgeous liturgy ourselves wo having to join an Ordinate Church.
Ive also a question. With there being an English English Latin rite and the Tridentine Mass making a strong come back and then theres every sort of holyrollin charismatic Mass and suburban American dinnertheater churches Masses no different than what the local mega Protestant churches have and even with the Germans having their own Mass its held once a year and the meetin haus is the tax office miss it and the hierarchy there will REALLY get nasty with you can I make just one little request 
It looks beautiful and seems to offer far more than the standard version of the novus or do but it is very expensive. I hope that CTS can produce a Peoples Version soon.
This is GOOD NEWS indeed. Are copies available for purchase for those of us who are in countries where The Ordinariate has yet to be established
to buy your own copy if you like. There are many Sarum elements but this missal takes material from many sources including the Anglican missals the prayerbooks and the Sarum Use.
I sure wish we had this Missal in the Latin Rite. I especially miss the beautiful Last Gospel which is still said in the Tridentine Mass but in Latin. As of now unfortunately we dont have a church like this in our diocese or Id go to Mass there frequently. I also hope that the eventually any Catholic in the Latin Rite whether we had Anglican ancestors or not will be allowed to join. This seems a much more reverent Mass.
If it were available in our area I would go. I grew up in an Episcopal household although baptized a Methodist. I always thought of myself as an Episcopalian. I would like to go back to that.
This is a wonderful development for the Anglican Catholics. Does the missal contain the old Catholic prereformation Sarum Rite as well
Wow lucky Anglicans indeed. I wonder where an Anglican Roman Catholic church may be in Wales Let me know please follow up comments are ticked . Would this become popular with Catholics and could Roman Catholic priests use this in RC non Anglican churches in the future My first Bible was a KJ a gift from when I was a toddler and a bridesmaid. My father was waiting for a newer version of the Catholic Bible to come out. He never did get me a Bible. It was recently that I bought myself the Douay Rheims Bible I should have been reading then although I have had the Jerusalemn Catholic Bible for a long time as well as the KJ. The worst thing about the KJ is that when ones Nana gives one a little book on Bible readings one can get very confused and lost because the Apocrypha is missing in the KJ. I wonder if the KJ will be altered slightly and have the Apocrypha added to it now
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In March the Committee on Reforms of the Criminal Justice System set up by the Ministry of Home Affairs chaired by Justice V S Malimath suggested amendments to Section A of the Indian Penal Code IPC on the plea that it was being misused.
Section A is a criminal law under which a woman and her parental family can charge the womans husband and any or all of his family members including elderly parents and minoraged siblings of physical or mental cruelty. Anyone charged with Section A is liable to be arrested by the police without any initial investigation.
To analyse whether Section A was actually being misused as indicated in the Malimath Committee Report the Centre for Social Research CSR in Delhi conducted a survey across Delhi Karnataka Rajasthan and West Bengal. What emerged out of oneonone interviews and focus group discussions involving victims accused families of both sides police lawyers judges and NGOs was a grim picture of oppression and manipulation. On the one hand nearly million Indian women were found cowering under statistics of domestic violence. On the other . per cent of the cases studied were proven to be false.
Just as there are helpless women being tortured for dowry by their inlaws there are silvers who are being harassed on false charges of seeking dowry mental harassment and cruel behaviour. Many innocent elderly citizens are being dragged into court unscrupulously by their daughtersinlaw and their families under allegations of Section A Section of the Dowry Prohibition Act and Section of the IPC Breach of Trust which refers to nonreturn of the gifts and jewellery given by the womans parents and relatives during the wedding.
Although preliminary investigation is required after the registration of the First Information Report FIR arrest warrants are issued without examining whether family members are actually abusive or have been falsely implicated. What might be merely a case of mutual incompatibility or clash of ego between the couple sometimes ends up being portrayed as collective abuse of a woman by her inlaws. Elderly parents are more vulnerable to being arrested and put in jail even before the trial begins. As most men in India continue to live with their parents even after marriage parents are often accused of poisoning the minds of their sons against their daughtersinlaw and are therefore usually held influential in causing mental and physical harassment.
The lengthy trials for cases booked under Section A can go beyond seven years and drive many families to yield to extortion blackmail and compromise through hefty outofcourt settlements. As most silvers are not aware of the complexities of the legal machinery they are also vulnerable to being misguided by corrupt elements in the judiciary and end up running from pillar to post. There have been instances where men and their old parents have committed suicide owing to the humiliation and public mudslinging that inevitably follows a single night spent in police custody.
Even the caller tone of R P Chughs mobile phone is a loud proclamation of his year long crusade. Try calling this Supreme Court advocate on his mobile phone and it trills the songMujhe meri biwi se bachao save me from my wife. A man who has suffered badly at the hands of his own wife Chugh has spent more than two decades defending men from false claims of domestic violence and dowry harassment. The flamboyant advocate remembers his formative years when he grew up with Marxist ideologies and worked for womens emancipation. Chugh admits to almost turning into a misogynist after he suffered from severe harassment from his wife in his first marriage. Almost per cent of the women in Tihar jail have been booked under Section A many of them old women who have been accused of torture and cruelty without any trial says Chugh. He agrees that laws against dowry harassment and domestic violence are necessary in our society where millions of women do suffer submissively. But he also feels that fair amendments are urgently required otherwise these laws will be rampantly used to victimise an innocent man for heavy compensation or simply harassment or blackmail.
Arun Murthy a freelance writer established this forum for harassed husbands and their parents in June . He was driven by his own experience when he was summoned to court in a false dowry harassment case filed by his brothers wife four years ago. An arrest warrant was issued against Murthy and his family. Later he wrote an article in a local newspaper venting his anguish and decided to start a help line to reach out to other people caught in similar situations. Within three days he received over calls. His friends two architects lent him space in their office and telephone accessibility two hours twice a week. Within three months Sangyabalya was registered as an NGO with its own dedicated hour helpline. Today the group attends to over calls every month. A significant number of callers are NRIs. The notion that NRIs would be more vulnerable to parting with money under duress make them easy targets says Murthy. Sangyabalya has members including an advocate and a counsellor who meet every fortnight to share grievances and discuss legal loopholes and ways to overcome them.
What rankles is that no punitive action is taken against a woman even when her allegations are proved to be false says Murthy. He emphasises that even the Supreme Court has labelled the misuse of Section A as legal terrorism and admitted that many complaints are notbona fide and have been filed with an oblique motive. In such cases acquittal of the accused does not wipe out the ignominy suffered during and prior to the trial.
These days M R Gupta spends most of his time poring through heavy tomes on Indian law. The civil engineer is appearing for his LLB exams because he wants to be fully empowered when he fights his daughterinlaw who has filed false allegations of harassment against Guptas family under Section A. He is the director of Protect Indian Family an offshoot of Save Indian Family an international network of NGOs and individuals for victims of misuse of genderbiased laws.
Gupta shares his crusade with P R Gokul the other director of Protect Indian Family forum and a past victim of false charges of dowry harassment. Gupta and Gokul meet coordinators and members every Saturday at Guptas cybercaf in Mulund Mumbai. The forum took shape when Gokul expressed his views in an online chat group while he was fighting the allegations against him. Today Protect Indian Family has members in Mumbai and branches in Delhi Kolkata Chennai Bangalore Hyderabad and Jaipur. Gokul still remembers the plight of his own parents who were jailed without investigation.
There are many helpless old couples who approach us says Gokul. He has observed that silvers feel guilty and responsible about their sons plight as often they have arranged the match. According to him the couple should have the freedom to explore their emotional and mental compatibility before marriage. As a case study Gokul points out a case where a man and his widowed mother lost possession of their own house when they were falsely charged with mental harassment and domestic violence.
At a recent conference on the misuse of genderbiased laws a young woman confessed that she had framed her husbands family falsely under charges of dowry harassment. When asked for her motive she simply said that she had done it on the behest of her parents who wanted her husband to come and stay with them. The woman wanted to know how she could extricate her inlaws from the shackles of law but she didnt know that the damage was already done says Durga Prasad Kollu a yearold IT professional and the president of Sahana a Hyderabadbased support group that had organised the conference. Sahana has over members. Most of them meet every Sunday to discuss the correct legal action for victims and to offer a sounding board.
In when Kollu was posted in Switzerland he was summoned to India on false charges of dowry harassment filed by his sisterinlaw against his family. The case still drags on and Kollu says his brother who was earlier an IT engineer has become a recluse drained of all his money. Sahana has help lines in Ahmedabad Bengaluru Chennai Delhi Jaipur Kanpur Kerala Kolkata Mumbai Nasik Pune and in the US. It receives about four to five calls every week. Almost per cent of the callers are parents of victims. Besides campaigning for better legislative measures Kollu likes to try a refreshing approach to reduce their agony. Recently he took members on a trip to Nagarjunasagar Fall.
The Law Commission of Indias recommendation that the antidowry law be suitably amended to dilute the provision of immediate arrest of the accused is sensible. The suggestion comes in light of the fact that an increasing number of dowry complaints have been found to be false. That Section A of the Indian Penal Code dealing with physical and mental cruelty by husbands and their relatives over dowry empowers the complainant to have the accused arrested even before a proper investigation into the case only incentivises misuse of the law. Not only does this amount to gross injustice but also significantly damages to the antidowry movement.
In this respect the law panels proposal to introduce a day reconciliation period before the police arrest an accused under the antidowry law makes eminent sense. To prevent misuse the law should also be amended to allow for arrests only after a proper investigation not before. The Supreme Court has already described false dowry cases as legal terrorism. Using the antidowry law as a tool for extortion is tantamount to human rights violation. Hence in the interest of justice diluting draconian provisions of the antidowry law without taking away the essence of the legislation is a step in the right direction.
The expert panels recommendation on amending and toning down the antidowry law is a classic example of missing the wood for the trees. As matters stand is the antidowry law misused on occasion Yes it is just like every other law. That is the nature of the beast there will always be people who find and exploit loopholes in any system of rules. This is particularly true in India where the judicial system is hopelessly clogged and the police prone to corruption. These things will not change if the law is watered down. All that will happen is that the fight against dowry a far more insidious and widespread evil than misuse of the antidowry law will be compromised.
A simple look at the statistics will show how far we still have to go in stamping out the system of dowry and the subjugation of and violence against women it engenders. According to the National Crime Records Bureau dowry deaths were reported in which climbed to in and in . And that is just the reported cases it is a safe assumption that the actual number of dowry deaths is significantly higher. This more than halfacentury after dowry was made illegal. What possible sense does it make to defang the antidowry law at a time when dowry deaths are actually on the rise
On the face of it certainly the amended changes seem sensible. But given how rigidly patriarchal much of Indian society is particularly in rural areas where the dowry system is even harder to uproot all they will do is leave the perpetrators at large and give them enough time to pressure or coerce the woman and her family into withdrawing their complaint. And that would be a far greater injustice than anything that is currently done under the aegis of the antidowry law.
The apex court said that courts should be cautious in implicating family members as the wife sometime wants to settle scores arising out of teething problems or skirmish of domestic bickering.
If the FIR as it stands against accused more so against the coaccused specially in a matter arising out of matrimonial bickering it would be clear abuse of legal and judicial process to mechanically send the named accused in the FIR to undergo trial a bench of justices T S Thakur and Gyan Sudha Misra said.
The courts are expected to adopt a cautious approach in matters of quashing specially in cases of matrimonial dispute whether the FIR in fact discloses commission of an offence by the relatives or the FIR prima facie discloses a case of overimplication by involving the entire family at instance of the complainant who is out to settle her scores arising out of teething problem or skirmish of domestic bickering while settling down in her new matrimonial surrounding it said.
Police officers in Karnataka have been told to exercise restraint while making arrests on plaints relating to offences under Section A of the IPC. A recent circular has laid out guidelines to handle such complaints. An arrest under Section A should be made only with a written order from a police officer of the rank of superintendent in the districts or deputy commissioner in commissionerates. Arrests should be resorted to only for acceptable reasons the circular said.
Counsellors will mediate between spouses Counsellors reports will be sent to DCPsSPs Officers will invoke Section A if theyre not satisfied with counselling results Investigating officers can arrest accused husband and inlaws only with written order from jurisdictional DCPSP All dowry plaints will be screened
According to a recent circular all complaints should be screened by professional and trained family counsellors to weed out frivolous cases. Their reports will be submitted to DCPs or officers of equivalent rank only if they are not satisfied with counselling results can Section A be invoked.
The advisory follows recommendations of the Rajya Sabha Committee of Petitions which has asked the state governments to take effective measures to curb misuse of Section A. The circular also mandates that the guidelines should be displayed at all police stations to ensure the public are aware of their rightsliabilities. The dowry harassment law should not be invoked against juveniles the advisory says. In case of any exceptions the investigating officer should ensure children are put under the care of the child welfare committee for interim care.
A woman and a police officer who allegedly tried to implicate a man in a dowry case have got trapped in their own net.
A woman and a police officer who allegedly tried to implicate a man in a dowry case have got trapped in their own net.
A harassed Nishant Saini has filed a retaliatory complaint in court seeking the arrest of his wife Anjali Dargan for forcefully giving dowry which he never demanded.
Police officer Asha Sinha who helped Dargan is also in trouble. Metropolitan magistrate MM Saurabh Pratap Singh Laler ordered deputy commissioner of police DCP of south Delhi to take action against the officer for failing to submit a report despite the courts order.
Saini an architect married Dargan an executive with ITC in . But their relationship soured within six months. Dargan slapped a dowry case against Saini alleging that he had taken Rs lakh in dowry and forcibly kept her jewellery and stridhan brides article worth Rs lakh. Though Saini refuted the charges he spent six days in Tihar jail. He also lost his job.
Later Saini filed a counter complaint with the police accusing his wife and inlaws of forcing him to accept the money he never demanded. When the police refused to register his complaint Saini approached the court under Section of the CrPc seeking action against his wife and her parents under Section of the Dowry Prohibition Act DPA. Section DPA is a nonbailable non compoundable cannot be withdrawn cognisable offence for giving taking or abetting giving or taking of dowry. It carries a minimum punishment of five years in prison. On the other hand Section A cruelty for dowry which Dargan had filed against Saini has a penalty of three years in prison.
Based on Sainis complaint the judge who was convinced that the wife was involved in the dowry offense ordered officer Sinha to find out whether the money was willingly given by the womans family or under pressure from the grooms side. However Sinha who had earlier opposed Sainis bail failed to submit a report and told the court that no case could be registered against the bride or her parents.
Instead of conducting the investigation the police were trying to save the accused forcing us to move a contempt of court application against Sinha Sainis lawyer Pradip Nawani said. The judge directed Sinhas senior officers to take action against her for contempt of court.
Conceding that many women were misusing dowry laws to settle scores with their husbands the Delhi high court laid down guidelines for the Delhi Police to be followed during investigations in dowry related complaints and IPCA. It said in case an educated woman gets married to a person despite a dowry demand she and her family become accomplices under section of DPA.
A distressed Ramnath Das who was employed with the mechanical wing of the Electronic Mechanical Engineering Corp of the Army appealed to Pranab Mukherjee to ensure early justice to him or permit him to end the life willingly. The agony of this dowry case has troubled my family to such an extent that in the last two years most of the members of the family have gone into depression and are ailing from various psychological problems the letter addressed to the President reads.
A resident of Gadra in Pursudih Das said his yearold son Praveen who is employed with Navi Mumbaibased JSW Ispat Ltd had married Vibha of Kasidih on November . From the early days of the marriage her the daughterinlaws family has been pressuring Parveen to stay with them much to the opposition of my son the yearold said which according to him prompted the womans family members to plot schemes to harass them.
Finding no respite from the dayindayout quarrel Das who retired from the Army in October approached the local police station and the SSP for action against the inlaws.
When they the inlaws found that I have approached the police they also filed a petition at the chief judicial magistrates court in early under section A of the Antidowry Act and falsely implicated us said Das. Soon summons were issued against Das his wife Sunita and son Praveen. Das and his wife approached the court for anticipatory bail and were granted.
But given that my son who stayed in Mumbai didnt appear in person for seeking bail arrest warrant was issued against him. We approached the Jharkhand high court for anticipatory bail. But the court denied bail and he surrendered on Monday said Das who is currently engaged in a parttime marketing job of a finance company.
The exserviceman said the agony had demoralized his entire family including two daughters and three sons and now he finds no reason to live anymore.
For the last months I have been waiting for the judiciary to delivery justice to my family that has been falsely implicated in the Antidowry Act by the family of the daughterinlaw a visibly distressed Das said after submitting the mercy petition at the deputy commissioners office on Tuesday.
He said the respect of his family in the society was diminished ever since the matter surfaced in public. It is not a matter of one individual. Hundreds of innocent families in the country are suffering owing to inept handling of the dowry cases by the law enforcing agencies and judicial machinery of India Das said in the petition.
There are many cases pending in courts in which young professionals including doctors engineers software engineers etc. are involved said Ashwani Bohra an advocate who prefers to fight cases from the grooms side alleging misuse of IPC sections related to domestic violence and dowry harassment.
Giving an example he said that dowry harassment and domestic violence cases were filed against one of his clients Amit Jain who had completed his MBBS and was to appear for MS entrance exam. But due to the case which is pending in the court he could not sit in the examination and his promising career as a doctor has been ruined said Ashwani.
A physicallychallenged person Rameshwar Meena a resident of Chaksu in Jaipur was finally disposed of all the charges against him by his wife recently. When the trial was going on he cleared an exam for second grade schoolteacher but due to the trial his career seemed to be in limbo.
It was a horrifying experience. I was accused of beating up my wife and fake medical certificates proving me a brutal person were prepared and produced in the court. I was alleged of demanding a motorcycle from my wife which I never did as there is no use of motorcycle for me as I am handicapped said Rameshwar.
In most of the cases the FIRs are lodged by giving distorted facts and police either act lethargically or adopt a biased attitude which cost dear to the groom and his family Ashwani added.
Filing of false criminal complaints amounts to cruelty under the Hindu Marriage Act the Bombay High Court observed while granting divorce to a man who was accused of dowry harassment by his wife.
Santosh name changed had approached the high court challenging a September order passed by a family court in Pune dismissing his petition seeking divorce from his wife on the grounds of cruelty.
Santosh had married Rekha name changed in November . However soon thereafter disputes and differences surfaced between the couple. The wife then lodged a complaint of harassment and causing hurt against Santosh and his family with the Pimpri police.
According to the husband a lower court quashed the criminal complaint filed by his wife after observing that there was insufficient evidence. After this Santosh moved the family court seeking divorce on grounds of cruelty which was dismissed.
A division bench of Justices V M Kanade and P D Kode after perusing the evidence and judgement of the lower court observed that the complaint lodged by the wife was false in nature.
In our view filing of a false criminal complaint itself amounts to cruelty within the meaning of section i a of the Hindu Marriage Act the bench said.
Quashing and setting aside the Pune family courts order the high court allowed Santoshs appeal and granted him divorce.
Filing of false criminal complaints amounts to cruelty under the Hindu Marriage Act the Bombay High Court observed while granting divorce to a man who was accused of dowry harassment by his wife.
Santosh name changed had approached the high court challenging a September order passed by a family court in Pune dismissing his petition seeking divorce from his wife on the grounds of cruelty.
Santosh had married Rekha name changed in November . However soon thereafter disputes and differences surfaced between the couple. The wife then lodged a complaint of harassment and causing hurt against Santosh and his family with the Pimpri police.
According to the husband a lower court quashed the criminal complaint filed by his wife after observing that there was insufficient evidence. After this Santosh moved the family court seeking divorce on grounds of cruelty which was dismissed.
A division bench of Justices V M Kanade and P D Kode after perusing the evidence and judgement of the lower court observed that the complaint lodged by the wife was false in nature.
In our view filing of a false criminal complaint itself amounts to cruelty within the meaning of section i a of the Hindu Marriage Act the bench said.
Quashing and setting aside the Pune family courts order the high court allowed Santoshs appeal and granted him divorce.
Filing of false criminal complaints amounts to cruelty under the Hindu Marriage Act the Bombay High Court observed while granting divorce to a man who was accused of dowry harassment by his wife.
Santosh name changed had approached the high court challenging a September order passed by a family court in Pune dismissing his petition seeking divorce from his wife on the grounds of cruelty.
Santosh had married Rekha name changed in November . However soon thereafter disputes and differences surfaced between the couple. The wife then lodged a complaint of harassment and causing hurt against Santosh and his family with the Pimpri police.
According to the husband a lower court quashed the criminal complaint filed by his wife after observing that there was insufficient evidence. After this Santosh moved the family court seeking divorce on grounds of cruelty which was dismissed.
A division bench of Justices V M Kanade and P D Kode after perusing the evidence and judgement of the lower court observed that the complaint lodged by the wife was false in nature.
In our view filing of a false criminal complaint itself amounts to cruelty within the meaning of section i a of the Hindu Marriage Act the bench said.
Quashing and setting aside the Pune family courts order the high court allowed Santoshs appeal and granted him divorce.
Protesting against the misuse of the Dowry Prohibition Act by girls who file false cases against their husbands or relatives the members of the Save Indian Family Foundation SIFF and the All India Mother in law Protection Forum raised slogans in the District Court Complex Sector D on Monday.
Calling for a review of Section A of the Indian Penal Code IPC the protesters demanded an amendment in the non bailable act to make it bailable. These days the girls have made it their business to file a dowry case against their husbands and extract money out of the family. Even the Women Cell believes that percent of the dowry cases filed these days are false. We demand an amendment in the non bailable section A so as to save the victim and his family from the harassment meted out to them by the police and the girls family informed Manjit Puri Head of the North India Wing of the All India Mother In Law Protection Forum.
Our purpose is to spread awareness about the helplessness of the victims and their families who are made to suffer monetary loss humiliation and harassment by women NGOs due to the greed of some of the girls and their families. Moreover it s very easy for a girl to get a divorce but if a man wants it our system makes it extremely tough said one of the members of the SIFF. Most of the members protesting are involved in an on going trial in allegedly false cases.
Police however stepped in and asked the protesters to leave the court premises as they had no permission to protest here.
Protesting against the misuse of the Dowry Prohibition Act by girls who file false cases against their husbands or relatives the members of the Save Indian Family Foundation SIFF and the All India Mother in law Protection Forum raised slogans in the District Court Complex Sector D on Monday.
Calling for a review of Section A of the Indian Penal Code IPC the protesters demanded an amendment in the non bailable act to make it bailable. These days the girls have made it their business to file a dowry case against their husbands and extract money out of the family. Even the Women Cell believes that percent of the dowry cases filed these days are false. We demand an amendment in the non bailable section A so as to save the victim and his family from the harassment meted out to them by the police and the girls family informed Manjit Puri Head of the North India Wing of the All India Mother In Law Protection Forum.
Our purpose is to spread awareness about the helplessness of the victims and their families who are made to suffer monetary loss humiliation and harassment by women NGOs due to the greed of some of the girls and their families. Moreover it s very easy for a girl to get a divorce but if a man wants it our system makes it extremely tough said one of the members of the SIFF. Most of the members protesting are involved in an on going trial in allegedly false cases.
Police however stepped in and asked the protesters to leave the court premises as they had no permission to protest here.
Protesting against the misuse of the Dowry Prohibition Act by girls who file false cases against their husbands or relatives the members of the Save Indian Family Foundation SIFF and the All India Mother in law Protection Forum raised slogans in the District Court Complex Sector D on Monday.
Calling for a review of Section A of the Indian Penal Code IPC the protesters demanded an amendment in the non bailable act to make it bailable. These days the girls have made it their business to file a dowry case against their husbands and extract money out of the family. Even the Women Cell believes that percent of the dowry cases filed these days are false. We demand an amendment in the non bailable section A so as to save the victim and his family from the harassment meted out to them by the police and the girls family informed Manjit Puri Head of the North India Wing of the All India Mother In Law Protection Forum.
Our purpose is to spread awareness about the helplessness of the victims and their families who are made to suffer monetary loss humiliation and harassment by women NGOs due to the greed of some of the girls and their families. Moreover it s very easy for a girl to get a divorce but if a man wants it our system makes it extremely tough said one of the members of the SIFF. Most of the members protesting are involved in an on going trial in allegedly false cases.
Police however stepped in and asked the protesters to leave the court premises as they had no permission to protest here.
In his judgment Fast TrackIX court judge SH Koraddi stated that the software engineer and resident of Old Gurappanapalya of BTM I Stage Musaveer who was named as the accused No in the dowry harassment case filed by his estranged wife Rehana Tasneem has been acquitted from the case along with his other seven family members including his mother Famida Saleem . Musaveer was sentenced to undergo two years imprisonment by II Additional Metropolitan Magistrate on December last year while his mother Famida sisters Sabiha Wajiha and Fasiha and three brothersinlaw Irfan Shoiab and Aslam were sentenced to under to six months imprisonment for dowry harassment and under provisions of Dowry Prohibition Act.
The court found that there was no material to show that Rehana Tasneem was driven to commit suicide and the husband abetted her to commit suicide by the alleged harassment or cruelty and the mere harassment of wife by the husband due to differences were not sufficient proof as stipulated in earlier cases. The allegations against sisters and their husbands who were living separately and roping all of them into the case amounts to abuse of process of law.
The provisions of section A of Indian Penal Code does not give licence to such unscrupulous persons to wreak personal vendetta or unleash harassment the order stated.
Responding to a plea by the family of the husband including his parents sister brother etc Justice Reddy Kantha Rao said allowing this case to proceed up to trial stage would only result in substantial injustice to the husbands family.
The alleged attack is unlikely to have happened because the place of occurrence is her parents residence where all her friends and relatives would have been around and prevented an attack on her. This attack theory seems to have been invented only for the purpose of implicating the husband and his entire family in a dowry case the judge said.
The judge made this order after hearing the petition filed by Tummala Ramnarayana the fatherinlaw of the woman of MVP Colony Visakhapatnam who urged the court to quash the dowry harassment case.
The woman mother of a yearold daughter and hailing from Rajahmundry said that her husband and his family had harassed her for additional dowry. She claimed her parents gave her husband Rs lakh as dowry at the time of her marriage. According to her he had quit his job because of mounting debts in Visakhapatnam. Though her parents brought the couple to Rajamundry he ran into debts there as well. When she objected to his bad ways he beat her demanded Rs lakh more for clearing the debts and went away to Vizag she said.
According to her it was after this that the parents of her husband and his relatives came to Rajahmundry and beat her at her house when her mother and brother were not at home. Following her complaint a local court referred the matter to police.
The judge in his order said that even the chargesheet filed by the police was nothing but a replica of her complaint. The judge in his order said that beating a woman in her native place in the middle of her friends and relatives by her husbands family looked improbable and unnatural and quashed the case initiated by the Rajahmundry court.
Lucknow February A yearold man Pushkar Singh committed suicide by hanging himself from a ceiling fan at his home in Jankipuram area of Vikas Nagar on Wednesday.
In a suicide note addressed to the Allahabad High Court Singh alleges that he was framed in a dowry case by his wife Vinita and her relatives due to which he had to spend time in judicial custody for four months.
During the investigation if we find it necessary to question Vinita we will definitely record her statement said BP Singh Station Officer Vikas Nagar.
According to reports Singh married Vinita about two years ago and lived in Allahabad since.
A case under Sections voluntarily causing hurt A cruelty by husband or relatives of husband and intentional insult was lodged by Vinita and her relatives before she left him.
In the note Singh wrote he was in the Naini Central Jail from September to December .
Shishupal Singh Singhs brotherinlaw said he was disturbed ever since he released from jail. The court case constantly haunted him.
After he was bailed out he was living with his mother younger sister and a physicallychallenged brother in a rented house in Jankipuram. The family had their own house in Indira Nagar which was recently sold to meet the legal expenses he added.
While he searched for a job he drove a threewheeler for a living. A few days ago he received a notice from the court and since then he stopped stepping out of the house he said.
Protesting against the misuse of the Dowry Prohibition Act by girls who file false cases against their husbands or relatives the members of the Save Indian Family Foundation SIFF and the All India Mother in law Protection Forum raised slogans in the District Court Complex Sector D on Monday.
Calling for a review of Section A of the Indian Penal Code IPC the protesters demanded an amendment in the non bailable act to make it bailable. These days the girls have made it their business to file a dowry case against their husbands and extract money out of the family. Even the Women Cell believes that percent of the dowry cases filed these days are false. We demand an amendment in the non bailable section A so as to save the victim and his family from the harassment meted out to them by the police and the girls family informed Manjit Puri Head of the North India Wing of the All India Mother In Law Protection Forum.
Our purpose is to spread awareness about the helplessness of the victims and their families who are made to suffer monetary loss humiliation and harassment by women NGOs due to the greed of some of the girls and their families. Moreover it s very easy for a girl to get a divorce but if a man wants it our system makes it extremely tough said one of the members of the SIFF. Most of the members protesting are involved in an on going trial in allegedly false cases.
Police however stepped in and asked the protesters to leave the court premises as they had no permission to protest here.
Dowry Law was setup to help girls that were harassed for dowry after marriage. Most approx. of dowry harassment starts within years.
. Many girls are not married off because their parents do not have enough dowry to give in arranged marriages.
. Educated girls married to affluent homes have extra marital affairs and misuse the dowry law against inlaws to extort money.
. Educated girls married for decades with no history of marital discord misuse the dowry law in India to extort money and remarry their lovers.
. Girl that are married to Non Resident Indians who are not able to adjust to new society or lack of chemistry misuse the dowry law to extort money and remarry.
. Women get divorce but still keeps fighting the dowry case to extort money from inlaws.
. No investigation by police is done to verify facts before the FIR is registered.
. It becomes an earning source for lawyers for years minimum as case in not dealt with by the court.
. Judges also gain monetarily from both sides sometimes through corrupt lawyers.
. The girl can write names of people living in different cities or miles away from home usually old people women children and relatives of husband. Then these people are arrested or come to court for years for no fault of theirs.
. Decades of running dowry cases in court destroys life of young and old in family.
. If a women has filed divorce then the dowry case has no meaning of running in court.
. Strict penalty for police lawyers and judges who take bribe and mislead courts.
. Dowry case where death and grave disabling injury has occurred to be tried in court.
. Dowry cases that were registered within years of marriage to be tried in court.
. Dowry cases registered after years of marriage are usually fake and hence need to be investigated.
. Court has responsibility to save years of harassment of girl and boys side by not wasting their time running in courts. Settle the cases fast withing years.
. Men and women with children file divorce case and it runs for decades while they live unhappy lives in different cities . Let the youth move ahead in life. Divorce need to be granted within years of application.
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India needs to change in law and court to accommodate the changing India and Indian women and men. Let us initiate the change that the government does not do because of vote bank.
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arranging and conducting of weddings the complex permutations of Indian
into a particular family without the exercise of any personal choice so
most wait until later. In the past the age of marriage was quite young the levels that obtain in cities. Legislation mandating minimum marriage
practices. These variations have been extensively described and analyzed
alliances with people to whom it is not already linked by ties of blood. Dravidianspeaking south a family seeks to strengthen existing kin ties affinal relation all blood relatives are forbidden as marriage mates to Because marriage in the south commonly involves a continuing exchange of daughters among a few families for the married couple all relatives are
marriages linking a brother and sister of one household with the sister
in a home she has never visited. There she is sequestered and veiled an
and sister and even between uncles and nieces especially a man and his
groups when no suitable mates exist among close relatives or when other
the woman is relatively young but the highestranking castes discourage to remarry. Many groups encourage a widower to marry his deceased wifes
cousins is encouraged both crosscousins the children of a brother and sister and parallel cousins the children of two samesex siblings. In
crosscousins and the delights of teenage romance are replaced with the eloping together and very few cases of divorce. Among the Muria and Gond
make a final choice. In the early s increasing numbers of marriages Indian parentage resident in Europe North America and the Middle East.
and cash payments that go straight into the hands of the grooms family.
another sumptuous dowry. The male and female inlaws implicated in these
deaths of new brides be investigated. Official government figures report
jewelry and clothing but these are typically far outweighed in value by
ceremony is held to mark her departure for her conjugal home and married life. The poignancy of the brides weeping departure for her new home is
They are my brothers said his wife Parvati. Theyve come for dahej bride price.
Mahadev Lord Shiva welcomed his brothersinlaw and offered them food and drink but when they began to talk of dowry he told them he had only two possessionshis khappar a broken earthern pot and his bull Nandi.
As they were leaving Parvati advised them to take good care of Nandi as the bull could make them wealthy.
Perhaps there are jewels in his hump said one of the brothers else why should Parvati have drawn our attention to it.
Oh you foolish men she said. When I drew attention to Nandis hump I wanted to show you what a powerful body he had. If you had yoked him to a plough he would have helped you reap a rich harvest and made you prosperous. Now you will have to pay dearly for slaying a sacred animal
Having vented her fury on them she left saying she never wanted to see them again.
Bhils attribute their penury to the folly of these four men who were their ancestors.
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In another suspected dowryrelated death a woman eight months pregnant was burnt alive in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh according to local news channels.
The woman had married two years ago and her inlaws had made repeated demands for dowry since then.
The parents of the woman lodged a complaint with the police and suspect that her husband and inlaws were behind the brutal murder since the dowry demands were said to have been particularly forceful during the last few months.
According to reports she was set on fire at her house in Kakinada a small town in Andhra.
We have launched a manhunt to nab the trio. The exact reason behind the death would be known only after their arrest subinspector Prashant Kumar told the Hindustan Times.
Dowryrelated deaths are rampant in India and their causes go deep into the social system sociologists say.
Over dowry deaths were reported in the country in which works out to about one dowry death every hour according to the National Crime Records Bureau statistics.
However the conviction rate was abysmally low at just for the same year lower than . in .
Laxity in investigations at initial levels apart from a slow judiciary is blamed for the culprits going scotfree in a majority of the cases.
We need quick conviction in such cases. Our judicial procedure has become very slow police does not record a case at initial stage Kamini Jaiswal a senior Supreme Court lawyer told the Times News Network.
Four lessons we must learn from the Iraq War and Chilcot report from a veteran
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One woman dies every hour in Indiabecause of dowryrelated crimes womens rights activists have said.
The National Crime Records Bureau said that women were killed across India last year because of disputes over dowry payments given by the brides family to the groom or his family at the time of marriage.
The conviction rate in dowryrelated crimes remained a low percent according to statistics the bureau published last week.
Womens rights activists and police said that loopholes in dowry prevention laws delays in prosecution and low conviction rates have led to a steady rise in dowryrelated crimes.
Dowry demands have become even more insistent and expensive following Indias economic boom said Ranjana Kumari a womens rights activist.
Suman Nalwa a senior New Delhi police officer dealing with crimes against women said dowry practices extended to all classes in society.
Twentythreeyearold woman recovering in city hospital as police claim they have arrested one of five suspects.
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After six months of investigation and exhausting all leads Kingsport police are now seeking public assistance with a home burglary case where in jewelry was stolen.
According to a Thursday press release from the Kingsport Police Department officers were called to a Hillhurst Circle home on Nov. . The victims had returned from a fourday vacation to find the inside of their residence ransacked. Police say that the home had been left locked when they departed and there were no signs of forced entry.
Taken in the incident was a collection of jewelry that was part of a dowry from an Indian wedding. Police have released images of the items in hopes of soliciting tips noting that their various unique designs should make the pieces easily recognizable. They were valued at approximately .
Also stolen was several thousand dollars in computer equipment five Dell laptops two Lenova laptops two Lenova Think Pads and one Westin external hard drive. The suspect or suspects also unsuccessfully attempted to remove a large flat screen television from a wall.
Police say that while doing so they appear to have left a piece of evidence behind. A black ball cap with blue Under Armour logo was found on the floor near the TV. Police say it had been stained with what appears to be splotches of white paint.
In another suspected dowryrelated death a woman eight months pregnant was burnt alive in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh according to local news channels.
The woman had married two years ago and her inlaws had made repeated demands for dowry since then.
The parents of the woman lodged a complaint with the police and suspect that her husband and inlaws were behind the brutal murder since the dowry demands were said to have been particularly forceful during the last few months.
According to reports she was set on fire at her house in Kakinada a small town in Andhra.
We have launched a manhunt to nab the trio. The exact reason behind the death would be known only after their arrest subinspector Prashant Kumar told the Hindustan Times.
Dowryrelated deaths are rampant in India and their causes go deep into the social system sociologists say.
Over dowry deaths were reported in the country in which works out to about one dowry death every hour according to the National Crime Records Bureau statistics.
However the conviction rate was abysmally low at just for the same year lower than . in .
Laxity in investigations at initial levels apart from a slow judiciary is blamed for the culprits going scotfree in a majority of the cases.
We need quick conviction in such cases. Our judicial procedure has become very slow police does not record a case at initial stage Kamini Jaiswal a senior Supreme Court lawyer told the Times News Network.
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One woman dies every hour in Indiabecause of dowryrelated crimes womens rights activists have said.
The National Crime Records Bureau said that women were killed across India last year because of disputes over dowry payments given by the brides family to the groom or his family at the time of marriage.
The conviction rate in dowryrelated crimes remained a low percent according to statistics the bureau published last week.
Womens rights activists and police said that loopholes in dowry prevention laws delays in prosecution and low conviction rates have led to a steady rise in dowryrelated crimes.
Dowry demands have become even more insistent and expensive following Indias economic boom said Ranjana Kumari a womens rights activist.
Suman Nalwa a senior New Delhi police officer dealing with crimes against women said dowry practices extended to all classes in society.
Twentythreeyearold woman recovering in city hospital as police claim they have arrested one of five suspects.
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nodowry.com is Indias New Matrimonial Website an easytouse Matrimonial Services Website forprospective Brides Grooms. While Registration would be free Premium Membership options would be cheaper affordable. By registering atnodowry.com there is a clear understanding that one is neither is a dowryseeker nor giver.
We are among the first to introduce Photo ID requirement whilst creating a profile. Without Photo ID Members would not be able to send Expression of Interest or contact any Member.
nodowry.comis a registered brand owned by India Infoidea Online Services Private Limited which also owns LookingOut.in and BuildersBuyer.com as its other registered brands.