AMITY LAW SCHOOL CENTRE II

PROJECT

Women and Criminal Law

Dowry Deaths in India

Submitted to Submitted by

Mrs. Priyanka Ghai Harshit Singh (A11911113183)

B.A LL.B (H)

Section C

Semester - 7
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to thank Mrs. Priyanka Ghai for allotting me this topic.
This topic motivated me to research on dowry deaths in India and
legislations related to it. This has enhanced my knowledge in the field of
women and criminal law
Introduction
Dowry has been defined by Merriam-Webster as money or property that a wife or
wife's family gives to her husband when the wife and husband marry in some
cultures. Dowry practices are prevalent in the Hindu community where parents of
girl give gifts to boys family as a token of respect. But it is not treated as a token
of respect in the present world. It would be better to term dowry as greed of the
boys family or alms which a boy seeks to maintain his wife. Dowry is demanded
by the grooms family and is given by bride family, sometimes willingly and
sometime unwillingly. Females are considered as dependent member of the family.
So, brides fathers pay the dowry as an economic burden increases in the grooms
family. Grooms, who are in highly paid job, are in demand, but their supply is less
as compared to demand, so the dowry amount increase as per the status of the
groom.

Dowry deaths are deaths of young married women who are murdered or driven
to suicide by continuous harassment and torture by husbands and in-laws by
demands of excessive dowries. Death of young married women within the family
had long been treated as accidental and recorded as suicides. The womens
movement drew the link between demands for dowry and the deaths. They
demanded re-categorizations of such deaths as murder and not suicide.

The first campaign of the contemporary feminist movement was against dowry. In
1975 the Progressive Organization of Women organized formal protests against
dowry. These protests were not allowed to grow into full-fledged campaigns
because of the imposition of the Emergency in 1975. After the Emergency was
lifted in 1977, a new movement against dowry started in Delhi. This movement
focused upon the violence inflicted upon women for dowry, including bride
burning and abetment to suicide.

Delhi has remained the place for sustained agitation against dowry and related
issues. This is because Delhi has witnessed a high number of dowry deaths and
dowry harassment cases. There have been protests and movements against dowry
demand and dowry deaths in many states across India.
Mahila Dakshata Samiti was the first womens organization in Delhis contem-
porary feminist movement to take up the issue of dowry harassment and dowry
deaths. In June 1979, another womens organization, Stri Sangharsh organized a
demonstration against the death of Tarvinder Kaur, who had given a dying
declaration blaming her in-laws for killing her, as her parents could not fulfill their
ever-increasing demands for dowry.

This demonstration gained wide, publicity, and resulted, in a number of demonstra-

tions against dowry deaths, including a large demonstration led by the Nari Raksha
Samiti (Womens Rescue Committee). These demonstrations initiated public
debates on dowry and dowry-related crimes.

Death of women by fire was termed suicide, and many of these cases were not
reported. Even suicides were not considered to be the result of harassment for
dowry. These deaths were neither investigated nor categorized by the authorities.
They were considered to be private family affairs, and authorities did not interfere
in such family matters. But as a result of the demonstrations and agitations in Delhi
and other parts of the country, this problem was brought to the attention of the
authorities as well as the public. This made the public realize that many official
female suicides were deaths due to dowry harassments.
Actions by Authorities
The government passed a law against dowry and related crimes in 1980. This law
declared abetment to suicide arising from of dowry demands as a special crime. It
made a police investigation into the death of any woman within five years of
marriage mandatory.

Though the law recognized that dowry harassment could be termed as abetment, it
did not specify the kinds of evidence that could be used to prove harassment, nor
did it make abetment a cognizable offence. In 1982, the first positive judgment of
this law took place. A Delhi Sessions Court magistrate found two people guilty of
dowry murder and sentenced them to death. In 1983, the Delhi High Court
reversed this judgment.

There were widespread protests and demonstrations against this judgment. In 1985,
the Supreme Court upheld the verdict, but converted the verdict from death
sentence to life imprisonment. In the same year, the Criminal Law (Second
Amendment) Act was passed. This made cruelty to a wife a cognizable, non-
bailable offence, punishable by up to three years imprisonment and fine. The Act
also redefined cruelty to include mental as well as physical harassment. Section
113-A of the Evidence Act was also amended to enable the court to draw an
inference of abetment to suicide. Technically, this shifted the burden of proof and
thus lessened the burden upon the complainant. The Act also amended Section 174
of the Criminal Procedure Code, which makes a postmortem of the body of a
woman who dies within seven years of marriage compulsory.

In spite of these laws being passed, it has been difficult to get convictions for
dowry deaths. Heresay evidence is not enough to be accepted as evidence for
conviction. Women themselves hesitate to bring charges against their husbands and
in-laws. Moreover, postmortem reports need not necessarily show evidence of
murder. It is difficult to prove that kerosene burns are the result of intention to
murder. Moreover, there are still many loopholes in the laws regarding dowry, and
most culprits manage to get away without detection.
Response of society

India's practice of arranged marriages, which involves the giving and receiving of
dowry, is at the root of dowry deaths.

Dowry as defined in society

At one time, dowry was a means for parents to endow a daughter with material
goods because she could not inherit property. Traditionally, dowry consisted of
gifts, usually jewelry, given to the bride at the time of her marriage. The dowry
provided the new bride with financial security in her marriage into a new family.

Today, dowry is negotiated and refers to the wealth that the bride's parents must
pay the groom and his family as part of the marriage arrangement. The groom and
his family demand dowry not only in the form of money, but also in the more
modern forms of televisions, video cassette recorders, refrigerators, motorcycles,
and automobiles. The amount demanded is often exorbitant; a family may be
required to raise a dowry many times the annual earnings of the household to
marry off a daughter. Furthermore, such demands continue for months or even
years after the wedding, as the husband and his family extort more money from the
bride's family. Increasingly, dowry has degenerated into merely a means for the
groom and his family to increase their material wealth and raise their standard of
living.

In addition to being a real financial burden to the parents of the bride, demands for
more dowry that cannot be met often result in severe abuse and harassment of the
young bride, frequently culminating in her murder or suicide. It is common for the
groom and/or his mother to murder the new bride in the first year of an arranged
marriage because they consider her dowry insufficient. It is also common for the
bride to kill herself to spare her family further hardship. In either case, the man is
then free to seek a new bride who might fulfill the dowry demands.
Practices prevalent
The most popular way to murder a young bride is to burn her alive, dousing her
with kerosene in the kitchen and igniting her. Because in villages Indian women
cook with kerosene, it is readily available in every household. It is also
inexpensive, much cheaper than the price of a gun or a knife. The sari of
combustible cloth worn by the bride ensures that she will burn quickly and easily.
Because the murder is committed behind closed doors, the murderers can later
claim that the young bride died as a result of a kitchen accident or suicide. There
are generally no witnesses to cross question such claims, nor does any evidence
remain.

There has been an increase of reported cases with regard to dowry deaths. Whether
the increase is due to more accurate reporting, a higher incidence of dowry deaths,
or a combination of the two is unknown. Despite this increase, evidence indicates
that hundreds of additional murders and attempted killings of young brides are not
reported simply because the brides' families prefer to avoid publicizing what they
consider to be a shameful incident. Moreover, the husband and his relatives
disguise many such deaths as suicides or accidents. Consequently, many fear that
the actual occurrence of dowry deaths far exceeds the number reported to the
police. The Ahmadabad Women's Action Group in Gujarat State estimates that, in
Gujarat alone, 1,000 women may be burned alive annually.
Legislation relating to dowry deaths
The Indian government has tried to combat the growing incidence of dowry death
by enacting various laws to prevent such deaths from occurring and to punish those
responsible. The government's first effort came with the Dowry Prohibition Act of
1961. To increase its effectiveness, the government has twice amended the Act, in
1984 and 1986. The 1986 amendments require the police and a judicial magistrate
to investigate every unnatural death of a woman married less than seven years.
Currently, the Act prohibits the giving, taking, or demanding of dowry. The Act
defines dowry as property that is given or agreed to be given to a newlywed by the
other newlywed or either set of parents in connection with the marriage. Violations
of the Act are punishable with a term of imprisonment of between six months and
two years, plus a fine of up to ten thousand rupees or the value of the dowry,
whichever is higher.

In addition to criminalizing dowry, the Indian Parliament has criminalized dowry-

related violence against women. The Indian Penal Code amended in 1983 dowry-
related cruelty by the husband and his relatives. The Parliament further amended
the Penal Code in 1986 to explicitly provide that dowry deaths are punishable with
imprisonment between seven years and life. Additionally, the Code of Criminal
Procedure now mandates a police investigation into deaths of women under
suspicious circumstances that occur within seven years of marriage. Finally, in
addition to criminal laws, the Parliament amended the Indian Evidence Act, which
now creates a presumption of dowry death whenever a woman is subjected to
dowry-related cruelty or harassment soon before her death.
Failure of laws in India

Despite the Indian government's efforts, India's statutory laws have been
ineffective in preventing dowry deaths. The practice of demanding dowry has
spread throughout India and the incidence of dowry deaths continues to increase.
Once practiced only by middle-class Hindu families in north India, dowry has now
spread to different castes, provinces, and economic classes. Even religious groups
that never observed dowry customs, such as Muslims and Christians, have begun
demanding dowry. Despite the increase in dowry deaths, very few convictions
have been obtained for dowry-related murders.

India's statutory laws are ineffective in preventing dowry deaths and punishing the
perpetrators due to following reasons

Implementation of Existing Laws

Equally at fault in the continuing problem of dowry deaths is the non enforcement
of criminal laws by police and prosecutors. Although the Ministry of Home Affairs
has issued specific instructions to police officers as to how to investigate dowry
deaths, the police rarely follow these guidelines and frequently fail to investigate
properly. Instead, police often dismiss such crimes as family disputes and report
them as "kitchen accidents." Less than ten percent of apparent dowry-related
deaths are actually investigated.

Even when investigations are carried out they are generally incomplete. The police
fail to take photographs or fingerprints and often base their investigations primarily
on statements made by relatives. Any witnesses that do exist are threatened. If a
death cannot be written off as accidental, the police take months and even years to
file a charge sheet. By this time, any evidence that was available also
disappears. In addition, prosecutors are often reluctant to prosecute the alleged
perpetrator.
Police corruption is largely responsible for such investigations and prosecutorial
delays. There is evidence that police are bribed by husbands and in-laws in
exchange for agreeing not to make a formal investigation. It is also not uncommon
for police to conspire with the accused to falsify cases as suicides or
accidents. This falsification may even involve altering the woman's dying
declaration, which is often the only evidence of any wrongdoing by the husband
and in-laws. Such an alteration by the police may effectively prevent conviction. A
member of the Indian police on the Union Public Service Commission stated in
1990 that about ninety-five percent of registered cases of dowry death result in
acquittal as corrupt police and medical officers tamper with crucial evidence.
Attitude towards Women
From childhood, an Indian woman is taught that she will marry the man her family
chooses and that she will have to win over the family into which she marries. Once
married, a woman's maternal family controls her; she must make a place for herself
in her new family. Moreover, she must serve her husband selflessly, bear
everything without complaint, and never attempt to return to her maternal family.
Hindu religious texts reinforce this theme, instructing women to remain devoted to
their husbands no matter what their husbands do to them. The prestige of both
families depends on the woman remaining in the marriage. Men, on the other hand,
are taught that they may beat or even kill their wives if they choose.

In Indian society, family honor resides in the woman. Social values dictate that a
woman must never speak out against her husband, and a broken marriage is viewed
as a disgrace both to the woman's family and to her own honor. Consequently,
Indian women rarely seek divorces or accuse their husbands or in-laws of
violence. Instead, they suffer harmful abuse in silence. Women will not complain
about a husband's abuse or even a murder attempt, refusing to implicate their
husbands even on their deathbeds. As a result of these cultural attitudes, parents
and neighbors rarely offer to help the new bride. Even when a bride has the
courage to seek help, her parents almost always refuse to allow her to return home
out of fear of public humiliation. Thus, the bride, who has nowhere to turn for help,
is placed at great risk of a dowry-related death.
Economic Discrimination
Legalized economic discrimination against women impacts the Indian
government's efforts to halt dowry deaths by preventing women from achieving
economic independence and freedom from their aggressors. Because of laws
governing the ownership of both real and personal property, women have little
control over land use, retention, or sale. Of the personal property laws, only Hindu
family law distinguishes between ancestral and self-acquired property in the matter
of inheritance. Under these inheritance laws, women are prohibited from heading
households or inheriting ancestral property. Instead, the only way women can
inherit their father's or husband's personal property is through attestation. Although
in theory the Hindu Succession Act gives Hindu women equal inheritance, in
practice, married daughters are seldom given a share in parental property.
Similarly, Islamic personal law recognizes the inheritance rights of both sons and
daughters, but it mandates that the daughter's share be just one half of the son's
because sons are responsible for caring for their elderly parents.
Conclusion
In past few years the conditions have changed rapidly. Now courts are actively
taking notice of dowry death. The situation in cities has changed a lot and has even
reversed to some extent. Many married women exploit grooms family by
threatening them to register a false dowry demand case. In extreme conditions
suicide is committed voluntarily but to take revenge from grooms family the
dying declaration is designed in a way that the case transforms into dowry death.
Though it cannot be said that such conditions exists in each and every case but this
law is also misused by some women to exploit grooms family either for personal
revenge or extortion of money. The condition is not same in rural area, women are
still suppressed and dowry death occurs due to excessive dowry demands. In cities
the dowry system is destabilizing slowly. But it is illogical to expect that common
exchange of gifts among families will stop. This exchange at times transforms into
dowry but it depends on the temperament of the families involved in a marriage
ceremony.