The National Crime Records Bureau says 8,233 women were killed across India last year because of disputes over dowry payments given by the bride's family to the groom or his family at the time of marriage.
The conviction rate in dowry-related crimes remained a low 32 percent, according to statistics the bureau published last week.
Indian law prohibits the giving or receiving of a dowry, but the centuries-old social custom persists.
Dowry demands often continue for years after the wedding. Each year, thousands of young Indian women are doused with gasoline and burned to death because the groom or his family felt the dowry was inadequate.
Women's 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 dowry-related crimes.
Dowry demands have become even more insistent and expensive following India's economic boom, Ranjana Kumari, a women's rights activist, said Tuesday.
She blamed a growing culture of greed as India opens its economy to foreign goods that the younger generation cannot afford but badly want.
"Marriages have become commercialized. It's like a business proposition where the groom and his family make exorbitant demands. And the wealthier the family, the more outrageous the demands," Kumari said.
Suman Nalwa, a senior New Delhi police officer dealing with crimes against women, said dowry practices extended to all classes in society. "Even highly educated people don't say no to dowry," she said.
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India Times - January 27, 2012 - Full Article on Dowry Deaths: http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-01-27/india/30670050_1_dowry-death-harassment-and-cruelty-section-498a
"In 1986, under huge pressure from the women's movement, the Indian penal Code was amended to include section 304B, specifically against murder following harassment for dowry. Section 498A was added to define harassment and cruelty by husbands and his relatives. Strangely this too has not had much effect. Laxity of the government machinery can be one reason for the failure of legal measures. After all, conviction rates in bride burning cases have dipped from an already weak 37% in 2000 to 34% in 2010. In section 498A cases, the conviction rates are even lower: just 19%, although reported cases were 94,000 in 2010. But perhaps the primary reason for spread of this has been the almost complete absence of any public campaign or mobilization against it for the past 25 years."
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WUNRN
Full Text:
India
- Dowry Rising Among Muslims in Kashmir
By Nusrat Ara - Indian-administered
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