Politics Bride Burning in India

[Natalia]

This is an issue I don't think enough people are aware of.

November 2002: IT has taken 16 long years for a court to convict five people charged with the murder of a young woman. She was killed by her husband, his parents and sisters. The reason? She did not bring in enough dowry, and also refused to stand by and accept the torture and harassment that was meted out to her.

On April 27, 1982, Mina married Kamlakar Bhavsar in Nasik. Like many other women in this country, she must have entered her marital home not knowing that she would leave it as a corpse. Instead of finding happiness, she found herself being beaten and harassed for not bringing in a large enough dowry. Finally, Mina left her marital home and filed a case against her husband for harassment.

But the story did not end there. On the pretext of a pooja, Mina was lured back into her marital home on April 28, 1986 and mysteriously "fell on a chimney", suffered 94 per cent burns and died. Thanks to the perseverance of the additional public prosecutor, Pravin Singhal, the case reached the Bombay High Court this month where it was conclusively established that Mina's dying declaration had been forged. The order by a lower court acquitting her husband, his parents and sisters for abetting in Mina's murder has now been set aside. The five accused have been sentenced to three years imprisonment on one count and 10 years rigorous imprisonment on another.

This is just one case. And it has taken 16 years.

For even if the media does not write about dowry deaths anymore as it did in the latter part of the 1970s and early 1980s, when women's groups across India vigorously demonstrated against this regressive custom and demanded changes in the law, we must not fool ourselves into believing that the problem has disappeared. In fact, the prevalence of female foeticide in the more prosperous districts of this country, as is evident from the declining sex ratio, is ample proof that the value of a daughter has not increased over time. For the majority of families, girls continue to be viewed as a burden.

Somehow the urgency of dealing with this type of rooted custom has now vanished. Women's groups are engaged on a range of issues. But the dowry issue, which brought together a diverse spectrum of groups in the late 1970s, has virtually fallen off their maps. Of course, it is possible that this issue is not a rallying point anymore because women's groups have recognised that at root, it is not just one custom, but larger issues such as women's inheritance rights to property, equal rights and economic empowerment that must be taken on board simultaneously.

AppallingStatistics !!

68 women die everyday because of dowry

Almost 2000 suicide deaths are reported every year as a consequence of dowry (National Bureau of Investigation).

Female infanticide is a direct consequence of dowry. The latest census data shows that the sex ratio in India has fallen from 945 (1991) to 927(2001) per 1000 males. Economically well-off states like Delhi, Chandigarh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Punjab and Haryana havethe worst sex ratio.

Domestic violence is on the rise and many of these are caused by inadequate dowry.

Female literacy rates are incredibly low as a consequence of discrimination against the girl child 38% for women and 64% for men.

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[Existentialist]

Just to add to what Natalia has already said...

Female infantacide means that there are fewer girls (obviously). This means that there are not enough brides for every man, which leads to bride kidnapping. This is also extremely dangerous for women (since they're being kidnapped).

 

[Natalia]

A place to visit and sign a petition. Any little bit helps. International awareness helps.

http://www.indiatogether.org/women/dowry/pledge.htm

India: Still no justice for Gujarat women and girls
4/03/2005: Nearly three years after violence erupted in the state of Gujarat in Western India those responsible continue to walk free. (Amnesty International)

The violence left over 2,000 people, mostly Muslims, dead. Several hundred girls and women were stripped naked, raped or gang-raped, had their wombs slashed and were thrown into fires, some while still alive.

A new report from Amnesty International "India: Justice, the victim - Gujarat state fails to protect women from violence" examines how officials of the state government, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), claimed that a fire on a train on 27 February 2002 was planned and caused by Muslims. It then took no steps to prevent or stop the widespread and systematic attacks by Hindu mobs on members of the Muslim minority which followed, and indeed many party and state officials were seen to participate. In many cases, these human rights abuses constitute crimes against humanity. The central government (until May 2004 also led by the BJP) failed to censure the government of Gujarat during and after the violence.

In August 2004, the Supreme Court ordered that over 2,000 complaints closed by police and some 200 cases which ended in acquittals of the accused be reviewed with a view to possible remedial action. For many victims, justice - if it comes at all - will come too late. "Many women were burned alive after they'd been raped, leaving no trace of the crimes against them," said Amnesty International. "Scores of other women never filed rape complaints - they were either prevented or were too afraid or ashamed to do so. These are the forgotten victims of the violence."

For more information, visit: http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGASA200012005

 

[AgentDesertRose]

Oh my God. That is just terrible. I hate how sexism still exists in many parts of the world, especially the Middle East. Women are equal to men, it has been said so many times and fought for so many times, yet terrible things like this still happen. :hmm:

 

[Natalia]

While I was in India I tried to cut out some bits and pieces about the treatment of women, but it is hardly ever in the media. If it is, it's only ever a little paragraph buried in the body of the newspaper.

The picture is of an abandoned widow. Widows are supposed to be bad, and so they are often thrown out on the streets, usually with their heads shaved, and in a white sari (as it symbolises death).

The story about the woman 'setting herself on fire' isn't actually the truth. I don't have the article about what really happened, but this is it: The woman was raped, and threatened to tell the police. Because of this, she was doused in petrol by her rapist, and set on fire to 'cover the evidence'.

Wife burnings are almost always written off as suicides. It's amazing how many women 'commit suicide' by being doused in petrol and being set alight. But nobody questions it, or bothers to look into it, and the police will say anything for the right bribe. And nobody seems to think it is strange there always just happens to be kerosene lying around the house.

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Putting a warning because the image is a bit graphic. Viewer discretion is advised for the attachment below.
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[Tuulia]

I saw a program about bride burning a couple of weeks ago and it was really horrible to watch.. It's unbelievable how women have no value out there, though women's position need fixing pretty much everywhere... But they have such a long history where women mean nothing and it's really hard to change it..

 

[xdancer]

this is utterly horrific, and i never realized this kind of thing still happened on such a large scale. thank you for bringing attention to it.

 

[Natalia]

It seems that the world largely chooses to ignore what goes on in this part of the world. If it happened to one person in the US it would make international headlines for months.

 

[Lemon-Krumpitz]

Ok. I still dont exactly understand dowry. Is it when the groom's faimly demands cash or presents? Or is dowry when the bride's family simply gives the groom's family a gift??

 

[Natalia]

Ok. I still dont exactly understand dowry. Is it when the groom's faimly demands cash or presents? Or is dowry when the bride's family simply gives the groom's family a gift??

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Originally, dowry was supposed to be something the bride took into her marriage as her financial security. It has become something the groom's family demands before and after the marriage, and the bride's parents have to keep paying up, or the bride will be sent back, or worse - which is a huge disgrace in Indian society. In many of these cases, the bride's family will throw her out in the street because she has brought shame on the family.

Dowry in India these days - as they catch up to the rest of the world with technology and appliances - can be anything from cash, to televisions, cars, sound systems, clothes etc. And not for the bride, but for the groom, his parents, brothers, brothers-in-law, thirs cousins..... Sometimes the families demand 'gifts' for many years after the wedding. Having daughters to marry off can be an enormous financial hardship.

The thing they all ignore is the fact dowry is illegal in India.

 

[AgentDesertRose]

The thing they all ignore is the fact dowry is illegal in India.

[post="1249871"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post]​

WHAT? Now that's screwed up. I cannot believe that dowry is still happening when it's illegal. :hmm:

 

[Natalia]

It's very easy to have complete disregard for the law when law enforcement is non-existent, thanks to all of the corruption. In other words, laws mean nothing as long as you can afford to pay the bribe.

 

[littlebirdy]

This is terrible. The West should report this more often.

I think more people need to read this.

 

[Natalia]

http://www.flonnet.com/fl1617/16170640.htm

Something that is worth taking the time to read. If you don't feel like it, here is the gist of it. This is talking about only one city - Bangalore, a place I have spent a lot of time in.

'Dowry deaths' in Bangalore
PARVATHI MENON
in Bangalore


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 traffic-related 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 woman's husband or members of his family for additional dowry or non-payment of promised dowry); "suicides" (forced or voluntary, but in most cases related to dowry demands); and "accidents" (a majority classed under "stove-burst" or "kitchen-accident"). Deaths under these three categories add up to an alarming figure. In Bangalore city, 1,133 women died in murders, suicides and accidents in 1997, 1,248 in 1998, and 618 till mid-July 1999.


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 44 persons died of plague by September 1994 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 two-line 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'.

DOWRY-RELATED 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.


Unnatural deaths and stove-bursts

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 "stove-bursts" or "kitchen accidents". On the basis of its follow-up investigations with the families of the victims of these so-called accidents, Vimochana came 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.



Since September 1997, 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 1 a.m., well past cooking time, which itself throws the 'stove-burst' theory into doubt. Women come with burns of 70 per cent and more, and on their death leave behind babies and small children."



THERE 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 13 . On that day, five women were admitted. There was Shabrin Begum, 20, who had been married for one month, and had been admitted with 90 per cent burns; Selvi, 18, married for two years and admitted with 80 per cent burns; Lalitha, married for eight years and admitted with 80 per cent burns; Aniyamma, 40, with five children, admitted with 60 per cent burns; and Rehana Taj, 15, from Kolar district, unmarried, and admitted with 45 to 50 per cent burns.

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A police officer examines the body of Bhagyamma, a young mother who hanged herself in Kengeri, near Bangalore. In her suicide note, which she wrote on her legs in order to avoid its detection until the police arrived, Bhagyamma blamed her husband for her death.

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A burns victim in a Bangalore hospital. There is evidence to suggest that a large number of murders and suicides of young married women are made to look like stove-burst "accidents".

 

[AgentDesertRose]

This is just more and more terrible as I read more. I cannot believe that so many in India and around the world don't know about this. All of these bride burnings must be stopped...somehow.

 

[Betha Bristow]

That was all just awful. -_- Its shocking that this is hardly ever in the news when it happens so often. I feel so bad for those women...

 

[littlebirdy]

This is just more and more terrible as I read more. I cannot believe that so many in India and around the world don't know about this. All of these bride burnings must be stopped...somehow.

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I guess the first thing we could do is spread the word. Tell friends and family members. It is very hard to find any kind of support groups or women's groups that deal with these crimes. And a lot of the money people donate to India is eaten up by corruption.

 

[Natalia]

Another piece of relevant information.

In 1999, the birthrate in many states of India was 79 girls for every 100 boys. Many of the baby girls were aborted because they were girls, or were murdered at birth.

 

[AgentDesertRose]

Another piece of relevant information.

In 1999, the birthrate in many states of India was 79 girls for every 100 boys. Many of the baby girls were aborted because they were girls, or were murdered at birth.

[post="1280207"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post]​

Dude. :hmm: That is just wrong. I don't know how we're going to make women more equal in India, but we have to find a way.

 

[Natalia]

Some links:

http://www.hrw.org/doc?t=asia&c=india

http://hrw.org/campaigns/pakistan/

A sample letter to send to Pakistan about violence against women there (I think it is a good idea for as many people to send letters or emails as possible). All you have to do is put your name on the letter and email it.:

Date

President Pervez Musharraf
Office of the President
Constitution Avenue
Islamabad, Pakistan

Fax: + 92 51 9224768

E-mail: CE@pak.gov.pk




Dear President Musharraf:

I am writing to urge you to adopt stronger laws and practices to protect women’s human rights. In recent years, you committed yourself to protecting women from violence, in particular,implementing measures to eradicate “honor killings.” You stated that “honor killings do not find any place in our religion or law,” and that such crimes are “murder and will be treated as such.” Many years later, women’s rights to life and security of person are still under threat with few avenues for redress or protection.

Human Rights Watch urges the government of Pakistan to bring its domestic law and practice into compliance with its international human rights obligations and demonstrate its commitment to eliminating violence and discrimination against women by implementing the following recommendations.

Repeal all laws that in their intent or effect discriminate against women. In particular, the government should immediately repeal the gender-specific discriminatory provisions of the Hudood Ordinances;
Adopt specific legislation that explicitly defines and criminalizes domestic and familial violence and penalizes it accordingly;
Allocate funds to improve and expand medicolegal services and train personnel as well as upgrade physical facilities and equipment;
Prioritize the provision of shelters for abused women and their dependent children, with the assistance of nongovernmental organizations with experience in working with women victims of violence. Ensure that such shelters cease to function as detention centers and instead allow women freedom of movement;
Compile and collate statistics on a national scale on the scope and nature of violence against women, disaggregated by gender and age;
Ensure that violence against women, including domestic violence, is promptly investigated by police and perpetrators are prosecuted by the criminal justice system; and
Strengthen the voice of women in politics and offer governmental protection to women advocates that are threatened.
Human Rights Watch thanks you for your attention and look forward to your action on these critical human rights matters.

Sincerely,




­­­­­­

List of additional contacts to cc:

Chief Justice Nazim Hussain Siddiqui
Ministry of Law, Justice and Human Rights Division
Tel. +92-51-9220581
Fax +92-51-9213452
Email scp2000@isb.paknet.com.pk

Mr. Khursheed Mahmood Qasoori
Minister of Law, Justice, Human Rights
Address: S Block, Pak. Sectt.
Islamabad, Pakistan
Tel. +92-51-9212710, +92-51-9210062
Fax +92-51-9202628
Email minister@molaw.gov.pk

Ms. Nilofer Bakhtiar
Advisor to the Prime Minister on Women Development, Soial Welfare and Special Education
Address 1: Prime Minister Secretariate, Islamabad, Pakistan
Address 2: State Life Building No. V China Chowk, Blue Area, Islamabad, Pakistan
Tel. +92-51-9224833, 9202435
Fax +92-519222631, 9203132

Justice Majida Razvi
Chairperson
National Commission on the Status of Women
House No. 39, Street No. 56, F-6/4
Islamabad, Pakistan
Fax: +92-51-9224877