Up to 25,000 Indian women are killed or maimed each year in dowry disputes, the victims of husbands and families driven by greed, reports Jennifer May.
I first came across the crime of bride-burning in 1998, on a small island in the western Indian state of Gujarat. The preceding month had been an auspicious one for weddings; nightly the streets were filled with men dressed like princes, riding white horses to the mainland to claim their brides. Garlands of flowers were strewn everywhere; there was music and much rejoicing, dancing and singing. The parties often lasted for days. Although the usually very young brides often looked unhappy, this was described as part of tradition: rather than express delight, they had to maintain auras of demure respectability.
A few weeks later the island's normally quiet hospital was filled with the noise of women screaming in agony. People lined the corridors, wailing and tearing their hair out; above the ruckus rose howls of pain that were animal in their intensity. Later the matron explained what had happened. Two new brides had "set fire to themselves" with kerosene from their kitchens. Both were extremely ill; neither was expected to last the night. One was only 14.
In her office the matron ashamedly admitted the truth. Bride-burning was common in India, she said; if a family was unhappy with the dowry they had received from the bride's family, or if they or their family simply did not like the bride, they locked her in the kitchen, doused her with kerosene and set her alight. The women who had been burned that day had supposedly attempted suicide; neither's case would be investigated.
The year before, on that small island, there had been 10 such cases - undoubtedly, some were genuine attempts at suicide, as young women often find themselves ill treated by their new in-laws and are desperately unhappy - but none, it seemed, warranted an inquiry. It was ironic, she added, that these tragic events usually took place within a month or two of the wedding season. Suddenly, those lavish celebrations took on a sinister note.
As I left the hospital the heart-wrenching screams suddenly stopped, replaced by silence. It seemed obvious that one or both of the unfortunate women had died. That was six years ago. It would be nice to think the practice has died out, but there is plenty of evidence that it continues.
The giving of a dowry - dahej in Hindi - whether in cash or kind, goes hand in hand with the giving away of the bride (or kanyadanam, meaning daughter gift) in Hindu marriage. The dowry was once an upper-caste family's wedding present to their daughter; later it became a form of insurance, in case her in-laws mistreated her.
But often the husband's family demands larger and larger sums, as they view the wife as a way to make money. It becomes a form of extortion, the bride's family forced to keep paying even years after the wedding. The marriage of a daughter, especially in poorer families, can lead a family into penury.
Although the practice has been banned since 1961, dowries are still extracted from some bride's families before marriage. This can lead to dowry abuse, which takes many forms: the bride can be harassed, abused, beaten or otherwise made utterly miserable by her husband and in-laws. The most severe punishment, as had happened to the women in Gujarat, is the burning of women whose dowries are considered inadequate or late. They normally die.
The Dowry Prohibition (Amendment) Act 1986 defines dowry death as "where the death of a woman is caused by burns or bodily injuries, or occurs otherwise than under normal circumstances within seven years of her marriage, and it is shown that soon before her death she was subject to harassment by her husband or any relative of him, for, or in connection with, any demand for dowry". Since then India's supreme court, which has been supportive of oppressed women, has, in a landmark decision, declared that when an abused woman commits suicide it is also a dowry death.
"Dowry is a crime under the Indian penal code, but enforcement of the law is far from satisfactory," says Vaijayanti Gupta of India Together, a publication that deals with social injustice. "Also, our society has not seen a moral outcry on dowry, and this keeps it very much alive even in the educated and wealthy classes of society."
One of the main reasons why so few bride burnings are investigated fully is the failure of police to file "first information reports", the forms they are meant to fill in whenever there is a death or any other arrestable offence. The murdered bride's parents are then ignored by the justice system; even if a case does go to court the chances of a conviction are very slim.
India's legal system, a relic of the colonial British system, is terribly slow. The lower courts where these cases would be heard can take five or even 10 years to complete cases, and they often impose only light sentences, because of lack of evidence. Bride-burning normally attracts seven years in jail; the husband is often released after two or three, free to remarry for a new dowry.
Despite public recognition of the problem, the number of women murdered in this way has been rising over the past two decades. In Delhi a woman is burned to death every 12 hours. In 1988 there were 2,209 recorded cases of dowry-related deaths. In 1990 it had risen to 4,835. By 1994 the figure had reached 5,199. Government statistics report that husbands and in-laws killed 7,000 women in 2001, but these are only the official figures. An estimated 25,000 brides are killed or maimed every year in dowry disputes.
The lack of official recognition of this crime is apparent in the capital, where only 5 per cent of burning fatalities are recorded as murders; 90 per cent are classified as accidents, the remaining 5 per cent as suicides.
The cruellest aspect of the whole situation is the role the bride's family play in perpetuating the violence. Parents will be stigmatised if they accept an unwanted bride back into their family, so they often force her to stay in the marital home even if she has complained of harassment, or worse. And the tragedy doesn't always stop there. Sometimes, after a bride has been killed, her parents will ask the convicted husband to marry her sister: the death has left such a stigma around the family they feel they have nowhere left to turn, nobody else to marry their remaining daughter. Usually, the groom will agree to a smaller dowry than the first time, giving the family a better chance of gathering the money.
As young Indian men have become better educated, the price demanded for their services as grooms has increased dramatically. One critic of the dowry system, Annupa Caleekal, has said that, based on his qualifications, a professional such as a doctor, engineer or chartered accountant could expect giant dowries even before he has graduated. This is another factor in the abuse, as the brides and their families struggle to come up with the money demanded by their new relations.
Rani Jethmalani, an advocate of India's supreme court, has set up Women's Action Research and Legal Action for Women, an organisation that undertakes public-interest litigation on women's issues. It also makes women aware of their legal rights, an important step in a country where many women are unaware they have any. A recent survey by India's health ministry found that, of 10,000 women interviewed, half considered violence a normal part of married life. The most common cause was her failure to perform domestic duties to the expectations of her husband, his family or both.
Another group, the International Society Against Dowry and Bride Burning in India, is trying to eradicate abuse on the basis of a programme adopted at a conference at Harvard Law School in 1995, the first of several gatherings convened abroad. "It was unfortunate that the \ international conferences had to be held outside India, because there was an inherent resistance within the country, even among the intellectuals and political leaders, to do anything to stop bride burnings," says Himendra Thakur, the group's chairman. "Dowry is a very deep rooted problem in India: bride-burning is tacitly condoned and hidden, even by political leaders."
The organisation has held its fifth, sixth and seventh conferences in Delhi, further developing its six-point programme to eradicate abuse, but they were also boycotted by many political figures, according to Thakur. "They did not like the word 'bride-burning' and, furthermore, considered this an internal matter for India."
He adds: "Implementation of the six-point programme will take huge effort, so we have focused on changing the mindset of the parliaments in India. There are 543 parliamentary constituencies in India, each with an average population of two million. We plan to mobilise a mass signature campaign, to make them implement the national programme that we hope will eventually stop these violations of women."
On St Valentine's Day this year it held the first Bahu Divas, or daughter-in-law day, in an attempt to change the values of Indian families.
The efforts of it and other organisations seem to be helping to make women aware of their right to live without violence and intimidation. The case of Nisha Sharma, who had her husband-to-be arrested and jailed in March last year for demanding a dowry, caused a media frenzy. Women saw her as a hero, and she was venerated throughout India. She has won countless awards for her bravery and was even invited on Oprah Winfrey's television show.
Sharma later married another man, without a dowry. These small actions often go a long way towards changing the collective conscience of a nation. "Nisha Sharma made headline news in both Europe and America," says Thakur. "We are very grateful to people like Oprah for carrying the torch. It is a matter of great encouragement when countries outside India undertake to arouse international awareness to the plight of these women."
Unfortunately, the problem is also growing in Pakistan, where, according to the Progressive Woman Association, bride-burning accounts for the violent death of more than 300 women a year. The real figure is probably much higher. Activists says it is impossible to compile statistics about the number of women who die from "stove burns": a large number of the deaths occur in rural areas, where the women have neither the knowledge nor the education to seek help.
Although divorce is legal in Pakistan, some families are said to find it easier to murder an unwanted bride. "Every second Pakistani woman is the victim of a direct or indirect form of mental or physical violence, leading to heinous crimes against them, including rape, murder, the chopping of limbs or being burnt alive," Shahnaz Bukhari, the association's head, has said.
Lina Nykanen of Amnesty International says: "Violence against women takes many forms, and dowry death is one of the most horrific examples. It is about time to recognise that these acts against women in their homes and communities are a violation of their human rights. The authorities in India, as well as other parts of the world, have an obligation under international human-rights law to prevent, punish and redress violence against women."
