prasad1
Active member
We have discussed this sad aspect of our society.
Six decades after dowry was banned in India, a 28-year-old woman living less than an hour from national capital Delhi was burnt alive, allegedly by her husband and mother-in-law, over a demand of getting Rs 36 lakh from her parents as dowry.
NDTV spoke to Nikki Bhati's father Bhikari Singh Payla and asked him why he married her daughters into a family that asked for dowry. His reply summed up the gap between laws and reality. "In our clan, marriages happen through (dowry) mediators. And I had married off my daughter well. The wedding happened during demonetisation in 2016," he replied.
LEADING CONTRIBUTING FACTORS TO DOWRY DEATHS
Cultural Norms. Dowry payments, referred to as `customary practices’ in particular arranged marriage contexts, represent culturally acceptable obligations.
Economic Motives. The lure of a potential economic perspective (financial gain) or social determinant (family connectedness) drives dowry demands.
Gender Perception. Inadequate valuation for women`s social standing, allows for victimization and abuse to be normally expressed through perceived behaviours.
Patriarchy. Dowry practices develop through marriage conditions such as hypergamous marriage (marrying man at a higher social status) or patrilocality (women move into husband’s household).
Uninformed Rights. Many women are often uninformed about their rights as a woman, or their rights as a victim, predominantly in rural or illiterate households, where many women were either unaware of their rights or felt afraid to assert them.
WHY INDIAN DAUGHTERS ARE STILL VICTIMS OF DOWRY DEATHS?
In India, a stringent legal framework has been set in motion to address dowry-related violence, but its implementation remains fragmented and inefficient guaranteed to let the dowry practice persist as a practice that takes place with worrying frequency. Social and cultural embeddedness are also factors; dowries, often described as “customary gifts”, are incorporated into marriage rituals which become normal and culturally expected, with generational and social pull establishing the social currency of dowries as resistant to legal prescriptions.
Additionally, there are economic dynamics at play; rising unemployment and inflation due to an increase of aspirational consumerism, in part exacerbated by the social media landscape, have led to extravagant dowries becoming normatively acceptable in urban and semi-urban areas .
In addition to this, legal and systemic/enforcement barriers are strongly preventing justice; police inactions, sluggish investigations, and poor evidence collection are common, with only about 4,500 from 7,000 dowry death cases a year reaching the charge-sheet (the charge sheet should include a charge, or charges by NGOs) stage and conviction rates being as low as 2%. Judicial delays, maternal/paternal refusal to assist prosecution and the experiences of hostile witnesses further subdue prosecution.
To multiply the socio-economic pressures there are additional aspects, the project is entirely dependent on the victim’s nature of the economic relationship; even with equitable rights established by the Hindu Succession Act (2005) where daughters are treated equally for inheritance purposes; economic realities often mean that enforcement is very rare; all too often dowry is merely another substitute for “real property rights”, rendering women economically vulnerable while simultaneously refuting social rights.
recordoflaw.in
When will we wake up? When will we rise up as a society against this crime?
Six decades after dowry was banned in India, a 28-year-old woman living less than an hour from national capital Delhi was burnt alive, allegedly by her husband and mother-in-law, over a demand of getting Rs 36 lakh from her parents as dowry.
NDTV spoke to Nikki Bhati's father Bhikari Singh Payla and asked him why he married her daughters into a family that asked for dowry. His reply summed up the gap between laws and reality. "In our clan, marriages happen through (dowry) mediators. And I had married off my daughter well. The wedding happened during demonetisation in 2016," he replied.
LEADING CONTRIBUTING FACTORS TO DOWRY DEATHS
Cultural Norms. Dowry payments, referred to as `customary practices’ in particular arranged marriage contexts, represent culturally acceptable obligations.
Economic Motives. The lure of a potential economic perspective (financial gain) or social determinant (family connectedness) drives dowry demands.
Gender Perception. Inadequate valuation for women`s social standing, allows for victimization and abuse to be normally expressed through perceived behaviours.
Patriarchy. Dowry practices develop through marriage conditions such as hypergamous marriage (marrying man at a higher social status) or patrilocality (women move into husband’s household).
Uninformed Rights. Many women are often uninformed about their rights as a woman, or their rights as a victim, predominantly in rural or illiterate households, where many women were either unaware of their rights or felt afraid to assert them.
WHY INDIAN DAUGHTERS ARE STILL VICTIMS OF DOWRY DEATHS?
In India, a stringent legal framework has been set in motion to address dowry-related violence, but its implementation remains fragmented and inefficient guaranteed to let the dowry practice persist as a practice that takes place with worrying frequency. Social and cultural embeddedness are also factors; dowries, often described as “customary gifts”, are incorporated into marriage rituals which become normal and culturally expected, with generational and social pull establishing the social currency of dowries as resistant to legal prescriptions.
Additionally, there are economic dynamics at play; rising unemployment and inflation due to an increase of aspirational consumerism, in part exacerbated by the social media landscape, have led to extravagant dowries becoming normatively acceptable in urban and semi-urban areas .
In addition to this, legal and systemic/enforcement barriers are strongly preventing justice; police inactions, sluggish investigations, and poor evidence collection are common, with only about 4,500 from 7,000 dowry death cases a year reaching the charge-sheet (the charge sheet should include a charge, or charges by NGOs) stage and conviction rates being as low as 2%. Judicial delays, maternal/paternal refusal to assist prosecution and the experiences of hostile witnesses further subdue prosecution.
To multiply the socio-economic pressures there are additional aspects, the project is entirely dependent on the victim’s nature of the economic relationship; even with equitable rights established by the Hindu Succession Act (2005) where daughters are treated equally for inheritance purposes; economic realities often mean that enforcement is very rare; all too often dowry is merely another substitute for “real property rights”, rendering women economically vulnerable while simultaneously refuting social rights.
DOWRY DEATHS IN INDIA: A LAW RECOGNIZED, A JUSTICE DENIED - Record Of Law
Authored By: Yadlapalli Yagnyashree College of Law For Women AMS ABSTRACT In India, dowry death continues to be one of […]
recordoflaw.in
When will we wake up? When will we rise up as a society against this crime?
