The
Price Brides Pay
By Choodie Shivaram, Bangalore, India
Original Link of this Article http://www.hinduism-today.com/2000/5/
Karnataka's Truth Commission hears how brides find safety in
neither caste nor class when avaricious in-laws demand more and more dowry
By Choodie Shivaram, Bangalore, India
In return for outstanding service to her local community, Meena was gifted a piece of
property near Chennai. "Meena" is not her real name, and the circumstances of
her life have been disguised, for the state's largess allegedly and ironically resulted in
her death. Her husband coveted the site and wanted it transferred to his name. Months
later, Meena's body was found hanging from a ceiling fan in her husband's house. He was
the prime suspect, yet he was acquitted for lack of evidence and Meena was posthumously
declared a suicidal schizophrenic! Anandhi (all names have been changed), a scientist, was
found burned to death in her house a few months after marriage. Earlier, her husband, Dr.
Gupta, and his mother pressured Anandhi to get a house, a car and a research post for
Gupta. Gupta also wanted Anandhi's brother, a highly placed government official, to
provide Gupta's nephew with a public service job.
Amrita, the young wife of Kumar and her parents' only daughter, was barbarously burnt with
cigarette butts, starved and abused. "The more you beat her, the more money you
get," Kumar's paternal uncle had advised. Amrita died. Her death, too, was decreed a
suicide.
One would think that dowry deaths and harassments such as these occur mostly among the
uneducated and lower strata of society. But listening to the cases deposed in Bangalore
before the Truth Commission held in August of 1999 proved that torture, harassment and
death at the hands of husbands and in-laws can strike women of all classes. I shuddered as
I sat through the Commission hearings, listening to the stories of victim after victim.
The Truth Commission on Unnatural Deaths of Women in Marriage was jointly organized by
Vimochana, a voluntary women's organization, and the National Law School University of
India. Over 70 cases were presented before a jury comprising eminent representatives of
the law commission, former judges, lawyers and social activists. Parents and brothers of
victims came to tell their agonizing stories, giving the gory details of brides' deaths at
the hands of husbands, in-laws and relatives. The pattern of torture and eventual death in
all cases seemed the same--as if there were a common understanding among the perpetrators
of the crime. They burn the girl with cigarette butts on her private parts, starve her,
humiliate her and demand more and more dowry. Finally they immolate the girl by kerosene
or hang her, and cover up the murder as a case of suicide.
One father lamented the death of his daughter. The brilliant student was about to take
exams, but suddenly the father was informed the girl had committed suicide. Later, he told
the commission, he learned that the postmortem report indicated death by strangulation.
"It meant my daughter was murdered," he wailed. A case was registered against
the husband and in-laws. During the investigation, it was revealed that the daughter was
being pressured to ask her father for money to send the husband abroad. Out of
embarrassment, the girl concealed the torture she was being subjected to. One day, the
father believes, her husband killed her. This happened in a financially and socially
well-to-do family. "I don't want this to happen to anybody else. Please be careful
with your daughters," warned the grieving father.
For three days, one after another, aggrieved families from all over Karnataka recalled
their agonizing travails and subsequent humiliation at the hands of police, public
prosecutors and delays in the court process. It was a narration of cruelty and justice
denied. The end result left them physically, financially and emotionally battered. The
culprits in all cases narrated were either acquitted or were free on bail.
Giving and taking dowry is a punishable offense under India's Dowry Prohibition Act.
Despite this, parents of the victims had perpetuated the crime of giving dowry, either on
their own volition or on demand. Dowry was given in the form of money, immovable property
and hi-tech gadgets. After marriage, the girls were tortured for more. They were sent home
to their parents with scars of torture. But the parents sent the girl back to her
husband's house because, they believed, that is where she belonged. With difficulty, some
of the parents arranged to partially meet the demands and promised the rest a little
later. But the ever insatiable in-laws chose to do away with the girl.
"It is amazing to see how daughters have been sent back even after knowledge of
harassment and physical abuse. It was clearly a death sentence. What kind of society do we
live in?" asked dismayed panelists. "On an average, every year in Karnataka
alone 1,200 women are victims of such brutalities. If that is the society we are living
in, we should hang our heads in shame," lamented panelist Dr. Madhava Menon.
During the past two years Karnataka alone saw 1,425 women dead in dowry related deaths,
according to a study conducted by Vimochana. "These brutalities point to a very deep
civilizational crisis in our society. Even when the girls have come back complaining of
severe brutalities on their bodies, parents have sent them back. This goes to show how
little worth we put on the lives of our daughters. In a society, if parents don't value
their daughters, it's futile and stupid to expect the in-laws to respect and honor them. I
don't think the problem can be resolved even with the best of the police force and laws.
The best of it will not work if society is showing signs of such deep pathological disease
symptoms," testified Madhu Kishwar, editor of Manushi, a journal on women and society
[see her article on dowry deaths in Hinduism Today, October, 1999.]
The family has failed to provide elementary security to the girl. Men have behaved
brutally as if it were a normal thing and a girl should quietly accept it. This was
clearly evident from listening to the parents deposing before the commission. In almost
all cases the police had abetted the criminals. Either they did not record the complaint
from the victim's parents or recorded it as a case of suicide or unnatural death instead
of murder. "There is an incentive for corruption. There is no incentive for
honesty," said an anguished brother whose sister perished under mysterious
circumstances.
Once the girl has died, the boy's parents lose no time in searching for a new bride for
their son, and getting more dowry. There are any number of gullible people who do not
think twice before handing over their daughter to such families. "My son-in-law is
out on bail, and his parents are now trying to bring him a bride from another village.
Even while my daughter was battling for life in the hospital, they came and told me that
they will look for another bride for their son, where they will get plenty of money and
property," one lady told the commission.
With increasing reports of death of young brides, Vimochana began focusing on these cases.
"We went to Victoria Hospital burns ward where the burn victims were brought,
recorded the cases, took records from the Central Crime Research Bureau, went to each
police station and pulled out cases of unnatural death reports. We started working
backwards on these cases," stated Shakun.
"We felt that whatever we were doing was just not enough. We decided to go to the
people. As a beginning, we went to four districts. We just opened shop, told the people
that we are here and if they had any cases to please come forward. All-India Radio helped
us in giving publicity and announcing our program to visit these districts. People came
voluntarily and reported 5,560 cases in two days," said Shakun. Vimochana organized a
public hearing on this issue at the banquet hall of Vidhana Soudha in Bangalore. The
hearing was in the presence of legislators and police chiefs in order to bring the issue
to the very top political and governmental personnel. After this, they organized the Truth
Commission, attended by 500 people over three days of hearings.
An important follow up of the Commission will be to put in place a system of justice and
para-legal support which will be available to anyone who loses a daughter in suspicious
circumstances. It will seek to make the process of justice more transparent, accessible
and accountable. Parents and relatives will have access to information about the case,
court, etc.
On the final day the jury members made their recommendations. They stated that an inquest
must be completed within hours of the death in the presence of at least one member of a
women's organization. The postmortem should be done within six hours by a doctor nominated
by a women's commission. The body and the surrounding area must be videotaped. It was
noticed during the hearings that in almost all the cases the girl's parents and relatives
were not allowed to go near the body or survey the house and surroundings, nor were they
provided access to the postmortem report.
The Commission also recommended that a panel of public prosecutors be specially appointed
or invited to conduct trials in cases of unnatural deaths. There should also be provisions
in the criminal procedure code to issue show-cause notices to officers responsible for
shoddy investigations. Harassed women can reach out for help, and the police can be put
under scrutiny. The Commission recommended reinvestigation of twelve of the cases it heard
where glaring errors on the part of the police were evident.
Vimochana will provide support against harassment or intimidation to the parties who
brought cases before the Commission. Based on the recommendations made, Vimochana plans to
have the cases reopened at an individual level. Her group seeks to bring out the common
pattern and invite suggestions to effect institutional changes. They intend to take up and
lobby for changes in the laws and enforcement, towards sensitizing the police, legal aid
services, district administration and people in general. "Women need to have access
to help," Shakun concludes. "We want to put the onus on society. What is
happening is not the women's fault, it is being a woman that seems to have become an
occupational hazard."
Vimochana, 26 17th Main, Hal Second Stage, Bangalore 560008 India.
phone: 080.527.8628
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