Women have faced increasing incidents of crime since years. Marriages have become commercialized. It’s just like a business proposition where the groom and his family make exorbitant demands. Wealthier the family, the more outrageous are the demands. A woman is killed every hour for lavish gifts and dowry from her parents, and if they failed, the bride does not see the light of the day. The number of deaths reflects a broader increase in gender violence. While dowry deaths fell slightly down, at the same time the number of cases of cruelty committed by husbands and their relatives increased significantly. It is believed that cruelty cases are dowry-related cases and many dowry killings are preceded by cruelty by the husband and in-laws. Although the dowry culture is illegal in India, but still they remain widespread across caste, class and educational divides. In recent years demands have become more insistent and expensive. In one of the dowry deaths, the woman was burned to death in her bedroom as she slept with her one-year-old daughter. She had been threatened by her in-laws because her parents could not afford to make the dowry payments. Crime against women is rampant in India. As per law Dowry death cases can only be registered up to seven years after marriage, which means most of those killed were young women and relatively new brides. Serious injustice in the form of violence is being committed against young women in their matrimonial homes and the low conviction rate shows the legal system is not geared up to investigate and prosecute the culprits. In a crime that is prevalent only in India, greedy in-laws and the husbands annoy the newly wed bride for getting dowry, and often kill her by burning her alive. This horror scene is called bride-burning or the dowry death. Dowry is an ancient tradition among the upper castes but its spread among all sections of society probably in the late nineteenth century. With increasing commercialization it has become an opportunity for men and their families to get their hands on cash, jewellery, and various other commodities. Although the government prohibited dowry through legislation in 1961, it was never implemented properly. Prohibition officers were supposed to have been appointed in each district, taking the battle to the grassroots but nothing happened. Indian penal Code was amended and it included section 304B, specifically against murder following harassment for dowry. Section 498A was also added to punish for harassment and cruelty by husbands and his relatives. Laxity of the government machinery can be one reason for the failure of legal measures. But perhaps the primary reason for spread of this cancer has been the almost complete absence of any public campaign or mobilization against it for the past 25 years. Hence, girls are considered as burden on her parents, families go bankrupt trying to get their daughters married.
Awareness & sensitization paves the way forward. Many things can be changed if women are educated about the law to help them fight for her rights she is entitled to. There is also, a dire need for a massive sensitization campaign on issues of caste and gender, which involves all stakeholders, including parents. So long as it is mandatory for a Hindu father to marry his daughter as a religious obligation, the dowry problem will remain intact. This problem of dowry can only be evicted from the house of a girl when her father feels comfortable in marring her with an eligible guy, instead of looking into his caste. With this, too many other social evils like child marriage and female infanticide that plague our society will be easily evicted. More comprehensive efforts need to be made that do not perceive creating laws as the only solution but also involves educating and training important stakeholders to women’s issues and empowering women to become stakeholders in the decision-making process.