By
Namita Bhandare
March 05,
2021
Her name
was Ayesha. She was 23, worked at a bank and was hoping to complete a master’s
degree when she chose to end her life in the Sabarmati River. The police have
arrested her husband, Aarif Khan, who she married in 2018, and charged him with
abetment to suicide.
Six decades after the Dowry Prohibition Act of 1961, the continuing
prevalence of dowry remains India’s national shame. The 2019 National Crime Records
Bureau data tells us that a woman is subject to cruelty by her husband and
in-laws every four minutes. (Reuters)
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Rashika
Jain was 25 and had married businessman Kushal Agarwal at a grand destination
wedding in Jodhpur a year ago. On February 16, she was dead from a fall off the
third floor terrace of her in-laws’ home in Alipore, Kolkata. The police have
filed a first information report against Agarwal. In both cases, the women’s
parents have alleged harassment over dowry.
A
consumerist, post-liberalisation economy now drives the marriage market —
destination weddings, designer jewellery and, at the very least, a DJ-wale Bhaiya
even in small towns and villages. Much of this is paid for by the bride’s
family because it’s “tradition”. But even as gifts, how do you separate an
outright demand from what was given under social pressure?
Six decades
after the Dowry Prohibition Act of 1961, the continuing prevalence of dowry
remains India’s national shame. The 2019 National Crime Records Bureau data tells
us that a woman is subject to cruelty by her husband and in-laws every four
minutes. Every 73 minutes, there is a dowry death — 23 bodies a day. Yet, when
was the last time you saw public outrage over these numbers? It is possible
that these are now so routine, that we don’t even react.
In the
1980s, at the height of these “kitchen accidents”, two mothers, Satyarani
Chadha and Shahjahan Apa, turned a personal tragedy, the murder of their
daughters, into a public crusade, leading to changes in the law. By 2014,
public sympathy had waned and the Supreme Court called Section 498A, the
cruelty section, among the “provisions that are used as weapons rather than
shield by disgruntled wives”. Notwithstanding the misogyny of “disgruntled
wives”, men rights activists are voluble when it comes to the “misuse” of this
section, but inexplicably silent on dowry itself. Dowry is the issue that
everyone, even government and social workers, has forgotten. Ayesha’s death led
to a welcome break in the silence as Hyderabad Member of Parliament Asaduddin
Owaisi said: “Irrespective of which religion you belong to, I strongly urge
everyone to end this greed of dowry.”
There’s one
good reason for bringing dowry back into the forefront of the gender agenda. A
study found that states with the highest increase of dowry deaths also have the
highest decline in sex ratio. In other words, in states such as Bihar and Uttar
Pradesh where dowry is rife, it does not make economic sense to have a girl
child.
In the
run-up to International Women’s Day, it’s good to celebrate the undeniable
gains on our road to gender equality. But it’s also worth remembering just how
far we have to go — and how little has changed.
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Namita
Bhandare writes on gender
Original
Headline: Dowry remains India’s abiding shame
Source: The Hindustan Times
URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/dowry-deaths-india-so-routine/d/124472