Twenty-two year old Vimala Devi was burned to death in 1994, ending her seven-year marriage. After receiving counseling at a shelter for battered women, Vimala reconciled with her husband and returned home. Vimala’s husband Babulal committed many crimes under Indian law. He married an underage girl, a crime that cannot be proved because India does not require birth certificates to be registered. Vimala was sent to a hosiptal that was not competent in treating burns and the police did not conduct a post mortem autopsy so Babulal did not have charges brought against him.
Dowry deaths, or bride burning, is an ever-increasing practice in India. In this patriarchal society, the husband and his family demand additions to the original dowry and if the bride’s family refuses to meet these demands the bride is murdered; normally she is burned to death, but this violent act can be inflicted in many other heinous ways. The custom of a dowry draws its meaning from ancient Hindu customs of kanyadan and stridhan.
Kanyadan is the practice of the father of the bride offering money or property or other material goods to the father of the groom, and in stridhan the bride receives jewelry and clothes from her relatives and friends. These customs have developed into a dangerous oppression of women. Bride burning spans many geographical areas and all castes, but is predominant with the upper-caste know as the Brahmans.
A dowry by Indian law is defined as “any property or valuable security given or agreed to be given either directly or indirectly:
i. by any party to a marriage to the other party to the marriage, or
ii. by the parents of either party to the marriage or by other person to either party to the marriage, or to any other person at or before or any time after the marriage in connection with the marriage of the said parties” (Banerjee).
To discourage the practice of bride burning, the Indian Penal Code (IPC) introduced the Dowry Prohibition (Amendment) Act or the DPA. “According to this law, ‘where the death of a woman is caused by burns or bodily injury, or occurs otherwise than under normal circumstances within seven years of her marriage and it is shown that soon before her death she was subjected to cruelty or harassment by her husband or any relative of her husband for, or in connection with, any demand for dowry, such death shall be called ‘dowry death’” (Banerjee).
Dowry death is an outrageous practice because it oppresses women. Under this custom, women have no power to stand up for themselves because the majority of these marriages are arranged. The women in this culture are taught that they are only worth what their family can afford to pay for them. Women have to be obedient to their husbands to avoid harassment that could lead to death if the woman or her family does not meet continual demands.
Familial ties present another element to this oppression of women. If a woman is murdered the family of the bride normally offers the husband a sister, which places an enormous stress on the woman. Even if the Indian society decides to continue the practice of dowries, the agreements should be held to a certain time limit. No group of people or man should be allowed to continually demand money or material goods from another group of people and hold a woman's life in the balance.
