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Eradicate Dowry, Eliminate Dowry Violence

Article in SSRN Electronic Journal · January 2023

DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.4466268

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 Eradicate Dowry, Eliminate Dowry Violence

Adv Dr Shalu Nigam1

On 22 May 2023, a woman who married six months ago was burned alive in Sawai Madhopur
Rajasthan for dowry. Her father stated that she was severely tortured for a motorcycle and Rs
50,0002.

22-year-old Lovepreet Kaur, a resident of Ludhiana, Punjab, got married to Gurinder Singh on 24
June 20223. On 18 April 2023, within ten months of her marriage, she was found dead. Her hapless
father, Gurbhaksh Singh complained that she was brutally thrashed to death by her husband and
in-laws for more dowry, though he had tried his best to give her everything required for a
household. Her father claimed that she had strangulation marks on her neck, her face was swollen
with bruises, and a froth was emitting from her mouth. Earlier too, she was pitilessly harassed and
thrown out of the house several times, but her father intervened, assuming that things would
resolve with time. The police have booked a criminal case under Section 304B of the IPC.
However, the accused are absconding.

22-year-old Kavita, a resident of Rajkot, consumed poison on 6 May 2023 and died at the local
civil hospital. Her distraught father alleged that she married Sandeep three and a half years ago,
and her harassment begin within four months 4 . The accused took away her jewellery and
pressurized her to get a scooter and other items though he has given Rs 50,000 in cash to them.

These are not rare or isolated incidents. There are numerous, reported and non-reported similar
cases where young women experience harsh physical, verbal, emotional, financial, sexual, and
economic violence that inextricably involves compulsory and arbitrary demands for the dowry,
coercion, harassment, brutal torture, and abuse for dowry payments to the extent that some are
murdered, burned alive, or forced to commit suicide. In many precarious situations, women are
not only taunted or humiliated, but they are also exploited and blackmailed every day to extort
cash and valuable items, including vehicles, land, jewellery, lavish gifts, and so on. These
women lost their lives because both their natal and matrimonial families failed to consider them
as human beings endowed with the right to live a dignified life.

1
Adv Dr Shalu Nigam is an advocate, independent researcher, and an activist working on women, law and human
rights issues. This article is based on her recent work titled Dowry is a serious violence: Rethinking Dowry Law
in India, Available at Amazon
https://www.amazon.in/gp/product/B0C5DPTWNM/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0
2
The Hindustan Times (2023) 6 months into marriage, woman burnt alive for dowry in Rajasthan’s Sawai
Madhopur May 22, https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/jaipur-news/woman-burnt-alive-for-dowry-demand-
by-in-laws-in-rajasthan-village-husband-and-family-members-booked-for-murder-101684748712826.html
3
The Indian Express (2023) Ludhiana: 22-year-old woman dies 10 months after marriage; husband, in-laws
booked for dowry death, April 21, https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/chandigarh/ludhiana-woman-dies-
marriage-dowry-death-8568239/
4
The Times of India (2023) Dowry Death: Three of the family booked for suicide abetment, May 19,
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/rajkot/dowry-death-three-of-family-booked-for-suicide-
abetment/articleshow/100343411.cms?from=mdr
More than six decades after the Dowry Prohibition Act5 was instituted, giving and taking of
the dowry continues to be a socially accepted custom. The amendments in the criminal laws
that criminalize dowry-related violence could not deter violence or prevent it from occurring.
Despite legal reforms, the barbaric practice of dowry has drastically expanded and evolved to
replace the practice of the bride price’ with the `groom price’. Additionally, the abhorrent
practice of dowry is rapidly evolving in the neoliberal world while the law has utterly failed to
keep pace with the socio-economic changes. The repulsive practices of dowry, coercive
demands and dowry violence, not only persist with impunity despite legal reform, but all these
are belligerently expanding in terms of magnitude, scope, severity, and outreach and today
have spread tentacles globally 6 . In the contemporary, commercialized world, marriage is
monetized, the marital relationship is commoditized, and the practice of dowry is
institutionalized.

As per the official report by the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB), titled `Crime in India
2021’ 7 , more than 18 women tragically die a day in violence related to dowry demands.
Although this figure is marginally low, as 6753 women died in 2020 compared to 7100 in 2019,
at the same time, the number of complaints reported under the Dowry Prohibition Act, of 1961
rose by 25 percent in 2021 as compared to the previous year.

The National Commission for Women, too, reported a consistent increase in the number of
cases of dowry violence8. The data is also substantiated by several of the medico-legal research
studies, which depict that over the years, an increasing number of burn fatalities involving
women have been referred to burn departments for autopsy9. Besides burning young women
alive for dowry, other common methods used to murder women involved drowning, poisoning,
hanging, and strangulation10 or compelling women to commit suicide11.

In addition, the NCRB report in 2021 also shows that as many as 45,026 women committed
suicide – nearly 1 every 9 minutes – which is a matter of pressing concern. A disturbingly
increasing rate of suicide among women, though it apparently requires research inputs,
indicates that, probably over the decades, the method of the murdering bride for the dowry has
evolved, and now women are cruelly harassed emotionally, mentally, and psychologically in

5
https://www.indiacode.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/5556/1/dowry_prohibition.pdf
6
Nigam Shalu (2023) Dowry is a serious violence: Rethinking Dowry Law in India, Available at Amazon
https://www.amazon.in/gp/product/B0C5DPTWNM/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0
7
NCRB (2021) Crime in India, GOI https://ncrb.gov.in/en/Crime-in-India-2021
8
Hariharan Revathi (2023) Increase in number of dowry, rape and attempt to rape complaints in last three years,
says gov, News 18.com, March 17, https://www.news18.com/india/increase-in-number-of-dowry-rape-and-
attempt-to-rape-complaints-in-last-3-years-says-govt-7319497.html
9
Sharma BR, D Harish, Manisha Gupta and VP Singh (2005) Dowry – A deep rooted cause of violence against
women in India, Medical Science and Law, 45(2) 161-168
10
Menezes RG, SB Nagaraja, K Krishna and PK Devdass (2016) Deaths: Dowry Killings, In Encyclopaedia of
Forensic and Legal Medicine, second ed, vol. 2 edited by Payne-James and RW Byard, Academic Press, Oxford
11
Radhika, RH. and K Ananda (2011) An autopsy study of socio-etiological aspects dowry death cases, Journal
of Indian Academy of Forensic Medicine 33(3) 134-140
their matrimonial homes to the extent of absolute helplessness that they could not think of
anything else but to commit suicide.

In the cases of dowry abuse and deaths, senseless violence takes place inside the four walls of
homes on a routine basis, and therefore, it remains discreet and invisible from the public
domain. This horrendous violence is, therefore, easily overlooked, ignored, disregarded, and
forgotten. The testimonies of the victims and their families are easily wiped off12. Seemingly,
no one wants to talk about the gruesome deaths of women taking place in the privacy of
chardeewari or four walls of the homes. The memories of such gruesome violence hardly remain.
Perhaps, no one wishes to mourn these ill-fated, oppressed and dead. Butler 13 described some
lives as `ungrievable’ which cannot be mourned for because they never lived and remained
uncounted. Perhaps, women who are dying due to dowry violence in homes are such
ungrievable, uncounted lives – the lives that no one wants to protect, no one wants to mourn,
and no one wants to remember.

The spate of statutory provisions could neither prevent the pernicious practice of coercion,
extortion, and blackmail in marriage nor could these stop the brutal torture or murder of women.
Ineffective laws and weaker enforcement, have failed to curb dowry violence. Laws merely
exist on paper and remain inefficient and ineffective. The required sensitivity, critical
awareness, or political will 14 to curb dowry violence and deaths, all are absent in male-
dominated society. The state solemnly pledged to eradicate the dowry; however, over the
decades, it has sorely missed its own targets and hopelessly broken its own promises made to
the generations of women in the country. Except for the mere enactment of laws on paper, no
other steps are sincerely being taken to prevent violence and completely abolish the dowry.

The culture of senseless violence with impunity is growing because, ironically, though the
practice of dowry is illegal on paper, socially and culturally, it is accepted, endorsed, and
celebrated with zeal. The religion promotes the evil practice of dowry. The patriarchal culture
encourages it, and the market benefits from it. The lives of young women are simply of no
significant value. Women are treated as `perishable’, and `disposable’ commodities without
dignity or agency by the state, the market, and their families. Society lives in denial, looks
away, or turns a blind eye to such crimes that happen within the privacy of the four walls of a
household. Every incidence of dowry violence is construed as something merely happening in
the abstract or too remote to even think about. The contentious, deafening silence is being
obstinately maintained around the issues of violence against women in homes 15. In a patriarchal
society, where the regressive family ideology operates to ensure women’s subjugation and male
dominance, horrific violence against women is condoned as a `private family issue’ or is rather

12
Nigam Shalu (2019) Women and Domestic Violence Law in India: A Quest for Justice, Routledge, Delhi
13
Butler Judith (2020) Precarious life: The powers of mourning and violence, Verso Books, New York
14
Nigam Shalu (2023) Reimagining everyday justice through the triad of Niti, Nyaya and Niyat, Mainstream
weekly, February 25, http://mainstreamweekly.net/article13169.html
15
Nigam Shalu (2021) Domestic Violence law in India: Myth and Misogyny, Routledge, Delhi
justified as an act of discipline and control16. The Dowry System has created havoc, and yet,
those in power act blind to the grave crime that is taking the lives of millions of women, and
disproportionately affecting their families, including their kids.

The baggage of dowry is spreading across territorial boundaries

With increasing globalization when people are transcending territorial and political boundaries,
they are additionally carrying the unwarranted cultural baggage of disrespecting women and
exporting the undesirable dowry system17. Dowry is, therefore, becoming a global problem.
Exploitative men fraudulently marry, forcibly coerce women’s families to obtain a huge
amount of money, dupe them, and migrate while abandoning the young women behind. These
women are experiencing a novel kind of brutal exploitation in the form of being `holiday
brides’, `honeymoon brides’, or those abandoned after marriage..
Holiday bride is an expression that became popular in the 1990s and is referred to situations
where the young brides are appallingly abandoned by Non-Resident Indian (NRI) husbands
who returned to prosperous foreign lands soon after marriage. The wives keep on impatiently
waiting for their husbands for months and years but abrasive husbands blatantly refused to
contact them, return or call them or could deliver papers for spouse visas. Many women
catastrophically failed to report such horrendous crimes because of overwhelming shame and
societal stigma. Studies estimate that closer to 30,000 women admittedly from Punjab alone
who are inevitably experiencing this diverse form of violence where an interplay of traditions,
globalization, and policy perspective shape the unique challenges women face 18.

Moreover, in some precarious situations, those hapless women who move abroad with vicious
men experience an unusual form of brutal oppression in a completely alien land 19. Coercive
control underlies the financial abuses migrant women face where men control money,
depriving women and children20. Several studies noted how gender relations and dowry are
severely impacting the Indian-origin wives who are severely abused in the country they migrate
to after marriage where men abuse women, ruthlessly exploit them, maliciously misappropriate
their dowries, and abandon them with impunity leading to `transnational abandonment’

16
Kapoor S. (2014). Negotiations with patriarchy: Gender and childhood in India. In Cultural realities of being:
Abstract ideas within everyday live, edited by N Chaudhary, S. Anandalakshmy and J. Valsiner, Routledge, New
York, p 49-68
17
Patel P., R Handa, A Sundari, et.al. (2016) Emerging issues for international family law: Part 3: Transnational
marriage abandonment and the dowry question, Family Law Journal, 46 (12) 1443-4
18
Kapur Sonia (2020) Holiday Brides and Policy concerns: The perils of being in `Nomans’ land, Rivera
Publications, July 5, http://riverapublications.com/article/holiday-brides-and-policy-concerns-the-perils-of-
being-in-no-mans-land
19
Nabi Safina (2022) Married for dowry and abandoned, `NRI Brides’ are caught between international and
domestic laws, Scroll.in November 7, https://scroll.in/article/1036766/married-for-dowry-and-abandoned-nri-
brides-are-caught-between-international-and-domestic-laws
20
Singh Supriya and J Sidhu (2020) Coercive control of money, dowry and remittance among Indian migrant
women in Australia, South Asian Diaspora, 12(1) 35-50
whereby gender-blind transnational formal-legal networks and transnational structural
inequities construe transnational brides as `disposable women’ 21.

In both critical situations – holiday brides and immigrant brides, the status of the groom as a
permanent resident or a citizen of a foreign country enhances his bargaining power where he
can demand more dowry because of his ability to get the bride into the host country 22. The
groom and his parents feel entitled to bluntly demand more dowries in case the groom is highly
educated, has a well-paying job, and is residing in a foreign country 23. In many horrific cases,
arranged marriage is fixed in order to extort funds in the form of dowry for the purpose of
migration24. On either side of the territorial borders, young women as brides disproportionately
suffer after marriage. Transnational mobility of men and women is not diminishing the intrinsic
patriarchal norms but merely resulting in their relocation, reconfiguration and expansion.

The National Commission for Women registered 984 complaints in the year 2012 of women
being shamefully deserted by their NRI husbands or women caught in fraudulent marriages 25.
The Ministry of External Affairs reported in the Parliament that between 2015 and 31st October
2019, a total of 6094 complaints were received by NRI brides who were deserted by their
husbands26. Dowry violence, therefore, is becoming a global challenge and needs an urgent
attention. In all such chaotic situations of transnational marriages where women suffer either
because they are abandoned in her homeland or when they are taken to a foreign land as newly
married brides and experience violence, a comprehensive systematic, holistic, and human
rights international approach is required to redress the situation of these new forms of
contentious citizenship that is evolving.

In 2018, eight distraught women filed a plea on behalf of 40,000 abandoned women before the
Supreme Court of India to resort to strict anti-dowry legal provisions where they claimed that
women have been facing precarious situations financially, and emotionally and their health is
being affected. Many encounters social stigma as the fraudulent men have fled to other
countries with their jewellery and cash 27. Abandoned by their husbands, women are compelled
to run around desperately to get their FIR registered because the police are reluctant to handle

21
Sundari Anitha, Harshita Yalamarty and Anupama Rao (2018) Changing nature and emerging patterns of
domestic violence in global context: Dowry abuse and transnational abandonment of wives in India, Women’s
Studies International Forum, 69: 67-75
22
Tse S (2007) Family violence in Asian communities, combining research and community development, Social
Policy Journal of New Zealand, 31, 170
23
Rastogi M and P Therly (2006) Dowry and its link to violence against women in India: feminist psychological
perspective, Trauma, violence and abuse, 7(1) 66-77
24
Natarajan, M. (2002) Domestic violence among immigrants from India: What we need to know and what we
should do, International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice, 26(2), 301-321
25
Mannan Moiz (2013) The NR Eye: Number of brides abandoned in NRI marriages are on rise, The Peninsula,
August 11, https://thepeninsulaqatar.com/article/11/08/2013/the-nr-eye-number-of-brides-abandoned-in-nri-
marriages-on-the-rise
26
Ministry of External Affairs (2019) Lok Sabha Unstarred question No 688 Complaints of NRI Brides answered
on 20.11.2019 https://www.mea.gov.in/lok-
sabha.htm?dtl/32054/QUESTION+NO688+COMPLAINTS+OF+NRI+BRIDES
27
Jain Ritika (2018) Abandoned by NRI husbands, women move SC to restore strict anti-dowry law provisions,
The Print, November 22, https://theprint.in/india/governance/abandoned-by-nri-husbands-women-move-sc-to-
restore-strict-anti-dowry-law-provisions/152961/
their case seriously and the Look Out Circulars are too, not issued easily. It takes two to three
years to register an FIR and the process gets further complicated because of the bureaucratic
challenges and the complex application of the domestic as well as international laws. The
Ministry of External Affairs stated that it revoked the passport of 25 such men who were living
abroad while abandoning their wives but women claimed that this action took a long time and
that the passports of such devious men should be impounded.

Several countries are now actively enacting laws and policies to deal with such violence. In
New Zealand, dowry-related abuse is being addressed by the Family Violence Act 28 . In
Australia, a considerable number of incidences of dowry violence are being reported among
the Hindu and Sikh immigrant communities, and therefore, the Victorian MPs called for a
Senate inquiry on to outlaw dowry abuse29. This committee conducted an intensive inquiry into
the exploitative practice of dowry and related abuse. It made several recommendations in its
`Senate report’ in February 201930. Some of its laudable recommendations are: broadening the
definition of `economic abuse’ as defined under the Family Law Act, 1975, as well as in the
Migration Rules, 1994, making provisions to safeguard the rights of victims of dowry abuse,
creating a temporary visa for `Women at Risk in Australia’, including `safety pack’ in the visa
applications, strengthening the law to capture the data on dowry violence incidences, among
others 31 . As per these recommendations, the visa rules are amended in March 2019.
Accordingly, the country is bluntly refusing to issue a visa to a person with a domestic violence
conviction32. On its website33, the immigration department clarified that it has zero tolerance
for family violence and laid down step-by-step provisions for anyone who is in dire need of
support. However, in many situations, globally, as well as locally, women are facing terrible
experiences where law has utterly failed to resolve their concerns.

The legal paradigm has failed to resolve the problem of dowry violence
Considering the current practices and the violent mechanisms through which the discriminatory
practice of dowry operates, this work contends that more than a social or moral evil, dowry, as
it is practiced today, critically involves gruesome economic violence, including extortion,

28
Somasekhar Sripriya, NR Robertson, and Jo Thakker (2020) Indian Women’s Experiences of domestic violence
in the context of Migration to Aotearoa New Zealand: The role of women’s in-laws, New Zealand Journal of
Psychology, 49(1) https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA645154876
29
Jopson Debra (2018) Victorian MPs call for outlawing of dowry abuse in Australia, ABC News, May 30,
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-05-30/dowry-abuse-australia-call-for-senate-inquiry/9814852
30
Senate Report (2019) Practice of dowry and incidences of dowry abuse in Australia, Legal and Constitutional
Affairs Reference Committee, Commonwealth of Australia
31
However, this report, while relying on the wrongful submissions made by several men groups and while
erroneously following the Indian experience, has reflected on the patriarchal norms rather than applying the
framework of the women’s human rights as enshrined in the international instruments.
32
SBS News (2019) Australia will refuse to issue visas for people with a domestic violence conviction, March 3,
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/australia-to-refuse-visas-for-domestic-violence-
offendersAustralia%20will%20refuse20to20issue,with%20a%20domestic%20violence%20conviction.&text=Im
migration%20Minister%20David%20Coleman's20decision,or20children20from20the20country.
33
https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/domestic-family-violence-and-your-visa/family-violence-provisions
accessed on 20.09.2022
blackmail, and brutal exploitation of women and their families, besides physical and other
forms of violence that at times lead to their murder or compel women to commit suicide.
Moreover, the scope of the practice of dowry is being widened to include not only the demands
for cash and valuables but also the large expenditures incurred in organizing the `big, fat, lavish
wedding’. These expenses in no way add to the bride’s wealth or her stridhan or support brides
in cases of emergency or otherwise. The way dowry is practiced in contemporary times
involves the triad of oppression consisting of compulsive, arbitrary dowry demands, coercion,
and dowry-related violence, all of which began before or at the time of marriage and continued
thereafter and therefore need to be dealt with accordingly. The laws that prohibit and
criminalize dowry have dismally failed to deter or stop terrible crimes. Besides, the current
legal framework pertaining to dowry blatantly ignores the critical elements of coercion,
extortion, blackmail, and ruthless exploitation of women and therefore, the need is to rethink
the socio-legal discourse surrounding dowry in India.
Way Forward
The neoliberal economy is bringing in a new set of challenges, and therefore innovative ideas
are required to address those emerging issues. What is required is a pro-active feminist
approach, globally as well as nationally, which includes the inter-country and intra-country
coordination and above all a commitment by the state governments at the national as well as
the international level to prevent violence, to protect women and children and to provide
immediate relief and justice to those affected. Rather an international consortium may be
established to specifically address such issues pertaining to women and children is essential 34.

At the global level,

Dowry violence is becoming a global challenge and needs an urgent attention. The normative
gap under the international law needs to be recognized and addressed. Special strategies may
be devised to support women in perilous situations to rehabilitate and recompense them.
Additionally, a comprehensive policy is essentially required to fix the accountability of the
perpetrators of such violence.
CEDAW provides a basic universal framework to interrogate and address all forms of violence
against women, however, to specifically deal with the issue pertaining to violence or coercion
for payments or transactions in relationships and its impact on women and children, a precise
women’s rights instrument could be evolved globally which may rethink the policies relating
to convergence and coordination among various countries on issues pertaining to dowry-related
violence. A transnational approach to violence and vulnerability is required to comprehend the
manipulative exploitative power structures that operate to exploit women.
Further, beyond CEDAW, there is an urgent need to fix the accountability of the state
governments across the world to pay attention to this significant issue affecting women and
children. As per SDG 5 which ensures that gender equality is a fundamental human rights and
SDG 16 that ensures effective and accountable institutions for easy access to justice for all,

34
Nigam Shalu (2019) Legislating on Transnational Dowry Abuse: A Ray of Hope from Australia, Available at
SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3345413
action must be taken to provide remedies to the victims and survivors of dowry violence. Hence,
a strong, specific, comprehensive, legally-binding. and a holistic women-centric instrument to
deal with and eliminate dowry abuse is necessary to promote women’s rights and justice 35. It
is essential to combat the dowry related abuse and to prevent, protect and rehabilitate women
and children affected by it.
Dowry abuse is required to be seen as an issue with specific nuances, therefore there is need to
adopt different norms and measures to fight it. A preventive approach requires much more
efforts in terms of considering safety plans for young women migrating after marriage. The
normative gap under the international law needs to be recognized and addressed. Special
strategies may be devised to support women in perilous situations to rehabilitate and
recompense them. Additionally, a comprehensive policy is essentially required to fix the
accountability of the perpetrators of such violence. A feminist policy at the global level based
on horizontal trifecta approach with a vision to foster an inclusive and a just world based on
the pillars of hope, imagination, and possibilities is essential36.
The UN Women every year celebrates 16 days of activism against gender-based violence to
call for prevention and elimination of violence against women and girls 37. It is urged to include
elimination of dowry violence as one of its goals to specifically address this normative gap. A
Dowry Elimination Day38 to raise awareness regarding the ills of dowry and to eliminate dowry
violence could be allocated to remind and to ensure that the state governments are duty bound
and should stay committed to address this specific crime in a holistic manner keeping in mind
the women centred approach.
At the national level,
The Constitution of India promises equality, liberty and social justice to all the citizens. The
idea of the right to life is expanded by the Supreme Court in spate of judgements and the
violence against women, especially dowry violence is prohibited and criminalized by the laws.
Yet, dowry abuse has resulted in death of many women and is also making severe impact on
the lives of numerous others. It has to be urgently addressed in whatever ways possible.
Screams of those women who have been abused need to be heard and be acted upon. Women
cannot be forced to stay at the receiving end forever for whatever reasons. A multi-pronged
approach may therefore be taken up to eliminating dowry violence and to eradicate the
discriminatory practice of dowry.

35
This issue of having a specific legally binding international instrument addressing specifically the issue of
dowry violence also came up when this author attended a Summit on Dowry Law held in February 2019 at the
University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia https://www.humanrights.unsw.edu.au/news/summit-calls-
national-recognition-dowry-abuse organized jointly by UNSW and ACRCH. https://www.achrh.org/national-
dowry-abuse-summits/ However, at the point of time, the Resolution could not be passed because several
organizations refused to support it.
36
Nigam Shalu (2022) Feminist Foreign Policy in India: A trifecta approach to hope, imagination, and
possibilities, IMPRI, October 23, https://www.impriindia.com/insights/feminist-foreign-policy-trifecta/
37
UN Women (undated) 16 days of activism against gender-based violence, https://www.unwomen.org/en/what-
we-do/ending-violence-against-women/unite/16-days-of-activism
38
The Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961 in India was enacted on 20 May 1961, it was published in the Official Gazette
on 20 June 1961 and came into force from 1 July 1961. Therefore, any of these dates could be selected to observe
the `Dowry Elimination Day’.
First, rethinking the dowry law to consider the serious economic dimension of this violent
crime. Amending dowry laws to introduce the component of accountability and adequate
enforcement is essential. Second, ensuring that the law fixes the accountability of the
perpetrators of economic violence and prosecutes those who use coercion, extortion, and
blackmail to demand dowry to exploit women and their families, besides penalizing abusers
who knowingly commit deliberate acts of violence to ensure the elimination of a culture of
violence with impunity.
Third, devising strategies to rehabilitate and recompense the hapless victims and survivors of
the brutal crime, and fourth, a long-term measure is required to prevent dowry violence and
ruthless exploitation, including addressing structural discrimination against women,
eliminating inequalities in the family, providing continuous education and awareness, critically
engaging with men, and promoting gender sensitization, taking up further research, in addition
to consolidating the services such as shelter homes, short-stay homes, medical and legal
facilities, lending economic support, and social security provisions to enable women to escape
violent marriages, even in situations where women do not receive support from their natal
families. It is essential to spread the message that training a girl to earn gold medals and
accolades might be prioritized over giving gold at the time of marriage.
At the wider level, creating gender-sensitive spaces and initiating a dialogue around dignity,
emotions, trust, and mutual respect in the relationship may dismantle the rigid walls of
patriarchy. The sacrosanct hierarchical nature of marital relationships needs to be replaced with
a critical focus on the safety of women and children, consent, and ethics while breaking the
shackles of shame and honour. Recognizing diverse family forms, and economically
empowering girls, while prioritizing their health, education, skills, and talents may pave the
way for women’s emancipation in the long run.
A holistic approach that addresses the individual, institutional, and the structural factors that
causes dowry abuse as well as prevent and mitigate its unwarranted consequences is necessary.
It is critical to engage with the structures of social, economic, and political inequalities while
simultaneously carrying out analysis and activism to smash complex interlocked vices such as
capitalism and patriarchy and to engage in the struggle for social change. The aim is to ensure
Ni Una Manos or `Not one woman less’, `not one more death’, which is also the goal of the
grassroots feminist movement that began in Argentina and spread across the Latin American
countries campaigning against gender-based violence39. Likewise, in India, or elsewhere, no
woman should experience or be subjected to any form of patriarchal violence.
Other suggestions may include fixing a limit to the expenditure incurred on weddings
celebrations to stop dowry abuse, special programs to be initiated to raise awareness and
sensitization about the provisions of the law, community-based education is essential to break
the silence around family violence, a special action plan is required for abandoned brides
including for those situations where men take huge dowries and migrate abandoning their wives
behind, making strategies to prevent dowry violence and suicide, and a comprehensive

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Friedman EJ and C Tabbush (2016) #NiUnaManos: Not one woman less, Not one more death, Nacla.org,
November 1, https://nacla.org/news/2016/11/01/niunamenos-not-one-woman-less-not-one-more-death
View publication stats

education program is required to educate young men and women among others. A collective
commitment to imagine and aim for a society based on the radical idea of freedom or Bekhauf
azaadi and solidarity to guarantee the care and survival of all with dignity is essential.

Citation: Nigam Shalu (2023) Eradicate Dowry, Eliminate Dowry Violence, countercurrents.org, June
1, https://countercurrents.org/2023/06/eradicate-dowry-eliminate-dowry-violence/

Adv Dr Shalu Nigam is an advocate, independent researcher, and a feminist activist working at the
intersection of women’s rights, law, governance, and human rights issues. This article is based on her
recent work titled Dowry is a serious violence: Rethinking Dowry Law in India, Available at Amazon
https://www.amazon.in/gp/product/B0C5DPTWNM/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0