Keshav Sethi
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www.whiteblacklegal.co.in ISSN: 2581-8503 VOLUME 1: ISSUE 7 || December 2019 || Email: [email protected] Website: www.whiteblacklegal.co.in 1 www.whiteblacklegal.co.in ISSN: 2581-8503 DISCLAIMER No part of this publication may be reproduced or copied in any form by any means without prior written permission of Editor-in-chief of White Black Legal – The Law Journal. The Editorial Team of White Black Legal holds the copyright to all articles contributed to this publication. The views expressed in this publication are purely personal opinions of the authors and do not reflect the views of the Editorial Team of White Black Legal. Though all efforts are made to ensure the accuracy and correctness of the information published, White Black Legal shall not be responsible for any errors caused due to oversight or otherwise. 2 www.whiteblacklegal.co.in ISSN: 2581-8503 EDITORIAL TEAM EDITOR IN CHIEF Name - Mr. Varun Agrawal Consultant || SUMEG FINANCIAL SERVICES PVT.LTD. 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The erudite response of legal luminaries shall be solicited to enable readers to explore challenges that lie before law makers, lawyers and the society at large, in the event of the ever changing social, economic and technological scenario. With this thought, we hereby present to you WHITE BLACK LEGAL: THE LAW JOURAL 4 www.whiteblacklegal.co.in ISSN: 2581-8503 Dowry Death: A Bane Of India Society By: KESHAV SETHI Abstract Dowry death1 is a plague that has been affecting the very roots of Indian culture towards the process of modernization, which has in result stunted the growth of Indian minds towards modernization. Dowry death is one of the most hideous and burning issue in India. There are laws, which have been incorporated by the legal system of the country to provide safeguard against such gruesome offenses. Our government has launched several of campaigns and awareness programs against the practice of dowry and providing knowledge about the impact of it upon our society. However, in spite of such initiatives the statics on dowry death related have only increased in India. There are still certain areas where there is a lack of growth and prevalence of dowry practice among those societies. There is Dowry Prohibition Act 19612 which is enacted and in addition with Section 304- B(dowry death) and Section 498-A ( cruelty by husband or his relatives) have been integrated into the Indian Penal Code 3read with Section 113-B( presumption as to dowry death) have been made part of the Indian Evidence4 Act in order to eradicate or atleast lower down this gruesome act of dowry system. This research paper has made an effort to understand as to why deaths related to dowry system still happening and understanding the mindset of a society, which is still letting such practice to have an existence in such modernize world. Keywords:- Dowry Death : Dowry Prohibition Act 1961 : Government: Section 113-B of I.E.A5: Section 304-B IPC6: 498-A of IPC7. 1https://www.advocatekhoj.com/library/bareacts/indianpenalcode/304b.php?Title=Indian%20Penal%20Code,%201860&STitle=Dowry%20 death 2https://wcd.nic.in/act/dowry-prohibition-act-1961 3https://indiacode.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/4219/1/THE-INDIAN-PENAL-CODE- 1860.pdfhttps://indiacode.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/4219/1/THE-INDIAN-PENAL-CODE-1860.pdf 4https://indiankanoon.org/doc/1953529/ 5https://indiankanoon.org/doc/1906/ 6https://indiankanoon.org/doc/653797/ 7https://indiankanoon.org/doc/538436/ 5 www.whiteblacklegal.co.in ISSN: 2581-8503 INTRODUCTION Marriage in India is steeped in tradition and deep-rooted cultural belief. Practices that are commonly referred as customs have been passed down and practiced along with changing times. There is one such customs that stubbornly resisted change: Dowry system8. Dowry system has its roots rooted deeply in the history of India but it was not always like this from the beginning. The hazard of dowry system has become a serious and unethical social stigma of Modern India even though the society and the population claim themselves as "literate" and "educated". This practice is not only having an impact on the life of a woman but also on her family. We live in the world where the difference among the gender no longer exists but why that is especially in India there are still certain part of the society where the birth of a girl child is still consider sad news. With growth in economical condition of India which has further more caused serious financial and emotional stress to the wife's parents and family has resulted in emotional trauma on the life of women. We have laws which are trying to protect the status and empowerment of women but our society is not letting such gruesome practice to stop existing in such modernize world. India is not stunted by the growth of business sector or economical sector but due to the very people living in it. It is high time that we stop accepting the title of third world nation because of such practices like dowry system and give women the status and respect they deserve. Growth of dowry system in India The dowry system in India is linked with the marriage establishment. However, unlike the recent times dowry was a voluntary gift in the ancient time to the daughter, which in present scenario has become a conditional dowry "dahej". Our history consist of stories where the men and gods lived together in harmony, we have ancient sculptures which talks about women with such high respect. In our history we have all been told the story of "swayamvar" as a Hindu marriage practice where the bride gets to decide who to marry. In those times, the groom would have to show his potential of marrying the bride. We have various of example from our history such as in Ramayana, Rama had to lift the Shiva's bow to prove that he was eligible to marry Sita. So if this was the importance given to women in our tradition, then when and where did this contradiction of the menace of dowry enter our society? There are no proof of existence of 8 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dowry_system_in_India 6 www.whiteblacklegal.co.in ISSN: 2581-8503 such evil practices in our literature of ancient times. The answer to this question may be in a well researched book by Veena Talwar Oldenburg : Dowry Murder: The imperial origin of a cultural Crime9. The author follows a paper trail left by British bureaucrats during the British colonial rule in India. This does not mean that dowry system was not prevalent in Pre- colonial period. Pre-Colonial Period With the changing of times, the practice of dowry retained its existence but meaning of it is changed. Yes, the system of dowry existed even before the British Rule but the true meaning of giving dowry was very different at that time. In our old Hindu laws, importance was given to the birth of Son and it was believed that it was a way for the parents to attain heaven (Swarg). The property laws of that duration excluded women from being a part in the property owned by her father as all was entitled to Son by law. In Pre-colonial period, there was another practice which played a very prominent role in the effecting the status of women which was Sati Pratha10 in which the women were not allowed to remarry once her husband dies and would have burn herself to death on her husband's pyre. During that period, the dowry was an institution, which was managed by women, for women, to enable them to establish their status and have recourse in emergency. Here what is to be stressed upon is that the valuables or wealth what was given under dowry was given to the bride, not to the groom or his family so in order words the valuable or wealth was for the betterment of the bride and the groom or his family had no control over that therefore it was known as "istri dhan". The reason behind it was to give financial independence to women. Post-colonial period After the colonial rule we witness that the society have taken certain steps for the empowerment of women such as abolishment of Sati Pratha, widow remarriage11, education of women, ban on female infanticide12, abolishment of Devdasi System13 , out of the mentioned reforms for women one still retained its existence which was the practice of dowry. Our glorified history have given the literal reasoning as to why dowry was practiced 9 Dowry Murder-The Imperial Origins of a Cultural Crime byVeena Talwar Oldenburg 10 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sati_(practice) 11 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_Widows%27_Remarriage_Act,_1856 12 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_infanticide_in_India 13 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devadasi 7 www.whiteblacklegal.co.in ISSN: 2581-8503 but the society with time have changed the true meaning of the practice.