Silenced by their culture large populations of women in India tolerate abuse and subsequent death because they have provided insufficient dowry. In a culture that is male dominated women are raised to be servants to their husbands often arranged to marry a man that they have never met. Women that are beaten or just unhappy must suppress their feelings to keep their husbands blissful or face shame and be turned away by their own families. Indian women’s household must pay a dowry for the privilege of marrying a man of status.
The dowry often consists of money, merchandise, or gold that is displayed when the couple is married. Women are being mistreated for insufficient dowry money because the groom’s family may be greedy and would like more items. If the bride’s family cannot provide more for the in-laws they will kill her so that he may keep the dowry he already had collected and then marries another that may possess more money or status.
The original dowry is determined by the perceived value of the husband’s hand in marriage. If the husband is very desirable then he commands a very high dollar figure, if the offer of money is too low then the groom’s family will not accept it because it is an insult.
Women in India marry within their own social caste which divides people into four major groups the Brahmin, Kshatryia, Vaishya, and the Sudra with some of the lower people being called so the untouchables. The untouchables are called so dirty that even a glass that they have drunk from cleaned, will always be contaminated.
Female babies are viewed as a burden to the father, that he must work and save to marry her off and males are always preferred. The birth of a girl is mourned in most families, which contributes to female infanticide in India today. The marriages that take place are all arranged and can take place even as children, teenagers, and twenty-year-old businessmen and women that has to yield to the practice in society. Women that do choose their own mates are not exempt from the dowry and often face anger from their parents or being disowned. Parents will often look for the most suitable mate for their daughter in classified ads, Internet, or marriage brokers without prior knowledge each other the bride and groom are married if the dowry is in agreement on both sides. If there is any unhappiness in the home of an Indian woman, they look at her as the cause even if the husband is in some cases beating, taunting and humiliating her. These women have no choice but to stay in inhumane situations because they were raised in a culture that does not give them many rights and teaches them from an early age to be a servant. If an Indian woman needs help there are few places to which she can turn, the family of the groom will seek her out because she has dishonored her husband. Her own family will not take her back to their house because she is a difficult woman that may prevent her sisters from being married if the rumor spreads about her family.
The increased supply of many luxury items in India has escalated the demands that grooms make for dowry amounts with the sky the limit being the normal attitude. The parents of the groom are looking to get the most for the hand of their son in their society and look at it as business arrangements. If the groom’s parents are very greedy they may decide that the bride should have an accident that will lead to her death. The son then can take another bride that will give them more gifts and they still get to keep the money from his first marriage, giving his parents a very nice living.
If a woman is widowed in Indian society she is expected to mourn for her lost husband not to marry again or participate in life. The act of Sati is an old ritual that involves the widow to throw herself on the open flames of her husband’s funeral pyre and burn alive to assure his place in heaven. This was outlawed in India but rare cases of this happening today.
Deaths that occur in the home make it hard to determine the exact details of the brides’ death. Women that die often fall into accidents with their stove that sometimes explode and other times simply catch their clothing on fire until they burn to death. They do use kerosene stoves which are highly flammable but they also leave very little of the bride behind for the investigators to look at. If a man is convicted of a dowry death he does not face a very stiff punishment. Less than one percent of the cases end up in conviction. The Indian Penal Code Amendments and the Evidence Act require an investigation on all deaths of brides that were married for less than seven years. It is horrifying to imagine what these women go through in the course of their lives, being brought up to believe that you are inferior and then to be stripped of your free will with torture of the mind and body. The women are treated like machines that just do what the husbands prefer without any regard. These women have only shelters to help them if they try to leave, but often find themselves with no money, education, or place to run to.
The act of dowry giving has to end before the treatment of women will get any better, because as long as a woman is not seen for her value as a worker and member of society then she will continue to be discarded. Indian government needs make greater laws and try to enforce them strictly, but it is the men who make the laws in India and the religion that backs up this practice. The men are not too anxious to see this practice go and the religious do not see a need for change, so women’s groups must fight to help get a better quality of life for India’s women. Years of silence must be ended in India with women choosing what they wear, say, and most importantly whom they marry without the risk of being beaten or condemned.
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