Bride burning

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The neutrality of this article is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page.

Bride-burning is a term used to describe a form of domestic violence practiced in parts of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and other countries located on or around the Indian subcontinent. In bride-burning, it is alleged that a husband or the family of the husband douses the man's wife with kerosene, gasoline, or other flammable liquid, and sets the woman alight, leading to death by immolation.

Bride-burning is often disguised as a kitchen accident or suicide. Many cases of bride burnings are not reported as such, and the exact number of victims can only be estimated. In 2005, the latest year in which statistics are available from the National Crime Records Bureau of India, confirmed and reported dowry deaths, including bride burning totaled 7026.

There are several reasons that may be cited by the husband and his family for bride-burning. These commonly include the failure of the wife’s family to provide what is seen as a large enough dowry, the wife's family falling behind on dowry payments, or the desire of the husband to rid himself of his wife without dishonoring himself.^{[citation needed]} Husbands who participate in these crimes may believe that burning their wife is a good way to remove her without evidence, and may provide for an opportunity to marry again and thus receive a larger dowry. The first instances of bride burning were seen in the latter part of the 20th century, contrary to popular perception that it is culturally and historically embedded in the South Asian psyche.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Dowry crime & laws

Main article: Dowry

The giving of a dowry upon marriage has been part of many cultures, and it has continued and even flourished in many areas with large Hindu populations. The practice of giving dowry has been prohibited by law in India as of 1961 by the Dowry Prohibition Act (amended in 1984 and 1986), and has been regulated by law in Pakistan since 1976.

Dowry death is when a bride is murdered by her groom's family for refusing to pay additional dowry. Time magazine reported that dowry deaths in India increased from around 400 a year in the early 1980s to around 5,800 a year by the middle of the 1990s.^{[citation needed]} It is not known whether this represents an increase in incidence or whether it reflects increased reporting due to the rise of women's groups in India. It is also not known whether this is also a result of confusion between suicide and dowry deaths.^{[citation needed]}

In an effort to prevent bride-burning and other types of dowry crimes, police in India have begun setting up offices and shelters to help the victims of bride-burning and other dowry crimes. In many cases, even if a woman survives the burning, she could face a difficult recovery. In some cases, by simply surviving the attack, the woman risks rejection by her own family and society, which may blame her as the victim, rather than hold responsible her attacker(s).^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Criticism

Men's Rights and Family Rights organisations like Save Indian Family claim that there is no source for the data that a large number of bride burnings happen in India. National Crime Bureau has not published any data mentioning the exact number of Bride Burning in India.^{[dubious — see talk page]} So far as 6787 deaths classified as "reported" dowry deaths (in 2005) by National Crime Bureau[1], a large number of them are suicides. According to another source in National Crime Bureau and WHO, the number of suicides by Indian women are about 43000 every year compared to 65000 by men[2]. The number of murders of Indian women per year are about 7952 compared to 27467 murders of men. So, the overall fatalities of women by suicide and murder are 43,000 and 7952 respectively (with a ratio of about 8:1). When the same ratio is applied to "reported" (not convicted) dowry deaths of 7026, then about 6300 of them should be suicides and about 800 have to be murders.

Some argue that the increased incidence of bride burning is due to new Indian legal frameworks that interpret all deaths of women by burns in first seven years of marriage as the dowry deaths until proven otherwise (section 304B of the Indian Penal Code). Some organizations contend that the alleged disguising of "Bride Burnings" as "kitchen accidents" can also be reversed when "real accidents" are represented as "Bride Burnings."^{[citation needed]} They point out that evidence can be manipulated by both sides in cases of dowry death.([3])

[edit] Activism

In Pakistan, women including Shahnaz Bukhari, the chief coordinator of the Progressive Women’s Association, have been campaigning for protective legislations, women’s shelters and hospitals with specialized burn wards. Although the government of Pakistan has rejected any legal prohibition against dowry and "honor" killings, there are indications that pressure from within, as well as from international human rights groups may be increasing the level of awareness within the Pakistani government.^{[citation needed]}

While some human rights organizations such as Amnesty International have active campaigns to reduce and prevent violence against women in India, Pakistan and other Asian countries, it is only within the last 30 years that modern legislation and protective measures have begun to be enacted to prevent these types of crimes in these countries.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] See also

• Sati
• Female infanticide
• Bride price
• SGGS on women
• Women in India
• Eve teasing
• Fire (film) a Canadian-Indian movie with bride-burning as one of the themes

[edit] External links

• a man willfully charged of burning to death a women who turned up alive
• Dowry law victims
• Amnesty International's "Stop Violence Against Women" Campaign
• India's National Crime Records Bureau
• India's dowry deaths, BBC
• Anti-dowry laws India
• India Together - Dowry Section
• UN Common Library - Annotated Bibliography of Women's Issues in Pakistan
• Matrimonial website for the people who oppose dowry system