[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 3 (Friday, January 5, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E26-E27]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   ELEVEN THOUSAND INDIAN WOMEN MURDERED FOR THEIR DOWRIES EVERY YEAR

                                 ______


                        HON. PATRICIA SCHROEDER

                              of colorado

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, January 5, 1996

  Mrs. SCHROEDER. Mr. Speaker, in many parts of India, a bride's family 
pays a substantial sum in dowry to the groom's family to take on the 
burden of a bride. However, when the dowry isn't enough, the groom's 
family demands additional gifts. If these demands are not met, the 
bride is often beaten or even killed. This practice is called bride 
burning.

[[Page E27]]

  Initially, dowry was a voluntary gift from the bride's family limited 
to household items, like kitchen implements and linens. Now the groom's 
family demands a large dowry upon marriage and later demands additional 
gifts of money, electronics, or cars.
  While the National Crimes Bureau of India reported 5,199 dowry deaths 
in 1994, unreported estimates run as high as 11,000 to 15,000 Indian 
women murdered annually. In many cases, the family will pour kerosene 
over the bride and then kick her over a stove in the floor, setting her 
sari on fire. These deaths are then reported as kitchen accidents, not 
murders.
  In 1961, the Indian Government enacted the Dowry Prohibition Act, and 
in 1986 made dowry death a crime. However, this law is riddled with 
loopholes which allow the majority of the perpetrators to be acquitted, 
leaving them free to remarry and start the vicious cycle again.
  I would like to insert into the Record an article from the Harvard 
Magazine that highlights this horrible practice. I urge the Indian 
Government to enforce its laws on dowry death and stop this abominable 
human rights violation.

                         India's Burning Brides

                          (By Kathleen Koman)

       In November 1993, Sangeeta Agarwal, a young scientist with 
     a doctorate in solid-state physics, was married in an 
     elaborate Hindu ceremony. Five months later she was found 
     strangled in her in-laws' house in Kanpur, India. Her 
     husband, an accountant, is awaiting trial for her death. What 
     went wrong? ``I've been struggling with that question,'' said 
     the victim's uncle, Sataya Agarwal, ``and the one word that 
     comes to mind is greed.'' He said that although his niece's 
     in-laws received a substantial dowry at the wedding, they 
     wanted more. The husband and his family expected a share of 
     Sangeeta's pre-marriage earnings, and also demanded a car. 
     Then they figured that if she were to die, they could also 
     collect money from her life insurance, said Agarwal, ``and I 
     think that's what put them over the edge.''
       In many parts of India, grooms' families demand dowry and, 
     if it is absent or insufficient, they may beat the bride and 
     even strangle, poison, or burn her to death. Typically, they 
     douse the woman with kerosene and push her over a small stove 
     on the floor, igniting her sari. Later, in their statement to 
     the police, the in-laws claim that the bride's death was a 
     kitchen accident. The National Crimes Bureau of India 
     reported 5,817 dowry deaths in 1993 and 5,199 in 1994. In 
     reality, 11,000 to 15,000 women die each year because of 
     dowry disputes, according to Rani Jethmalani, an attorney at 
     the Supreme Court of India.
       Jethmalani and Agarwal spoke at the First International 
     Conference on Dowry and Bride-Burning in India, held this 
     fall at Harvard Law School and sponsored in part by Harvard's 
     Committee on South Asian Studies. In his opening remarks, 
     Michael Witzel, Wales professor of Sanskrit, emphasized the 
     need to draw world attention to dowry-related violence, and 
     to explore the legal, social, religious, and historical 
     aspects of the problem.
       Dowry existed in the Vedic period (beginning about 1500 
     B.C.), said Witzel, but then it was a voluntary gift limited 
     to household goods such as linens, pots, and pans. Women had 
     to obey their husbands and their fathers-in-law, but they 
     were inviolable; bride-burning was unheard of.
       Today, the groom's family demands dowry at the time of 
     marriage and coerces the bride's family into giving 
     additional money and items like jewelry and electronic goods 
     long after the wedding. Recent studies suggest that this 
     custom is spreading throughout Indian society. But it remains 
     most prevalent in the well-educated, middle-class Hindu 
     population. ``The self-respect of the groom's family depends 
     on attracting as large a dowry as possible,'' explained Julia 
     Leslie, senior lecturer in Hindu studies at the University 
     of London. ``Even more disturbing is the balance of power 
     implied by dowry. Both families seem to agree that it is 
     necessary to pay the groom's family to take on the burden 
     of the bride.''
       Bride-burning is not a crime committed solely by men 
     against women. In many cases, the mother-in-law, who may 
     herself have suffered dowry abuse when she was young, is the 
     perpetrator.
       Himendra B. Thakur, who founded the International Society 
     Against Dowry and Bride-Burning in India, argued that bride-
     burning will cease if the young women of India refuse to 
     marry as soon as the groom's family ask for dowry, or if the 
     women leave the marital home at the first sign of abuse. But 
     members of the audience noted that the women's parents often 
     refuse to take them back, and they lack alternatives such as 
     jobs and shelter.
       Conference participants listed practical steps aimed at 
     eradicating dowry and bride-burning. They include 
     constructing residential training centers and apartment 
     complexes for young women, forming support groups for 
     students and parents opposed to the dowry system, and 
     creating loan funds for students to eliminate some of the 
     financial pressures that underlie the practice. Thakur, who 
     wrote the 1991 book Don't Burn My Mother!, a fictional 
     account of dowry death, said that novels, newspaper 
     advertisements, and movies must be used ``to convince the 
     bride that instead of the option to marry with dowry and die, 
     it is far better to remain unmarried and alive.''
                                                                    ____


                         The (Ineffectual) Law

       The Indian government enacted the Dowry Prohibition Act in 
     1961, and in 1986 amended the penal code to introduce a new 
     offense, now known as dowry death. But this legislation 
     contains glaring loopholes and, because of lax enforcement, 
     the majority of those accused of bride-burning are acquitted. 
     Many remarry and obtain a second dowry with no apparent 
     difficulty. And their mothers are free to torment the new 
     bride. ``What does it say about Indian society when families 
     line up to offer their daughters to a man who has murdered 
     his bride over a small refrigerator or television or 
     scooter?'' asked attorney Rani Jethmalani at the conference 
     on dowry and bride-burning.

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