I. INTRODUCTION
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Mahatma Gandhi once said that ‘Any young man, who makes dowry a condition to marriage, discredits his education and his country and dishonors womanhood’. While these words are said, there are still many in the country that abide by the so called ‘tradition’ of dowry. Even though the legislature have enacted various laws to turn this ‘tradition’ into a ‘crime’ that it is, yet the ‘customary practice’ still prevails over everything. Why can’t the people of our country understand that what conceits under the camouflage of ‘tradition’ is actually an evil that has put hardships on women and their families from time immemorial? It is the reason why still the girl child is aborted while the boy child is raised with love in abundance. With enactments of specialized laws and increased awareness, the crime may have subdued but it still stretches its arm time and again to destroy the lives of many women.
PROBLEM PROFILE
Dowry, as defined in Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961 means ‘any property or valuable security given or agreed to be given either directly or indirectly by any party to a marriage to the other party to the marriage or by their parents or any other person, at, before or after the time of marriage, provided such valuable security or property is in connection with the marriage of said parties’. Valuable security, as defined in sec 30 of IPC would mean any document creating, transferring, and extinguishing etc. any legal right or a document in which a person acknowledges that he under certain legal obligation or does not have a certain legal right. Thus, in simpler words dowry would mean transfer of any valuable assets from one party of marriage to another in connection with such a marriage. Though the section has laid down no specific gender that would give or take dowry, from time immemorial, it is often than not, that it is the girl’s side on the giving end and boy’s side on the receiving end. This is what causes the root of problem of gender biasness. However, while this social evil may have doomed into a catastrophic disaster, yielding societal imbalance and inequality, it was not so the case in the earlier times. In the earlier times, parents thought it proper to give valuable property as a conditional gift to their daughters at the time of marriage for security so that if the husband divorced or abused her, the gift would have to be returned to her or her family. This concept of security has drastically changed over time and turned into a greed to extract all that one can from the girl’s family by taking advantage of the vulnerability imposed on her by the patriarchal society. This shift from security to greed resulted in the massive turnovers of the percentage of people who gave dowry, increasing decade by decade. The same could be witnessed from the graph below.
6The graph shows that while dowry was paid in only around 40% of marriages prior to 1940, around 1940-75, there was a rapid increase in dowry across India and by 1975 dowry was paid in nearly 90% of marriages.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The article has been produced by instituting doctrinal and applied research approach. The research has been doctrinal in the sense that the statutes concerning dowry have been read and understood to analyze their critique as well as appreciation. Further, after analyzing the statutes, an evaluation of different states with their statistical information on dowry has been made to understand how dowry functions in different states of India. To gather this statistical information, applied research method has been used where data of two different times (2020 and 2016) has been collected from NCRB to evaluate how system of dowry has changed within these years. Also, of both the years, data relating to dowry deaths as well as incidence of offences under Dowry Prohibition Act have been evaluated to understand which states have higher death rates and which states have higher offence rates or reporting of the offence rates.OBJECTIVES
As was discussed in the problem profile section, while the legislatures have tried their best to implement such laws that bring about a change in the whole dynamics of the dowry system, the situation still remains a cause of concern. The assignment at hand will try to understand the legal provisions related to dowry and how they have aided in the evolution of the system of dowry. The assignment will also analyze how different states in the country have improved upon the statistics related to dowry deaths and offences under Dowry Prohibition Act from two different time zones to evaluate as to how the situation of dowry has improved over time. Along with this it will try to draw suggestions as to how the problem of surge of dowry could be solved with the aid of policy and societal reformations.HYPOTHESIS
With the evolution of times, there has been an evolution of dowry also and such evolution has turned out to be positive on account of specialized laws and changing mindsets because of increased sense of awareness and education in general.HYPOTHESIS TESTING: ANALYSIS
This section has been divided into two parts. The first part analyses the laws that have been enacted against dowry and the second part analyses the statistical data taken from different states from two different years to show how system of dowry has changed with the changing times.LAWS THAT PROHIBIT DOWRY
DOWRY PROHIBITION ACT, 1961
CRITIQUE OF THE ACT:
Section 3 of the Dowry Prohibition Act provides for penalty being imposed on persons giving or taking dowry or abetting to give or take dowry. While including ‘giving’ of dowry as part of punishment may have positive effects of refraining people from practicing it, but what needs to be understood is that making ‘giving’ of dowry also punishable would make people fearful for reporting this crime as they would suspect themselves being punished if the crime becomes known to police authorities. This way while the legislature has extended a hand towards prohibiting people for giving and taking dowry, it has simultaneously put a hand on the mouths of people who might have wanted to disclose it for their own sake. Due to this, majority of the cases are not even recorded, leave alone they being punished and spreading deterrence in society. Also the punishment for dowry is minimum imprisonment of 5 years, but this too is made loose with the help of proviso laying that the imprisonment may be declared by the court to be less 5 years for special reasons to be recorded in writing. This makes the punishment less stringent. Also, explanation gives away the little taut that was made on the system of dowry by saying that any presents gifted to the bride or groom at the time of marriage would not be dowry if they are gifted without any demand and are listed in the Rule provided under the Act. The explanation further continues and declared that no such gifts shall be considered as dowry given on behalf of bride, if they are of customary nature and the value of which do not become excessive according to the financial status of the person who gives them. Therefore, the culprits of dowry could escape through the loopholes of gift being customary in nature or not excessive upon the person given them and being made without any demand.
However, what needs to be gauged through these lines is that while dowry is defined as giving of taking of gifts by any party to the marriage, the proviso of sec 3 lays that it is only the bride’s side that presents given by them will not be counted as dowry if they are made without demand, are customary in nature and are of such nature as to not falling heavy on the persons giving them. Thus groom’s side if ever hypothetically gives gifts, that would be dowry, but the bride’s side would be permitted to shower gifts if they fulfill the loopholes laid by the proviso of the section. This shows the gender bias in the Act as well and how can one imagine to change a society which is deeply rooted in such ‘customary’ beliefs when the legislatures are themselves not able to get over the hegemony of such biasness prevailing in the society. Also, what will be customary and not excessive has not been defined by the Act and so is again open for loose interpretation to further weaken the ends of the objectives of the Act.
Section 4 of the Act make demanding of dowry punishable with imprisonment of up-to 6 months to two years which again could be reduced by court due to special reasons. Also to make things more difficult, section 7 says that no court inferior to Metropolitan Magistrate or Judicial magistrate of I class should try a case of offence under this Act. But what needs to be understood is that it is more often than not than the girl or her family in such cases belong to the lower income groups and higher the rank of the court, higher would be the fees to fight a case in it, which will only add to the bulk of the hardships on the girl. APPRECIATION OF THE ACT:
On the plus side of the Act, Section 6 makes the provision that even if the dowry is taken, such dowry should be benefitted at the hands of the woman in relation to whose marriage this dowry was given, or if not to her then to her children and if not to children then to her parents. This ensures that while the takers would be punished for their offence under sec 3 & 4, the valuable assets that were gifted would revert back to the bride for her benefit. Also, while section 8 makes the offence under the Act non-bailable and non-compoundable, section 8-A ensures that the burden of proof is on the person prosecuted for taking or abetting dowry, thus making it easy on the victim. Also, the institution of Dowry Prohibition officers appointed at specific areas for better implementation of the Act (under Section 8-B) ensures that the problem could be reported and tackled at the very remote corners as well.SECTION 304B AND 498A OF INDIAN PENAL CODE
Section 304B deals with dowry death. It lays that if a death of a woman is caused due to burn or bodily injury and not under normal circumstances within 7 years of marriage, and it is shown that before her death, she was subjected to cruelty or harassment by her husband or his relative on account of dowry, such death would be called dowry death and it would be deemed that such husband or relative caused it.To aid this legal fiction, section 113A of Indian Evidence Act comes into play which says that when it is shown that soon before the death, the wife was subjected to cruelty by her husband or his relative in relation to dowry, it would be presumed that such husband or relative has caused her death. On the other hand, Section 498A deals with harassment of a woman or her relative in relation to coercing her to meet the demand of valuable security or property or for the failure of meeting such demand. Section 498A aims to provide relief to woman being harassed for purposes of dowry by imprisoning the offender for a term that may extend to 3 years, section 304B aims to provide justice for a woman who has lost her life on account of being harassed for dowry. While both these sections try to provide a comprehensive mechanism against the offenders of dowry, there occur many instances where such provisions are used in false cases. In Sushil Kumar Sharma v. Union of India and others, the court noted that many instances have come to light of dowry cases where the complaints are not bonafide and are filed with oblique motive. Thus, in case of Savitri Devi v. Ramesh Chand & Ors, the court said that authorities and lawmakers should review these legal provisions to prevent false cases from happening. In Saritha v R. Ramachandran, the court noticed the reverse trend and asked the law Commission to make the offence a non-cognizable and bailable one. What needs to be noted here is that once the court starts observing that this powerful legislation is being used for force and vexatious claims, it would eventually stop considering these cases of vital importance and so would the society.STATISTICAL ANALYSIS
Table 2 (On the basis of information of NCRB)
The above chart has been made by taking the statistics of states covering from North to South and East to West to bring diversity to the sample.
As can be seen from the table, in the north, Himachal Pradesh has reduced its dowry deaths from 3 in 2016 to 1 in 2020, whereas the incidence of offence under the Dowry Prohibition Act has increased from 2016 in 2020. In Punjab also, dowry deaths from 2016 to 2020 have reduced though more cases for the offence were noted in 2020 then 2016. This data shows that in HP and Punjab, the reporting of offence may have increased but the deaths have declined, indicating that people have become more vigilant against the crime of dowry and are less afraid to report the crime. And increase in reporting of the crime has obviously led to a decrease in the number dowry deaths. Similar is the case in UP, where dowry deaths have reduced but reporting of offence has increased. In Delhi however, both, the dowry deaths and the offence of dowry have reduced in 2020 when compared to 2016 data.
In West of India, there has been an increase in the number of dowry deaths as well as reporting of the offence in Rajasthan. This shows that while the case are being reported better than before, yet the problem is so wide that deaths are still increasing. In Gujarat however, the deaths have declined by half in 2020 and reporting has also been increased.
In East, as was the case in Rajasthan, in Bihar also, the deaths have been increased along with the incidence of crime or the reporting. In West Bengal, though the incidence of deaths have reduced, there has been 0 incidence of reporting the offence under Dowry Prohibition Act. In Jharkhand, though the deaths have reduced by 3 from 2016 to 2020, the incidence of reporting the offence has increased by more than 200. An even better situation is in Arunachal Pradesh where there have been 0 dowry deaths in both the years and 0 incidence of offence for dowry in 2020 and 1 in 2016.
And lastly in South, Tamil Nadu has reduced both in dowry deaths as well as incidence of crime under the Act. This gives an indication that Tamil Nadu has cleaned its picture of dowry from 2016 to 2020 has taken appropriate steps to curb the crime. In Kerala, dowry deaths have decreased by 19 while the offence under the Act remain the same at 3. In Karnataka however, the deaths have decreased by 58 and the offence under Act has decreased by 187.
What could be analyzed from the above statistics is that North because of states like UP, Haryana and Delhi occupy the first position in terms of Dowry deaths and offences followed closely by East due to states of Bihar, West Bengal and Jharkhand. Then comes west due to Rajasthan and then South which has comparatively low counts of dowry deaths. As south has higher literacy rate than compared to North, what could be deciphered is the fact that education along with other factors plays a significant role in shaping up the mindsets of people in relation to offences like dowry and thus educating the society would mean defeating the thresholds of dowry.
The highest no. of dowry deaths reported in 2020 are in UP (2274), then in Bihar (1046), then in West Bengal (522) and lastly in Rajasthan (479). In 2016, the four states with highest dowry deaths were again UP (2473), Bihar (987), West Bengal (535) and Rajasthan (462). On the other hand, the highest no. of incidence of offence noted under Dowry Prohibition Act are of UP (3031), Bihar (2555), Jharkhand (1518) and Karnataka (1511) in 2020 and UP (2867), Karnataka (1698), Jharkhand (1371) and Bihar (1058). Thus, what needs to be noted here is that while West Bengal were the ones among the four states that reported the highest dowry deaths in the sample taken, they were not among the four states where highest incidence of offence under the Dowry Prohibition Act was noted. On the other hand, while Jharkhand and Karnataka were not among the four states with highest death rates, they were among the top 4 states that have reported the offence under the Dowry Prohibition Act. This shows that there is certain amount of vigilance among the people of both these states to report the crime. Karnataka’s death incidence has also thus been reduced by 58 from 2016 to 2020. However, what seems to be a cause of concern is that while West Bengal and Rajasthan were among the top states to have recorded dowry deaths, they are the ones with least numbers of reporting an offence under the Dowry Prohibition Act, with West Bengal noting 0 incidence of report of crime under the Act in both 2020 and 2016 and Rajasthan noting 4 incidence of report of offence under the Act in 2020 and 3 in 2016.
Also, another cause of concern is the dowry death rates in UP and Bihar. In UP, dowry deaths incidence was 2274 in 2020 and 2473 in 2016, while in Bihar it was 1046 in 2020 and 987 in 2016. Other than the rates being enormously high, what causes more concern is that while in UP death cases have declined by 199 in 2020 from 2016, Bihar has increased its dowry death count by 59 in 2020 from 2016. Thus, rather than going from high to low, it has gone from high to higher. Other state where dowry deaths have increased from 2016 are Rajasthan by 17. Though the death increase is by 17, but the incidence of offence under Dowry Prohibition Act have increased only by 1 in Rajasthan. Thus, we can say that though there is increase in death rate yet less cases for offence of dowry are being reported there which gives another reason for cause of deep concern.
Another point that needs to be considered is that NCRB had no crime head of dowry death till 1995. It was only in 1995 that the head was brought in the crime statistics, and it recorded 4648 deaths at the rate of crime of per lakh of population, as could be seen in the table below:
Table No. 3 1995- HEAD DOWRY DEATH ADDED
This shows that it was not until the last decade of 90s that dowry began to be associated as crime, even though the Dowry Prohibition Act had been passed in 1961 and IPC offences of 304B and 498A had also been instituted by amendments in 1986 and 1983 respectively. Also, what needs to be further noticed is that while section 498A enacted in 1983 nowhere refers to the term dowry but talks about ‘unlawful demand of property or valuable security’, section 304B clearly laid down instruction for ‘dowry death’. Thus what could be noticed is that earlier, people were less serious about the concerns of dowry but with the changing times with increase in education and awareness in society, the concern for dowry has also increased, as is evident from the enactment of new laws and the decreasing incidences of dowry deaths in majority of the states.
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS
Even though the legislature has tried its best to bring about a strong mechanism to counteract against dowry, it should revise Section 3 of Dowry Prohibition Act, which omits anything from being dowry if presented by bride’s family and being of customary nature and not excessive on the ones giving it. Here no criteria has been set to clearly lay what could be of customary nature and culprits could take advantage of this loophole and claim innocence without actually being innocent. Also, legislature should draft rigorous punishment for the people using the provisions of dowry for making false claims. Along with this, a strong mechanism needs to be implemented (as was laid in Chandra Bhan v. State) to stop the misuse of the provisions.
As was seen in the assignment, education alone makes a strong impact against the evils of dowry. Thus, it is vital for the government to open more government schools even in the remote corners of the nation so that people become more vigilant and aware about their rights and against the crime of dowry. In states of Rajasthan and West Bengal, more flexible and accessible provisions should be made so that women could report this crime more easily than before. Also, they need to be made more aware of their rights against dowry and so regular workshops should happen even in the remote areas of the states to spread such awareness. And lastly, in UP and Bihar, stringent actions against such offences need to be taken, seeing their dowry death rates. The police needs to be more addressable to the concerns of the women and people need to be trained to stop this malpractice. This could again be achieved by increasing workshops on this topic and court giving strictest of punishments for this offence.
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