Dowry deaths refer to the deaths of married women who are either murdered or forced to commit suicide as a result of disputes related to dowry. Such deaths occur predominantly in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Iran. Dowry, in this context, refers to the material goods or assets that brides provide to the groom’s family during marriage.
India records the highest number of dowry deaths, with 8,391 cases reported in 2010, which equals approximately 1.4 deaths per 100,000 women. Dowry-related female deaths account for 40 to 50 percent of all female homicides reported annually in India, showing a consistent trend from 1999 to 2016. In Pakistan, it is estimated that nearly 2,000 dowry deaths occur each year.
Historical Background
The historical origins of dowry in South Asia are complex and remain a subject of scholarly debate. While some scholars argue that dowry practices existed in ancient times, others dispute this claim. Michael Witzel maintains that ancient Indian literature indicates dowry was not a prominent institution during the Vedic period. He further observes that women in ancient India possessed inheritance rights, either through direct appointment as heirs or in situations where they had no brothers.
Supporting Witzel’s position, MacDonell and Keith differ from scholars such as Stanley Tambiah by citing ancient Indian texts that suggest bridewealth—rather than dowry—was commonly paid by the groom, even in brahma and daiva forms of marriage. According to their analysis, dowry was more likely to occur only when the bride had a physical defect. They also note that women’s property rights appear to have expanded during the Puranic period.
In contrast, Kane argues that ancient texts associate bridewealth specifically with the asura form of marriage, a type that was considered improper and condemned by Manu and other ancient lawgivers. Scholar James G. Lochtefeld further clarifies that Manu’s references to a bride being “richly adorned” for marriage most likely referred to ceremonial clothing, jewelry, and gifts that remained the bride’s personal property, rather than to dowry demanded by the groom’s family. Lochtefeld also observes that such bridal adornment is not typically regarded as dowry in contemporary understanding.
Dowry Death In India
Dowry deaths refer to the suicide or killing of a bride by her husband or his family shortly after marriage due to dissatisfaction with the dowry. These deaths are typically the final outcome of a prolonged pattern of domestic abuse inflicted by the husband’s family. In most cases, the young woman, unable to endure continued harassment and torture, dies by suicide. Common methods include hanging, poisoning, or burning. In some instances, the woman is deliberately set on fire by her husband or in-laws, a practice known as bride burning, which is often disguised as an accident or suicide. The burning deaths of Indian women have frequently been linked to dowry-related conflicts. In dowry deaths, the groom’s family is the perpetrator of murder or forced suicide.
India has by far the highest number of dowry-related deaths in the world, according to the Indian National Crime Records Bureau. In 2012, 8,233 dowry death cases were reported across the country. Dowry-related issues result in approximately 1.4 deaths per 100,000 women each year in India.
A 1996 report by the Indian Police Service stated that more than 2,500 cases of bride burning are reported annually. The Indian National Crime Records Bureau also recorded 8,331 dowry death cases in 2011. Incidents of dowry deaths in 2008 (8,172 cases) showed an increase of 14.4 percent compared to 1998 (7,146 cases), while India’s population grew by 17.6 percent during the same ten-year period. However, the accuracy of these figures has been widely questioned, as many critics believe dowry deaths are significantly underreported.
Dowry deaths in India are not limited to any specific religion.
Causes of dowry
Various explanations have been offered for the persistence of the dowry system in India, generally falling under economic and social factors.
Ethnologists such as Risley, Blunt, and Hutton describe dowry as a mechanism for upward social mobility, or hypergamy. Among upper castes in India, marriages are often hypergamous, meaning women marry into families of higher social status. In such cases, dowry payments are viewed as a consequence of hypergamous marriages, where family prestige is closely tied to marrying a daughter into a socially superior household.
Economic explanations emphasize weak inheritance rights for women, which historically placed them at a disadvantage. Inheritances were traditionally passed only to sons, leaving women financially dependent on their husbands and in-laws, who typically retained control over the dowry after marriage. Before 1956, including during the British colonial period, daughters had no legal right to inherit family property. In 1956, India granted equal inheritance rights to daughters and sons in Hindu, Sikh, and Jain families under the Hindu Succession Act. However, dowry has persisted as a social method through which parents transfer property to daughters at the time of marriage, rather than through a court-supervised inheritance process after the parents’ death.
At least in theory, dowry has been viewed as providing women with economic and financial security through movable property, helping prevent the fragmentation of family wealth while offering protection to the bride. This system also functions as a form of premortem inheritance, as a woman who receives movable gifts at marriage may later be excluded from claims to the family estate.
Marriage structure and kinship patterns also influence dowry practices. In northern India, marriages typically follow a patrilocal system in which the bride moves to live with her husband’s family and becomes a non-related member of that household. This arrangement may encourage dowry as a form of premortem inheritance for the bride, since her natal family becomes socially distant after marriage. In southern India, marriages more commonly occur within or close to the bride’s family, sometimes among relatives such as cross-cousins, and within shorter geographical distances. Brides in these regions may also have greater chances of inheriting land, which can reduce dowry expectations and, in some cases, shift practices toward a bride-price system.
Beyond marriage patterns, social customs, rituals, and parental expectations strongly influence dowry practices. Studies have shown that although attitudes toward dowry are gradually changing, the custom continues to persist. For example, a 1980 study found that 75 percent of students believed dowry was not important to marriage, yet 40 percent of their parents still expected dowry.
Despite progress in women’s rights, women often continue to occupy a subordinate position within the family. Women’s education, income, and health significantly affect their bargaining power within marriage and influence both the prevalence and scale of dowry.
Dowry in India is not confined to any single religion. It is widespread across communities, including among Indian Muslims, who refer to dowry as jahez. Jahez generally consists of two categories: essential household articles and items for the bride’s personal use, and valuable goods, clothing, jewelry, or money negotiated for the groom’s family. Jahez is distinct from mahr (dower), which Islamic law requires the groom to give directly to the bride.
Reach and Impact
Dowry has been a widespread practice in India during the modern era and commonly takes the form of cash payments or gifts transferred from the bride’s family to the groom’s family at the time of marriage. The prevalence and form of dowry vary according to geographical region and social class. In northern India, participation in the dowry system is common across all social classes, and dowry is typically given in the form of material and movable goods. In southern India, the bride-price system has historically been more prevalent and often involves the transfer of land or other inherited property. This pattern is closely linked to marriage structures that encourage unions within extended family networks.
Dowry practices also differ by economic strata. Upper-class families are more likely to engage in the dowry system than lower-class families, a pattern that may be partly explained by the relative economic exclusion of upper-class women from the labor market.
Historically, during the Vedic period, dowry was primarily practiced among upper castes and was intended to benefit the bride, who was otherwise unable to inherit property under Hindu law. To compensate for this restriction, the bride’s family provided a dowry to the groom, which was registered in the bride’s name and regarded as stridhan (woman’s property). A significant distinction during this period was that while upper castes practiced dowry, lower castes generally followed the bride-price system, in which compensation was paid to the bride’s family for the loss of her labor and income.
In the modern era, Indian families have largely discontinued the practice of bride price. Over time, bride price gradually disappeared and dowry became the dominant form of marital transfer. Today, dowry commonly involves the bride’s family transferring goods or money to the groom’s family as consideration for the marriage.
Indian marriages are often marked by large and elaborate celebrations, involving substantial expenditure and the exchange of wedding gifts from relatives on both sides. Such voluntary gifting is generally considered normal and varies according to a family’s wealth and social status.
However, in many cases, the groom’s family attempts to dictate the quantity and nature of these gifts and may make specific dowry demands. Under such circumstances, coercion is exerted on the bride’s family, giving rise to what is widely recognized as the menace of dowry. Dowry, therefore, does not refer to voluntary presents exchanged during weddings, but rather to goods or money extracted from the bride or her parents as a condition of marriage.
Types of dowry crimes
Dowry is widely recognized as a major factor contributing to violence against women in India. Such violence can manifest in multiple forms, including physical assault, emotional abuse, and, in extreme cases, the killing of brides and young women either before or after marriage. The most common categories of dowry-related offences include cruelty, domestic violence, abetment to suicide, and dowry death, which encompasses practices such as bride burning and murder.
Fraud Related to Dowry
Fraud associated with dowry has also been documented. A notable example is the phenomenon exposed by the 2005 Canadian documentary Runaway Grooms, which revealed how some Indo-Canadian men exploit the dowry system by marrying women in India, securing their dowry, and then abandoning them and returning to Canada without their wives.
Cruelty as a Dowry Offence
Cruelty, as a form of dowry crime, involves torture or harassment of a woman with the objective of forcing her or her family to meet demands for property or valuable security. This cruelty may take the form of verbal abuse and intimidation or may involve physical assault and persistent harassment. In severe cases, such treatment can drive a woman to take her own life. Recognizing the gravity of this conduct, Indian law specifically criminalizes cruelty linked to dowry demands.
Domestic Violence in Dowry Cases
Domestic violence constitutes another significant aspect of dowry-related abuse. It encompasses a wide range of behaviors, including physical, emotional, economic, and sexual violence, as well as intimidation, isolation, and coercion. Legal measures such as the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 aim to address these abuses and provide protection and remedies to affected women.
Abetment to Suicide
Prolonged mistreatment by a husband or his family, accompanied by threats or intimidation, may push a woman toward suicide. In such circumstances, dowry-related offences extend to abetment of suicide, which includes intentionally encouraging, instigating, or assisting a person to end their life. Dowry-related abuse frequently results in severe emotional trauma, depression, and psychological distress. Although accused persons may claim that the woman acted on her own volition, this defense often obscures the sustained coercion and abuse that preceded the death.
Dowry Death and Dowry Murder
Dowry murder and dowry death refer to situations in which a bride is killed, or dies by suicide, because her husband or his family is dissatisfied with the dowry provided. These deaths are typically the culmination of ongoing domestic abuse and harassment. Many victims, unable to endure the continuous cruelty, end their lives by hanging or consuming poison. In other instances, brides are deliberately set on fire after being doused with kerosene by their husband or in-laws.
Legal Action
The Dowry Prohibition Act of 1961 prohibits the demand, payment, or acceptance of dowry as consideration for a marriage. Under the Act, dowry is defined as any gift demanded or given as a precondition for marriage. Gifts exchanged voluntarily and without any precondition are not considered dowry and are therefore legal. Violations of this law are punishable by imprisonment for up to six months, a fine of up to ₹5,000 (approximately US$59, £45, or A$92), or both. This Act replaced several earlier anti-dowry laws enacted by individual Indian states. Cases involving murder or forced suicide are addressed under the Indian Penal Code.
Indian women’s rights activists campaigned for over four decades to strengthen legal protections against dowry-related violence, leading to the enactment of the Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961, and the more stringent Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code in 1983, which criminalizes cruelty by a husband or his relatives. Additionally, under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 (PWDVA), a woman may seek assistance from a domestic violence protection officer to stop dowry-related harassment. However, after conducting extensive field research, Shalu Nigam questioned the effectiveness of these legal measures, observing that courts often resort to compulsory counseling, which can produce undesirable outcomes and limited options for victims. She further noted that these laws frequently fail to meet the immediate needs of victims or provide practical remedies such as medical assistance, short-stay homes, childcare facilities, psychological support, shelter, or economic and material aid.
Although anti-dowry laws in India have existed for decades, they have been widely criticized as ineffective. The continued occurrence of dowry deaths and dowry-related murders in many parts of the country has intensified concerns about weak enforcement and inadequate implementation of existing legal provisions.
To learn more about the prohibitions against dowry death in India, you may check out this resource.
