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Unless Every women file 498a aganist all men, this dowry ssytem will not go.

so i request all women out there, file dowry case Against your husband, True or false, so then others will understand not to take DOWRY.

http://india.indymedia.org/en/2004/01/208541.shtml

Eliminate Dowry Not Daughters!
By WSF IMC 17/01/2004 At 16:57

'Vimochana' seminar highlights how women are killed/abused and victimised in a consumerism society by the dowry.

The Changing Face of Dowry seminar 17.01.04 WSF Mumbai, 2004.
`Vimochana` Forum for Women's Rights, Bangalore.

Dowry is a demand made in cash/or kind in connection with marriage, before, after or anytime thereafter.
Dowry is not a free and voluntary gift, a token of love, a one time payment.
Dowry is all pervasive, destructive, demanding and damning. Dowry means violence and more violence, physical and mental resulting in dowry murders.
Dowry intensifies with liberalization with consumerism. Commodifying and devaluing the woman, the feminine.
Dowry knows no caste, no religion, no class, no colour, no community.

Domestic violence is known about throughout the world, due to the women's issues becoming more visible in the last 30 years. Yet women are still dying, being killed, commiting suicide and experiencing daily abuses. WHY?
In India this continues due to dowry, used for the rising status of the male, in all classes of society, for example, to further studies, buy a rickshaw. Families with female children need to marry them as young as possible as they are a financial burden in saving for the dowry. Also families are looking to increase the status of their own family through marriage. Women are commodities sold in marriage. In Bombay, Doctors/educated men will come to look for dowries,such as gold/diamonds, put advertisements in the newspapers, 100,s of girls will be introduced to them. This is a quick way to make money. Overall the dowry issue has intensified with consumerism and subsequent greed, being exacerbated and legitimized by the media.
100,s of women are missing, not reported, not acknowledged. Dowry is a noose not a safety net. Once married, women are seen as a parasites and worthless. Many live with in laws and do not see their husbands. Demands occur for monies and if not met from the woman,s families, can result in deaths. Testimonies today have been given from women who have had death threats from their husbands, accounts of accidents ie, being hit by a car in the street is common and experiencing torture such as burning.
This forum looks into female deaths in Bangalore, often reported as cooking accidents, suicides due to a physical complaint, child illness. They go and speak to the people, gathering information.
They believe that different techniques are developing to murder these women such as poisoning.
Marriage is now a violent institution and an economic interaction between two families not based on love and respect.
This seminar calls for a whole movement to develop to campaign for the rights of women to live.

Update Tuesday, October 4, 2005

You are not getting it are you
Because
100 years ago x man presumably harassed woman

does not give

you any right to harass your ex-husband

In this case, you are no better than alleged man. In fact
even worse. After lot of effort of well meaning people
law was created to protect victimised woman.
You are going to make law makers regret for trusting
woman.

Keep doing what you are doing. Your end is near.

By Anonymous Date Monday, October 17, 2005 Link

with alimony ,sunita got, she will never die
Dear sunita
with the alimony you got hope u have become immortal if yes then this is your real victory.
no matter in what way but if you have cheated a husband means cheated your God.sooner or later you will punished by God.then no Indian Govt will be there for you. This my prediction Remember this Never forget.When ever you get punished them recall my words what did i say to you.
Lwomen like you will definitely force Indian govt to give amendments.keep doing same so that Govt should realize their msitakes.More you misuse the law more possibilty will increase to get tis law changed.

By Anonymous Date Monday, October 17, 2005 Link

Sending Misusers of 498a is our Right
Sunita here is strong dose for you. if you can digest.

Daily Excelsior

Dowry harassment of a different kind

By Jagjit Singh and Tameem Hashmi

The recent study by USAID and Centre for Social Research (CSR) on the misuse of anti-dowry laws by estranged wives has come as a breather for many harassed husbands. The study concludes that six to ten per cent of dowry complaints are false and are registered only to settle scores with the in-laws. Even the higher judiciary of the country in a number of landmark judgements, has taken a serious view of the growing tendency to falsely implicate innocent members of the husband's family in dowry cases. In a landmark judgement, the Delhi High Court ruled early this year that lodging false dowry cases against men amounts to cruelty and can be a ground for dissolution of marriage. Similarly, in a historic judgement, the apex court of the country observed- ''There should be close connection between death of a woman and dowry demands by her-in-laws-including husbands- in order to book them for ''dowry death''... It is not enough that harassment or cruelty was caused to the woman with a demand for dowry at some time if the section (304-B on dowry death) is to be invoked''-- ruled the Supreme Court. Setting aside the Punjab and Haryana High Court order convicting three accused under Section 304-B read with Section 116 (abetment of offence punishable with imprisonment, if offence be not committed), the apex court ruled that ''there is a dearth of evidence to show that Tejinder Pal Kaur (the victim) was subjected to cruelty or harassment connected to the demand for dowry soon before she attempted suicide.''

While every case of dowry related cruelty to women becomes headline (and genuinely so), the tragic 'dowry deaths' of three members of a family in Ballabgarh, Haryana a few years ago failed to stir the general conscience. No breasts were beaten, no tears shed on these self-killings by a well-to-do family. Perhaps due to the reason that these 'dowry deaths' were different from the ordinarily heard dowry deaths. Here harassed persons committing suicide were not the daughters-in-laws, but from the sasural side of a daughter-in-law. Husband himself, his young sister and their hapless mother. Unable to meet the growing unreasonable demands by the daughter-in-law and bear the continuous harassment of the family, the old lady, her married son and unmarried daughter of 22 consumed poison and ended their life. The ill-fated family was living under continuous threat of being implicated in (false) dowry cases by the daugher-in-law if her demands were not met. The very thought of 'arrest' and the resultant harassment and humiliation shuddered them and the trio decided to commit suicide.

Undoubtedly and undeniably, the demon of dowry has grown enormously with every passing year in India. It has devoured and continues to devour a large number of innocent young women. Brides are being burn to battered and butchered every day everywhere for bringing 'sufficient' dowry. The punitive laws have failed to check this social malaise which is evident from the fact that as many as 6574 women died on the altar of dowry in 1999 as against 4936 in 1994.

These figures are indicative of the growing barbarity against married women in India. But this is one aspect-broadly discussed, debated, analyzed and often becoming headlines of the country's newspapers. There is another aspect too of the issue-equally sad but undiscussed, undebated, unanalyzed and unheeded to by those who matter. And that aspect is-gross and growing misuse of the anti dowry laws by estranged wives and their relatives to falsely implicate the innocent husbands and relatives. This has led many men to commit suicide rather than face humiliation.

A man immolated himself on 22 March, 1992 in New Delhi. Reason-false complaint of 'dowry demand' by the estranged wife which led him to jail twice. In a note left behind, he held half a dozen persons responsible-including his father-in-law and sister-in-law for driving him to suicide.

Another man, a bank employee hanged himself on 12 June, 1990 in his flat in Maya Puri, Delhi. The wife often used to stay with her parents. He did not like this. His efforts to persuade wife were retorted to by a complaint of dowry against him by the wife. Deeply puzzled and depressed, the bank employee ended his life. In the suicide note left behind, he held his father-in-law responsible for his death.

These few instances are illustrative of the terror that has been created by anti dowry laws in the minds of a large number of husbands who feel captive in the hands of their own wives. While some hapless men unable to live a harassed and humiliated married life, prefer to die, many others live under constant fear of being falsely booked at any moment under dowry prohibition laws, on the basis of even a few lined complaint by the wife. They go on meeting unreasonable demands, tolerating unruly behaviour of their wives only for the sake of family's Izzat.

The Dowry Prohibition Act passed in 1961 proscribed giving or taking of any valuable security or property in ''consideration of marriage''. To plug the loopholes in the law, the definition of dowry was widened by amendments in 1984 and 1986, to include any property or valuable security given or agreed to be given at, or before, or at any time after the marriage. To further check this deep-rooted social evil, sections 113A and 113 B were introduced in the Indian Evidence Act and section 406 and 498A in the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The sole object was to give legal protection to the married women against victimization by the dowry greedy in-laws. But, these laws have now become a handy weapon for many women to blackmail, harass, humiliate and falsely implicate the innocent members of the in-laws family in 'dowry-demand cases' and extract money from them before finally settling the marital discord or dispute. Cause of dispute may be something else like sexual dissatisfaction, drinking or smoking by husband, lack of privacy, financial constraints, husband's 'extra leaning' towards his parents or brothers and sisters, or even wife's own leaning towards some other man which may not be liked by the husband. In such cases 'demand of dowry' becomes an easy excuse for many women with two advantages in mind-getting rid of the man and extraction of Moti Rakam to bring the panicked husband to terms.

A mere complaint by the wife under section 498A can send the husband and his relatives to jail and the onus to prove innocence lies upon them. Offences charged under this section are non-bailable. The dowry prohibition act provides that if a woman dies mysteriously within seven years of marriage, the husband or his relatives can be arrested after investigation. Furthermore, husband and his relatives can be imprisoned up to three years if they drive a woman to commit suicide. ''The worst part of the whole situation is that unscrupulous parties make false complaints under sections 304B and 498A of the penal code to the police headquarters just out of malice, to seek vendetta, or due to wrong advise or instigation... The husband and his parents become culprits in the eyes of the neighbours, the society and the enforcement authorities.... The whole family is wrecked.. There have been instances where mother or father have died or shocked or committed suicide because the humiliation of a false criminal case was too much to bear,'' writes Kusum, a prolific writer on gender issue, in her thought provoking book HARASSED HUSBAND. ''If this trend continues it is not unlikely that women themselves might suffer as they would lose credibility and sympathy of the society. Innocent, simple girls are more likely to suffer because of malicious complaints by clever and unscrupulous women'', Kusum warns.

According to a newspaper report, in 90 per cent of the cases coming to the Crime Against Women Cell (CAWC), Nanakpura, Delhi, the lists of dowry, filed by the women are exaggerated. These contain, among other things such as accusation of cruelty by husband and his relations, items, which either were never given in the dowry or were already in possession of the woman. While request for retrieval of Istridhan (jewelry) tops the lists submitted by women to CAWC, 'demand of money by in-laws' figures next, the report says. The newspaper report also discloses that between 20 to 30 per cent of the cases reaching to the CAWC are such where the Istridhan was actually in possession of the women, still they lodged complaint against their husbands. The news report further states that in many cases women seek help from other police station to claim the same Istridhan which she had already retrieved. Quoting some officials of the CAWC, the report says that the 'aggrieved' woman in such cases, does so to harass and humiliate her husband and in-laws and she gets full support in this act from her (parental) family. Interestingly enough, the Cell, by its title, is meant to look into all other atrocities-such as eve-teasing, rape, molestation, etc committed against women, but in reality it has come to be known as dowry-cell.

This tendency to harass the in-laws is more common among those women who do not want to compromise with their husbands or intend to go for second marriage. Their intention is to extract as much money and material as possible from the first marriage. There have been sporadic cases where the woman left her matrimonial house within few days of marriage and filed a long list of 'dowry' in the complaint filed against the husband.

There is a growing tendency among women to implicate a large number of members of the husband's family to teach them a lesson. Reason is simple-larger the members implicated, higher the chances to extract hefty amount to 'settle' the matter. Taking a serious note of this growing tendency, the Supreme Court of India has held that for the fault of the husband, the in-laws or other relatives cannot, in all cases, be held to be involved in dowry death. ''In cases where such accusations are made, the overt acts attributed to persons other than the husband are required to be proved beyond reasonable doubt. By mere conjecture and implications such relations cannot be held guilty of the offence relating to dowry deaths,'' the court observed while allowing an appeal against a verdict of the Punjab & Haryana High Court in a dowry death case. Earlier, the Joint Director of the Crime Branch of Mumbai Police had issued an order on 26 October, 1992 to the effect that the matter should be thoroughly investigated before registering a case under section 498A.

Today every husband is perceived a virtual torturer and the mother-in-law a dian. A fair amount of blame for this comes on media also which, with a view to sensationalize the 'story' blows the news of 'harassment' or 'torture' of married women out of all proportions, without properly investigating the veracity of the things. The news of alleged 'torture, harassment, and misappropriation of Istridhan' of wife by 'A' was published prominently in two columns by a leading city newspaper, accusing several members of his family torturing her. The concerned reporter never bothered to verify the allegations with the husband 'A'. As the news carried his full name and those of his relatives, designation and the organization where he was working, it caused irreparable damage to the entire family's image and hard-earned reputation in almost every circle they moved. Queries started pouring in following this news. Depressed as he was, 'A' immediately registered his protest with the editor. The newspaper did publish his rejoinder, but after a long time gap and without any apology for publishing an unverified report.

One wonders where this growing tendency of misusing the useful laws by unscrupulous parties is leading the society ? Harassing and victimizing the women for dowry is condemnable. To effectively curb this heinous crime, related laws need to be enforced strictly and culprits dealt with severely. But what about the harassed husbands? Though minority in number, they too need equal legal protection against victimization by wives. How long their sufferings would remain unnoticed and cries unheard ?

(The co-author Tameem Hashmi is a Supreme Court lawyer)

Crusader

By Anonymous Date Wednesday, October 26, 2005 Link