Dowry means any valuable security given at or before the marriage by one party to a marriage to the other party to a marriage.
Dowry demand is not only limited to money demanded the purpose of marriage but it may also include money demanded any purpose, condition being, that the demand must be in connection with the marriage.
In legal parlance, the death and violence due to dowry demands constitute domestic violence. Similar to the acts of domestic violence, the acts committed in dowry-related offences generally incorporates mental, physical, economic violence as well as harassment in order to punish the victim or to compel her to meet those demands.
The State of affairs of our country is really saddening when it comes to the number of women who are being murdered, harassed in the name of Dowry, Honour and Domestic violence.
There are various legislations that provides protection to the women like 498 A(Cruelty), 304- B(Dowry Death) of Indian Penal Code, 113-B of Indian Evidence Act, Dowry Prohibition Act, Protection of Women against Domestic violence.
Still, Dowry-related violence increased more than three-fold between 1990 and 2000. Dowry deaths rose by 38% during that same time period and since then about 6,000 to 7,000 women have been murdered each year.
The most important thing nowadays is that a woman should be aware of the law and their legal rights. The crucial steps that need to be fulfilled in order to file a Dowry related complaint are:
The NGO’s, State Commission and other experts are putting efforts in this. The complaints received tell us the trend of crimes committed against women and help us in analyzing and then suggesting corrective measures.
These corrective measures help us in tackling and in reducing the ever-increasing number of crime committed against the vulnerable section of the Society be Women.