As Mahatma Gandhi correctly stated, dowry, which was originally a gift from the bride’s family to the husband, has now become a condition of marriage. A stipulation imposed by the groom’s family in order for them to improve their financial situation. Thousands of women die by suicide or are murdered by their husbands and in-laws every year, primarily as a result of their husbands’ and in-laws’ thirst for dowry. Twenty women die per day in India as a result of harassment by their new husbands and/or in-laws for failing to bring an adequate dowry to the marriage. The dowry system’s terrible reality is not confined to rural communities. Even well sophisticated and highly educated families in large cities such as Delhi and Bangalore harass a woman for not bringing enough gold or money. Domestic violence and dowry death cases are on the rise in Karela, which has the highest literacy rate. In India, dowry demand/death affects not only uneducated women; even highly educated brides are pushed to commit suicide as a result of dowry demand. No matter how many PhDs a woman has, her identity and right to live are determined by the amount of gold, cash, new cars, and appliances she brings in as dowry for her in-laws. A young 27-year-old PhD student from Delhi committed suicide because her in-laws objected to her pursuing her education. Anissa Batra, a flight attendant from Delhi, allegedly leapt off her terrace after being mentally tormented for dowry, according to her parents. Sometimes to avoid legal repercussions, the husband and his family may torture the wife mentally and physically, leading her to commit suicide. Last year, in Kerala, a 27-year-old woman was starved to death by her in-laws after their dowry demand of two lakhs was not met.
The Kashmir valley, which was once thought to be free of violence against women, has now become a hotbed of it. Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh registered 29,314 (including 403 instances in Ladakh) criminal cases under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) or Special and Local Laws (SLL) in 2020, according to the latest report by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). According to data, there were nine dowry deaths in 2020, 243 occurrences of rape, 349 cases of cruelty towards women by their husbands or relatives, 1,639 cases of assault on women, and 1,744 cases of attack on women with intention to outrage their modesty. According to the NCRB report, Jammu and Kashmir would have 31 stalking instances, 15 incidents of sexual harassment, and three cases of sexual harassment at work in 2020. Murder incidents increased by 25% in 2020, with 149 cases reported compared to 119 in 2019. In 2020, there were 487 incidents of attempted murder, 35 cases of abetment of suicide, and 24 cases of abetment of suicide of women, according to the data. In 2020, there were also 472 attempted suicides. For the previous three years, the number of kidnapping and abduction cases in the Union Territory has decreased. Kidnapping and abduction instances decreased from 1,137 in 2018 to 961 in 2019 and 868 in 2020.
Nowadays, hardly a day passes without a story about a dowry death appearing in breaking news. Excessive expectations, particularly from the families of grooms, can lead to abuse and violence towards women when they are not met. Kashmir is no exception to dowry death related cases. Dowry deaths continue to shame Kashmir valley, besides literacy rate in Jammu and Kashmir has seen an upward trend in recent years to be 77.30% The recent incidence in Achabal Anantnag, where a young woman was allegedly starved to death by her in-laws for dowry, illustrates that despite legislation prohibiting the terrible practice, the mindset of the people has not changed.
Despite the fact that India has numerous laws prohibiting and punishing "dowry killings" or "bride-burnings,” they continue to occur in increasing numbers due to ambiguous legislative language, shoddy enforcement, cultural attitudes, and economic discrimination against women. India, as a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), violates the "right to life" as expressed in Article 6(1) and guaranteed by Article 2 by failing to effectively prevent dowry deaths.
Despite the efforts of the Indian government, statutory regulations in India have been ineffectual in reducing dowry deaths. The practise of requiring dowry has grown across India, and the number of dowry deaths is on the rise. Even religious groups that had never previously practiced dowry norms have begun to demand dowry." Despite the rise in dowry deaths, only a few dowry-related murder convictions have been achieved. The following four reasons, in our opinion, account for the increased frequency of Dowry deaths. (1) Legal ambiguity (2) Non-enforcement of current regulations (3) Cultural attitudes toward women (4) Economic discrimination against women This broken structure is the primary reason why daughters are regarded as a financial burden to their families. Consequently, families either keep the wealth aside for the daughter’s dowry rather than investing in her education or kill her before birth to get rid of the burden forever.
One of the far-flung village of Kashmir valley, located in Central Kashmir's Ganderbal District, which has outright abolished dowry system for the past four decades, can provide us a better lesson on how to eradicate this dowry issue. (To Be Continued)

The authors are research scholars at Central University of Punjab
Email:---waniaquib08@gmail.com/ bismayousuf111@gmail.com