Dowry Laws Every Indian Must Know
photo credit: Marian Spiers ©. All Rights Reserved.
The 50 Million Missing Campaign has recently been receiving emails like this one [click here to see the letter] for support in dowry related cases. December/ January is the wedding season in India, and there are many women like this, whose wedding dates are set and who are now facing pressure to pay exorbitant amounts in dowry.
This is illegal. It is extortion, and it is blackmail. We urge all brides-to-be and their families to NOT GIVE IN to these demands. Do not pay any dowry. Do not negotiate a lower sum. And do not marry into these families who blackmail for dowry. For it will not stop here. These dowry demanding families continue to extort money, torture and abuse the bride who marries into their family, and currently there is at least 1 woman who gets murdered every 20 minutes by her husband and in-laws in a dowry related case. Women and their families must take a proactive role in abolishing this custom of dowry.
One of the biggest problems with dowry in India is most Indians do not know what exactly the dowry laws entail. We are putting up this post to raise public awareness about India’s dowry laws. We hope every Indian bride-to-be and her family will read these laws, and use them to ensure their safety and protect themselves from extortion and blackmail.
See these posts – Roopa’s, Anshu‘s, and Mitu’s.
Q. Is Dowry legal in India?
Dowry is illegal in India under the Dowry Prohibition Act of 1961.
Q. Who is the offender under the Dowry Prohibition Law?
Under the Dowry Prohibition Law it is an offense to both take dowry OR to give dowry. So the groom and his family who have taken dowry can be charged. And if the bride’s family has complied with the dowry demand and given dowry, they can also be charged as guilty as under this law.
The punishment for violating the law is 5 years imprisonment + Rs.15000/- fine or the value of the dowry given, whichever is more.
Q. What is considered to be Dowry?
- Any kind of demand made by the groom or his family, that involves a direct or indirect “deal” in connection with the wedding, is considered a dowry.
- This demand can be made before, or during, or after the wedding.
- It can be cash, valuable security, property or any other favors.
- It includes anything that is sought either directly by the groom’s family or indirectly through a third party.
- Examples of dowry demands can include things like: “We need our mortgage paid, so we can have the money for the wedding,’ or ‘Our younger son has got into medical school and we need his fees paid,’ or ‘Find a job for this relative,’ or ‘We need a car so your daughter can live comfortably with us.’
Q. How can you tell that it is a Dowry Demand?
- Anything that is given by the bride’s family to the groom or his family, that a bride’s party does not offer on its own is dowry.
- Anything that a groom’s party asks for directly or indirectly by dropping hints and the bride’s party feels compelled to give – is dowry.
- If the bride’s party feels that giving certain things is a pre-condition for the wedding to take place, and they give it because they worry the marriage will be called off – then it is dowry.
- If the bride’s family says it cannot afford something and the groom’s family starts negotiating a ‘lesser deal,’ – that is still dowry.
- Or after the wedding, if the bride or her family feel like that they either directly or indirectly are expected to meet demands for purchases, money, favors (social, political, economic), — as compensation for marrying their daughter into that family, then these are dowry demands.
Q. What if the bride’s family wants to give the bride and groom a gift of their own desire, but do not want to violate or be accused of violating the dowry law?
- If a bride’s parents want to give the newly married couple gifts for the wedding of their own choosing, without being pressured or asked, and they do not want this to be seen as ‘dowry,’or a violation of the Dowry Prohibition Act, then they should have a list drawn up by their lawyer, with details (description, cost etc.) of the gifts they are giving to the couple, and declare that these are gifts they are giving to the couple of their own choosing.
- The groom’s family too should have a copy of this list (so they are not accused of taking dowry either).
- Anything that is given to the bride and groom jointly as a wedding gift, belongs to both of them, and cannot necessarily be legally accounted for later on in case a situation warrants a separation.
Q. What if the bride’s family is not pressured for any dowry, but they want to give their daughter some gifts and securities, which they want to make sure she gets back, if under any circumstance she has to leave the marriage? Or they want to make sure that in the case of her unforeseen death is returned to the family?
- Anything that a bride’s parents gift, just to their daughter and not to the groom, is the sole property of the bride and under the law it is called Stree Dhan (The Wife’s Property).
- This can be given before, during, or after the wedding.
- Streedhan includes property that a woman inherits or gifts given to her in cash or kind by her parents, siblings, and also husband and in-laws.
- The woman is the absolute owner of her Stree Dhan and the husband and his family have no right over it.
- If the woman gives her stree-dhan to her husband and or in-laws for safe-keeping, then they are only trustees and must return it when she asks for it.
- If a woman dies under suspicious circumstances within 7 years of her marriage, then the property has to be transferred to her children or to her parents if she has no children.
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The scenario of India is the same in Bangladesh. These days the eve teasing has increased terribly. The eve teasers are teasing girl children, when the guardians or school teachers are opposing the teasers are murdering them. I think besides these campaign we should aware the parents, we should educate the parents on considering the girls and boys are in the same status. When they become resource persons both of them are the heritage of the family. We should go the families and teach them how to develop these sense in order to respect each other as a human being.
@ Shamsun — Dowry in India started off as a middle and upper class phenomenon. It is only over the last 20 years or so it has spread to the poorer communities. But look at all our dowry cases — Mitu, the story of Anshu — these are all upper class, educated, wealthy families. It is a compulsion families have — it is irrational and has nothing to do with education or wealth or understanding of worth. They do it because everyone does it, and they do it because society thinks at some level it is o.k. So that is why we are saying there is no excuse. It is not just that dowry is bad. But everyone who practices it is guilty and responsible. Each citizen, man or woman in the country is responsible.
Excellent advice; very useful info. Thanks for doing this !
Thank you Mita for the comment. Do share it with all you know.
Thanks for providing the informations. I am just adding that Hon’ble Supreme Court of India, on dated 23.11.2010 have said to every court of India to add Murder charges with every 304B cases throughout INDIA. This news has come on every newspapers of India, specially TIMES OF INDIA. I read it in (hindi edition) of times of India on front page, i.e. NAVBHARAT TIMES.
The hon’ble court is very much cautious and noticed the rising dowry death in recent year. The hon’ble court has said before 2 weeks before that now they (culprits) in need to give big DOSE, it is enough now with the females in India.
You pl. see yourself about news of dt. 23.11.2010 in Navbharat Times (front page).
All this is due to the rising deaths due to dowry, by different manners, by doing murder and later to show it as suicide, it has proved in many recent cases. Hon’ble court is very strictly said to every court of India.
I have been a victim so I can feel a sie of some more relief to the female Genocides of India, I also want to say THANKS to hon’ble judges of supreme court of India for noticing their serious concerns of Female Genocides.
I appreciate it and want that no Anshu Singh should face such an happening. We are now, nowhere, nobody can give us our beloved Anshu back but will fight upto the last breath for punishment to the culprits. Now, this is the only aim of mine and my family. We will try our best to save more Anshu’s of India, only this will be our motto in life now.
Thanks to everyone who support this…. specially to Ms. Rita Je, founder of 50 MILLION’S campaign fight for genocides and gender bytes.
Thanks a lot.
Girendra Singh
(an unfortunate father)
Father of deceased Anshu Singh
Mr. Singh — You are right. The Supreme Court of India — perhaps more than any other court in India now realizes how rapidly the crime of dowry is spreading in India — and in the words of the court, that there needs to be very strong judiciary and legal action. The Indian Supreme court says: “”The hallmark of a healthy society is the respect it shows to women. Indian society has become a sick society. This is evident from the large number of cases coming up in this court and also in almost all courts in the country in which young women are being killed by their husbands or by their in-laws by pouring kerosene on them and setting them on fire or by hanging/strangulating them,” an anguished bench of Justices Markandey Katju and Gyan Sudha Mishra said in a recent judgment. “What is the level of civilization of a society in which a large number of women are treated in this horrendous and barbaric manner? What has our society become,” asked the Bench before upholding life term for the husband and mother-in-law of a woman killed for dowry. This was there ruling “We further direct all trial courts in India to ordinarily add Section 302 (murder) to the charge of section 304B so that death sentence can be imposed in such heinous and barbaric crimes against women,” a Bench of Justices Markandeya Katju and Gyan Sudha Mishra said in an order.
Mr. Singh — We also thank you for your support for this campaign. We are with you in your fight for justice for your daughter Anshu. It is Justice not just for Anshu and for your family — it is justice for all of us fighting for change.
Dear Mr. Singh, I am sorry for your loss. I really hope Anshu gets justice. I don’t know what the situation was in your case.
I have a general feeling and thought for poor girls who suffer due to these issues. If dowry is asked from parents in any form, be it before or after marriage, why is the relationship with the groom/would-be-groom broken then itself? If they value only money and not the lady, then she would never get what she truly deserves. Murder is the farthest one could go, and is not as common as torture maybe. But living in the with such people will only satisfy society and would kill the poor lady day by day in one form or another.. What is more important is the the happiness of the girl in her new life and home.. society can never be satisfied I feel.. Just my person thought…
R.I.P. dear Anshu.
I have a question regarding Stree-dhan… what proof a woman has to tell that something is hers? the things are just gifts, and who would decide if was hers or her husbands or in-laws..?
Nicki, If you read the post on which this comment is posted, we have suggested that all gifts that parents give their daughter for the wedding must be legally registered as ‘Stri-Dhan,’ so that there can be proper accounting for it in case of divorce. Also it is a protection for the woman — for the reason husbands and in-laws kill is because they know that they can get away with murder and keep the wealth the bride’s parents gave her.
Very educative and well thought-out commentary ! Let me introduce each and all of issue related articles to Japanese Twittees,who are ignorant of such brutal and barbaric act . I should admit men and women of conscience in India do strive to pave the way for woman Emancipation. A paradigm is called for ” De-throne Dowry”.
Thank you for your comment Noboru, and for your support! De-throne Dowry would be step 2. We first have to insist that the laws pertaining to dowry murders, female feticides, infanticides and ‘honor’ killings be implemented and the government be held fully accountable! so please sign our petition
the dowry demand should be viewed the same way as the deportation orders the Nazis gave. so refusing it is the only way to survive!
Is any provision for punishment to dowry giver.
Why man always be in trouble in any type of Dowry Case. He is a man so that.
“Kya kanoon banane walo ne ise balance nahi kya. Mene hamesa Dowry lene walo ki hi saza suni he magar dowry dene walo ka aajtak kanoon me koi strong point he ya nahi. Ya phir aurat itni bechari ho gayi he ki admi ko hi dowry lene ka kasoorwar banao. Aaj ki ladki ya aurat itni kamjor nahi rehe gayee he ki dowry ke bina shaadi na kar sake. to phir hamesa aadmi ke upper hi blame kyon lagaya jata he. Kyon kanoon joothe case file karne walo ke khilaf sakth kadam utathi.”
Meri awaz un joothi aurto ke khilaf he jo be wajahe apne pati par joothe dahej ke mukadme dalti he or apni or apne pati ki zingdi kharab karti he.”
The law applies to both dowry givers and takers.
Hi,
I would like to share something, i am from UP and where girls are burden for there parents as per them and they can do anything and any kind of lies to get marry her daughter. And after marriage the truth will come and in that cases the bride refuse to accept the girls. Now the girls family will start the social drama as well as threatening and blaming for dowry. The boy is innocent but he cant do any thing. either he can adjust his whole life with girl or do something crazy like left the home, suciede or bla bla.. so plz let me your comment for the same.
you might be right in some cases Amu but in many cases the husband is as guilty as anyone else. I guess the husband’s family is the main benefactor from any dowry payments so they might be the ones planing the crimes. even still oftentimes its the husband who actually pulls the trigger because he has the best access to the intended victim. I think of it sort of like how the FBI deals with mafia hits in New York City. they prosecute both the boss who gave the order to do the hit, the hit man who carried it out, and anyone else who was involved in some other way such as a get away driver or the man who provided the gun. sorry if I got a little off topic but “dowry death” cases are actually a lot like mafia hits. someone plans the crime and gives the order to carry it out, than someone else carries it out and still others are involved in other ways. If you ask me anyone involved in “dowry deaths” should be lined up and shot! that might be the only way to stop this.
U are very much biased & for ur kind information even our supreme court has stated that 498A has become LEGAL TERRORISM by girl & her family.. grow up indians now girls are independent & we dont need such a strong law… it requires amendment so that any false case should take strong action against the girl family also… ofcourse death bcoz of dowry is heinous crime n must be punished but on the other hand if girl is filing false case then even she must be punished for the same.
@Human– As we can all see from the numerous scams etc. India is unfortunately a country full of corrupt, immoral people. Every kind of law in this country is misused and abused by people. But when something wrong happens, and people want justice, they don’t attack the law. They demand accountability from the police and courts on how the law is being misused. For every woman who misuses the law in this country there are thousands of women who are abused and killed for dowry. That is proof in itself that the law is not being implemented. The reason that groups like the anti-498a have no credibility is exactly because they are attacking the law. It seems to us, that a group of disgruntled men want to make sure there is no check in place legally or otherwise for them to go on freely abusing the system of dowry and inflicting violence on women. So if you want people to believe you — don’t attack the law, instead attack the system, the courts, the police like all victims of injustice do.
If Dowry demand is crime then Dowry offer is crime also.
How can a groom proof before marriage if bride’ side offer Dowry (name of gift) for maintain their own social status.
Give me at least one example where Dowry offer-er accused & convicted.
None one.
Because if groom go to police station for lodging FIR on above situation, police say- No, it is not Dowry offer, it is ‘Stree Dhan’ (very sweet name of gift) offer.
plz reply me with particular example( with case details).
Dear Sengupta Ji
I am agree with your comment and also want to add something. Father give dowry for his doughtier marriage and also expect that to recover that amount when he do his son marriage. The law is not clear and many times people trap the honest person because social disputes.
It is very critical to make difference between Gift and Dowry.