People's Democracy

Growing Crimes Against Women In Tamilnadu

 CPI(M) Takes Lead In Anti-Dowry Campaign

 A A Nainar

RECENTLY a state level anti-dowry convention took place in Chennai under the auspices of the CPI(M)’s Tamilnadu state committee, highlighting an issue that is crying for immediate attention on part of social activists and democratic organisations. It will be noted that it was only the All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA), a mass organisation in which CPI(M) activists have been playing a leading role, that has been in the forefront of the campaign against the practice of dowry.

The problem of dowry has a queer aspect as well. There are many who fret and fume against it in public, alleging others of indulging in crimes against women, but in real life they themselves willingly give or take dowry in some form or other. This helps reproduce and perpetuate the atmosphere that is conducive for attacks on women. In fact, many people have a system of values that sustains the practice of dowry in marriages. This puts the womenfolk at a disadvantage, to say the least, and really makes their life and livelihood vulnerable to risk. Recent years have shown a sudden spurt in the crimes against women. But the criminals do not come from outside. They are well inside our homes. In almost all dowry-related deaths and harassment, it is the in-laws, men as well as women, who are responsible for such pervasive, inhuman and feudal oppression on women.

As per the information obtained from the National Crime Records for the year 2001, 6,995 dowry related deaths had taken place, putting the average at 20 killings per day. During 2001, in the state of Tamilnadu, 1,030 dowry related cases were filed, while as usual many more such cases did not come to the police stations at all. There are many dimensions to the crime. It starts with demands for a cash component during marriages, followed by more demands for cash or goods or both. Such demands go on endlessly, in multifarious forms, till the end of a woman’s life.

And when such undue demands cannot be met, the result is the end of life of a married woman at her in-laws’ place. In most cases, the killings are brutal, pre-meditated and barbaric.

The payment of dowry has taken many shapes during various ages, depending on the form of the prevailing social system. In early days the ability of a man to carry on life with his partner and his capacity to earn a living for the family were the criteria for the fixing of arranged marriages. In feudal societies, people sent herds and other material things to the girl when she was sent to her affinals. Though the system of dowry is prevalent everywhere, its major practitioners in the modern society are the middle classes including the salaried sections, the rich peasants, traders and urban elite, though the poor too are not above practicing it. Also, the educated and highly placed sections demand that the dowry should be so much as to be commensurate with their education and socio-economic status. The values and injunctions of the caste system only act as a catalyst in this process. In certain communities, gold jewelleries are demanded in kilograms as dowry, with one gram of gold costing much over Rs 500. And it is precisely these sections who have, in the recent past, strengthened the system of dowry in its cruelest form.

The era of globalisation and the naked market forces have their own role to play in aggravating the effects of this social evil. The consumerist culture and the flooding of the market with multitudes of unwanted gadgets, cosmetics, furniture, TV, fridge, music systems, two wheelers, etc, have made people all the more greedy as they now want to enjoy and experience the thrills of life even if they cannot earn these things themselves. Dowry comes handy for such people. In a marriage arranged by parents, the negotiation starts very subtly and ends with hard bargains, heartburns and at times street quarrels. The demanding goes on and on, even after a decade of married life. The demand for more and more dowry gets manifested in many forms. If not met, it leads to harassment of the hapless wife, leading to her death in many cases.

An anti-dowry act was passed only during the year 1961. But no cases could be filed, leave alone anybody charged with demanding dowry and harassing a woman and thereafter punished, due to a lot of loopholes in the act. In 1980, the sustained movement of the democratic organisations on the ground and the efforts put in by late Comrade Susheela Gopalan, then a member of parliament, bore fruit and some amendments had to be passed in parliament. It prohibited extravagance in marriages and fixed a ceiling on the expenses on wedding ceremonies. It made the dowry related harassment a non-bailable offence and put the onus of proving innocence on the accused. As per the amended section 498-A of Indian Penal Code, no evidence needs to be provided for such an allegation. If a women dies within seven years of her marriage, it may be construed as a possible case of dowry-related harassment and killing, and proceeded upon accordingly. However, many people are not even aware of such legal rights for the protection of women’s lives.

Some time ago, the Tamilnadu state unit of the AIDWA conducted a survey that revealed that the evil of dowry practicing has risen from 22 per cent during the 1970s to 36 per cent during the 1980s and then to about 100 per cent in the 1990s. The last few years have seen a continuous increase in the dowry related police cases. Though isolated ones, there are cases where women have filed complaints against their erring in-laws, and these became topical news in the state.

An important offshoot of the environment of dowry related harassment is the crime of female infanticide and foeticide. In most cases, no one is happy at the birth of a girl child in the house. Such sex-selective conceptions and deliveries have brought about a regressive male-female ratio during the past hundred years. It was 1000:972 in 1901 and came down to 1000:923 in 2001. The Tamilnadu government is shy of fighting its causes. At the best, it wants to fight the effects only. It has promoted novel schemes like the ‘cradle baby scheme’ to encourage people to throw the ‘unwanted’ girl child into the government’s care. While it is good that the unwanted baby girls are being taken care of, the basic question is of how to fight this attitude of the society at large.

The social reform movement has failed to take note of this problem. The political parties are, in general, preoccupied with their own problems and their priorities lie elsewhere --- mostly to winning elections and nothing else. Many a time this makes them tolerate this evil practice and sometimes even justify it or to compromise with the reactionary elements. It is in this background that the CPI(M) took the initiative to highlight the issue in the form of a state level convention, to start with. And it has been a grand success, to the extent that it evoked positive response from the enlightened citizens and progressive activists of the state, especially the youth.