Law, Custom andCrimes Against Women: The problem of dowry death in India

In India, during the marriage process a woman's family must give the man's family a dowry, the payments of which can continue after the marriage has actually taken place. If a payment isn't going well, or if the groom's family feels like they aren't receiving adequate payment, the groom and his family will harass the bride. This can lead to dowsing the wife in kerosene and lighting her on fire. The problems with dowry led to the Dowry Prohibition Act in 1961. It made the giving and receiving of dowry illegal, though gifts can be given freely. It also made grooms responsible for "dowry death". These legal ramifications failed. There has been many public education campaigns however, encouraging parents to refuse dowry, children to refuse dowry, and friends and neighbors to ostracize families who accept or give dowry. Dowry deaths are more common in Northern India, where brides families try to arrange a higher rank marriage for their daughter. The agriculture system in the North requires less labor from women, which lowers their value. This encourages female infanticide in the North and skews the sex ratio heavily male. These all lead to high dowry costs which put the woman at an increased risk of becoming a victim of dowry death. Employment status also affects dowry; employed women have a lower dowry cost.

How did dowry start? How did paying someone to take your daughter away ever become acceptable? Even from an economic standpoint I don't understand it. A bride comes and lives in her husband's household, so the her family compensates the husband's family for the cost of having an extra person to take care of. How do children factor into this though? Isn't the expectation that she will take care of her husband and give him children? So how did the practice of expecting money, gifts, care and children from the wife become acceptable? I think it is ridiculous. And besides the horrific and cruel aspect of burning your wife, how does that help the dowry situation? If she's dead, they're not going to get any more dowry, however late or inadequate they thought it was. So the man can remarry and try to get a bigger dowry? Do people ever stop and realize what they're doing?