Dowry Act change welcomed

Proposed amendment to law will help harassed women

Women rights groups welcomed the proposed amendments by the Ministry of Women and Child Development for adding more teeth to the Dowry Prohibition Act.

The proposed amendments to the act suggest there should be a provision for listing the gifts received at the time of the marriage, and a penalty shall be charged for not maintaining the list, and women should be allowed to file their complaints at the place where they lived. 

 Krishna Tirath, union minister for women and child development, told Rajya Sabha during question hour on Thursday that a limit on expenditure was among the suggestions given by the National Commission for Women (NCW). But the proposal was still at a premature stage, she said.

Also, provision for protecting the husband against false allegations was not part of the bill at present. 

Dr Ranjana Kumari, Director of Centre for Social Research, Delhi said it was a welcome change. 

“Girls have to run around a lot to get their case registered. The biggest drawback is that the women have to travel to and fro from their native place to the city they have been married in. The amendment will ensure safety of women who are harassed by their spouse and in-laws and discouraged from registering a case,” she said.

Kumari was also part of the committee which presented its recommendations to the NCW an amendments to the Act. 

“Forming a list is mandatory according to the law but nobody follows it. When the marriage falls apart, the boy’s family denies taking expensive items and the girl’s family are unable to recall what they gave in dowry. We had included this point in our recommendation,” added Kumari.

According to Delhi police statistics, every third day a dowry death is reported in the city and only 207 out of 681 people arrested under the sections of dowry death in Delhi have been convicted of the charges. 

Gouri Choudhary, member of Action India, believes that the proposed amendments will help reduce the number of dowry deaths. 

“The figure stands at 8,000 deaths per year across the country,” she said.

Vandana Sharma, president of Nari Raksha Samiti in Delhi, said, “We need stringent legislation to curb dowry deaths. Also, there should be some relaxation of norms for men to ensure that women do not misuse their powers under this Act.”