Why dowry doesn’t die

Bengaluru, the Silicon Valley of India and the hub of research and education, surprisingly turns out to be the city reporting the highest number of dowry-related cases in the country, as reported by the National Crime Records Bureau.

The NCRB’s Crime in India 2024 report states that the city registered 87% of dowry and domestic violence cases across all metropolitan cities, with 878 cases in 2024 and 933 in 2025. Analysts attribute this to higher registration of complaints as compared to other cities, yet the data is still terrifying.

The International Day of Families (May 15) came and went as yet another reminder that families are nowhere near living up to their professed ideals. Since 1961, dowry has been a criminal offence in India, yet it remains one of the most normalised crimes. The more we look into the matter, the deeper the strength it appears to hold.

Meenakshi Bali, writer and activist, says that the “issue is easy enough to resolve, but socio-economic factors have made it more complex than necessary. The version presented by patriarchy
has changed how we speak about it.”

It is apparent that a dowry is more of an economic transaction than mere ‘gift-giving’ between the families of the bride and groom. It is often explained as a form of financial security for the girl child in a system that historically denied women direct inheritance of property. The father is made to consider dowry an ‘investment’ in his daughter’s future, aside from the brutal reality that she could be mistreated, abused or even killed if the price is not deemed ‘worthy enough’ by the groom’s family.

As many as 834 deaths have been reported in Karnataka over a period of five-and-a-half years, amounting to an average of 12 to 13 deaths every month. The NCRB’s 2024 report identifies “cruelty by husband or his relatives” as the single largest category of crimes against women nationally, accounting for over 1.2 lakh cases. It also shows that an average of around 7,000 women died annually due to dowry-related issues between 2017 and 2022.

The central reason for dowry’s persistence lies in its normalcy. Before a crime can be reported, it must first be recognised as one. The stigma that a woman, though burnt and bleeding, must never return to her father’s home forces the exploited women to hide or lie about their injuries.

The Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita, like the earlier Indian Penal Code provisions, treats the unnatural death of a woman within seven years of marriage as dowry death when linked to cruelty or harassment for dowry. Yet, in practice, very little changes.

Only about 4,500 of the roughly 7,000 annual dowry-related deaths and incidents of domestic violence lead to chargesheets, and many of these investigations remain pending for six months to a year. Even when chargesheets are filed, over 90% face delays in court. But barely around 100 cases a year end in conviction.

A total of 2,097 cases were reported under the Dowry Prohibition Act in 2025; 1,326 of them are still pending trial, and only 612 are under investigation.

The system itself, then, falls short. But the social aspect is even worse. Dowry is linked to almost every major issue of gender discrimination. Female infanticide, sex determination, the denial of education to girls, and underfeeding or overworking a girl child because of the financial burden she is assumed to bring—all are normalised outcomes of the same mindset. The higher social priority accorded to sons makes the process cyclical, reinforcing patriarchal dowry culture. Families pushed into debt because of their daughters’ marriages often try to recover the losses by demanding heavier dowries for their sons. Child marriage, too, appears more feasible because a younger bride usually requires a smaller dowry.

But this is only the conventional rural picture. Urban settings, on the other hand, have simply modernised the dowry. Lavish weddings dictated by the groom’s family, luxury cars, apartments, foreign trips or the bride’s family investing in the groom’s business are
all socially accepted forms of dowry. They are perhaps worse because, paradoxically, education and affluence do not reduce social evils; they merely inflate their price and standards.

If education itself fails to make an impact, awareness may be the only force left.

(The writer is a master’s student based in Kalaburagi) 

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.