TRUTH About dowry Law and Its Misuse.

This is a Report based on 5 years Research and Study on dowry Prohibition act, its use and misuse.This Reasearch conducted by our own Experts of MyNation Foundation,and its members who are not funded by any gender biased organisations. We studied 1500 Plus Families, these are feedbacks from them and from the reports published by media.

What is IPC-498a ?

Cognizable " The accused can be arrested and jailed without warrant or investigation
Non-Bailable " The accused must appear in the court to request bail
Non-Compoundable " The complaint cannot be withdrawn by the petitioner

The accused, on a woman's one complaint, are considered guilty until proven innocent, and the burden is on the accused to prove their innocence in the courts. It is even more torturous that old ailing parents too are arrested prior to investigation. Is this not violation of Human Rights of Indian citizen ?

When an FIR (First Information Report) under IPC section 498A (anti-dowry law) is registered by a woman, the accused - the husband and his old parents, brothers, sisters, relatives - are arrested and jailed without investigation. The Supreme Court of India has ruled several times that arrest should be an exception, and not compulsory. Why is there no penalty for disobeying the Supreme Court's orders? Is it not mental cruelty to subject a person to arrest without investigation or reasonable cause ? Police are subjected to gender sensitization training wherein they are forced to take women's complaint and arrest the accused even when they find the case to be fabricated. And in case the police do not react on a woman's false complaint, the women groups are given unnecessary powers to take legal action against the officer-in-charge of the police station.

As per our Study, we found out that, it is a custom in India to give support to bride in the form of gold and valuables to support her future life with her husband, as husband take home the bride's Father's financial burden.

There are certain natural problems in every marriage that are always resolved amicably. In olden day, men and women used to manage these trivial differences in their marriages, but today's modern woman are not ready to compromise on petty issues, which are part and parcel of a married life.

Shobha [Name Changed] says dowry is not an issue. Ours was love-cum arranged marriage. I know my father's capacity and how much he can give. And after marriage there is no chance takeing any money or asking, so i only told my Husband,that he can take. we are happy with that,it helped us to build our Family. we should not take Stridhan as dowry.

When we get marry, to make new house, start family we need money,from girl side her father should provide to start family,and man should not demand more than what girls family offer.Says Priya[Name changed]

We are not talking about the dowry deaths or physical injury cases but about dowry harassment cases that require no evidence and can be filed based on a single complaint by the wife. With an estimated of 60,000 such accusations per year and an average of 4 members of the husband's family falsely implicated in each of these 498A cases, about 240,000 people are directly affected by these false accusations.

Latest Statistics Published on IBN-CNN.

*In 2004, 58,319 dowry cases were registered.
*1,34,757 men were arrested.
*47,828 cases have reached the charge sheet stage.
*10,491 dowry cases were not charge sheeted as they were based on frivolous ground.
*However, 5,739 men have been convicted but more than four times that number have been acquitted (24,127)

The controversial section not only covers dowry, but a wide spectrum of incidents including cruelty, causing injury and danger to mental or physical health.
[Source: http://www.ibnlive.com/news/tortured-hubbies-victims-of-498a/27446-3.html]
as on June 30 2005 are those under sections 498 and 498(A). In the first six months this year, 3801 new cases under just these two sections were instituted.

Thanks to the awareness levels amongst women, many more are approaching the courts today than before. Consider this against the number of cases that are disposed. They are only 2432 cases. Of them, only 164 cases led to convictions. 1449 cases ended in acquittal with the women considering further appeals.
[source : http://www.indianexpress.com/res/web/pIe/full_story.php?content_id=79802]


This poorly formulated law is inviting women to file false cases, and causing the imprisonment of innocent husband and his old parents without investigation. They are put behind bar along with other criminals. These innocent people undergo stigmatization and emotional trauma even before the trial in the court of law, which leads to emotional, physical and financial torture. Some of the falsely accused have committed suicide after being jailed, unable to bear the social consequences. Helplessness drove these innocent families to commit suicide. What is the Government doing to protect these innocent families?

Result of False Accusations.

As per Recent report from Ahmedabad, Rajesh Hasmukh Desai, a married man, committed suicide. He was falsely charged under IPC 498A. If a woman dies in "any" circumstances within seven years of marriage, police, by default, will arrest the husband and his parents for abetting suicide of a woman or for dowry death. But in this case, police did not interrogate his wife, nor took any action against her. Rajesh's case file was closed and the actual perpetrator got scot-free. Why the possibility of the wife driving her husband Rajesh Desai to suicide was ruled out ? Why she is not punished for abetting her husband's suicide?

A study by Professor K. Nagaraj, senior economist at the Madras Institute of Development Studies (MIDS)
The distribution of suicides by marital status reveals some alarming pattern. The rates do not vary much between the sexes for the never married.

Among those currently married, while the rate for males is about 17 per 100,000 persons, the rate for females is 11.4 per 100,000.

Among those widowed, while the rate for males is 21 per 100,000 persons, the rate for females is also significantly lower, at 6.6 per 100,000.

Among divorced males the suicide rate is 164 per 100,000 persons, but even in this class, among females the rate is only 63 per 100,000.

While the suicide rate for separated men is about 167, for females it is only 41 per 100,000 persons.

Such alarming statistical reports have not yet convinced the Government that men too are victims of domestic violence and not providing them legal protection will only increase the suicide numbers for men.

[Source: ]

Despite the recommendations of the Supreme Court of India and Justice Malimath Committee that the legislative arm should modify the laws such that the innocent are protected. The suggested amendment in the 498A law has been largely ignored. Innocent men and old parents are visiting women cell for help, but they are neglected. Unchecked, this social evil is threatening the foundation of the Indian Family system.
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