March 16, 2011

DOWRY DEATHS IN INDIA: THE STORY OF THE POWERLESS

Posted by The Himalayan Voice:
[‘Bride goes missing – A case was filed wherein the bride filed a complaint with the police against her in-laws, of torture for more dowry. After many pleadings, the in-laws were released from custody but, shockingly, the bride was missing from the next day. No clue has been found till now about her whereabouts. Police has refused to comment on the issue…’] 

By Amritapa Basu
Sadly, in an age where technology is developing at such a fast pace and impossible dreams are becoming a reality of our daily life, we still come across such news at some corner of the newspaper. A Times of India report on 21 February, 2011 reads, “Recently, 28-year-old R Sushila was admitted to the burns ward of the Kilpauk Medical College Hospital (KMCH), Chennai after she tried to immolate herself. When she died a week later with 90% burns, it was recorded as a suicide. However, nurses said she had told them she committed suicide unable to bear the pressure and harassment from her husband and in-laws for dowry.” “We get around eight burns cases everyday and of those five are women and they are mostly reported as cases of accidents or suicide.
It is only when we talk to the women that we realise these are cases of dowry harrassment by the husband and the relatives,” said Dr V Jayaraman, head of the burns ward, KMCH. A majority of these deaths, nurses say, are recorded as suicides by the husband and his relatives and in some cases by the woman herself. As per a TIME magazine report, dowry deaths in India have gone up 15-fold from 400 cases in 1980s to 5,800 in 1990s. National Crime Bureau of the Government of India reported 6,000 dowry related deaths in 1995. These are official figures, reality must be petrifying. Though The Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961 was enacted way back in 1961, the rising figures tell us an absolute different story. More often than not, dowry deaths are registered as suicides or accidents. Victims are doused in fire and set ablaze by the in-laws and in case some foul is detected, the case immediately becomes a suicide-the bride could not adjust in the new family, and so she committed suicide.
In India, ancient texts describe women as ‘Power’ which rules over God’s creation. But current scenario shows a contrast picture. Women have never been fortunate enough to hold that position. Marriage plays a significant role in making or marring a woman’s fortune. Not all many but many Indian women fall prey to the monster of dowry. Earlier the dowry system was prevalent only in the upper classes who considered it an ill-omen to send their daughter said to be the Goddess of Wealth according to Indian mythology, empty-handed to her in-laws house. Therefore, they gave her the articles required for daily household. Daughter’s share of her father’s property was also sent as ‘gift’. With the passage of time, the significance and purpose of dowry changed and it has become a social menace that ails the society now. Today a cultural idea has become a corrupted one and a blessing has changed into a curse. One of the main reasons is the growing greed of money, power and status. They dream of a luxurious living out of the money that the bride brings in as dowry. Thus, it is seen that most of the victims belong to middle class or lower strata of the society. Inability to bring in more dowry often result in the brutal murder of the bride herself. Burning her alive or torturing her to such a severe extent that she commits suicide as a panacea to all her sufferings.
The sacred union called marriage has been reduced to mere financial transaction. The huge dowry demands have led to female infanticide and selective abortions. It was heart-wrenching to see a selective abortion advertisement which read as – ‘Spend five thousand now to save five lakhs later.’ The only way to overcome the problem of dowry is by educating girls and making them independent. According to the statistics, nearly 40% of women are married before the age of 18 and almost 63% women are illiterate in rural areas.
Social awareness programs can also prove to be useful. Bridegrooms must not ask for dowry and bride must make a firm decision to say a strict ‘no’ to families which ask for dowry. The likes of Kanchan, residing in the outskirts of Lucknow, who refused to go ahead with her marriage and asked the guests to leave her place and later lodged a dowry demand complaint, are very few. These may be insignificant beside huge statistics data but definitely worth applauding and stand to be examples for others. High dowry demands have sparked off numerous social and psychological problems such as female suppression, indebtedness and suicides. It is a shame for India that the father of the daughter has to bribe the bridegroom’s family to take off the ‘burden’. Dowry is a stumbling block for our developing country. When India is marching ahead aiming at social equality and improvement, women empowerment, dowry is definitely a curse.
Irony lies in the fact that many international peace pacts are being signed when numerous domestic violence cases are taking place within the four walls of the house.

[“The diplomacy here is getting complicated. The Europeans are all over the map with respect to recent developments. The Danes and Norwegians (who have some clout here because of their aid programs) are convinced that lasting peace is just about ready to break out and push the GoN [Government of Nepal] to be as accommodating as possible. The Brits, in contrast, seem convinced that the Maoists will soon be coming into power and are trying to convince themselves that that might not be so bad. ).”]

By P. Sainath
James F. Moriarty
MUMBAI: “The local World Bank rep is so fed up with the corruption in the system that he has become a frequent lunch pal of the Maoist supremo.” That was James F. Moriarty, Ambassador to Nepal, writing home in frustration on September 22, 2006.

The cable, running to several pages, was headlined "Crunch time in Nepal?" (79370: secret/noforn). While showing annoyance at the diplomacy and assessments of other western nations, and India and China, he gives Washington his own take on the situation. On the Maoists' drive to power in Kathmandu, he wrote: “The good news is that the Maoists are doing much of this through bluff. They have relatively little popular support, and they have nowhere near the military capability to take on the government's security services in an open fight.”

He did add that “the bad news is that the bluff may work,” but stressed that the Maoists had “relatively little popular support.” Less than 20 months later, the Maoists found quite some popular support in the April 2008 polls for a new Constituent Assembly. They won half the seats chosen in the ‘first-past-the-post' system and 30 per cent of the votes for seats under the proportional representation system. In all, they took 220 of the 575 elected seats, becoming the No. 1 political party. The nearest rival, the Nepali Congress, got 110, or half the number the Maoists did. Four months later, Maoist leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal, known also as Prachanda, was the Prime Minister of Nepal.

In September 2006, however, Mr. Moriarty was convinced it could be otherwise. It was the other nations, he complained, that were pushing in the wrong directions. “The diplomacy here is getting complicated. The Europeans are all over the map with respect to recent developments. The Danes and Norwegians (who have some clout here because of their aid programs) are convinced that lasting peace is just about ready to break out and push the GoN [Government of Nepal] to be as accommodating as possible. The Brits, in contrast, seem convinced that the Maoists will soon be coming into power and are trying to convince themselves that that might not be so bad. The Chinese seem primarily interested in pushing Tibet issues with the weak, frequently ineffectual GoN. The local World Bank rep is so fed up with the corruption in the system that he has become a frequent lunch pal of the Maoist supremo. I'm trying to push back here on some of this, but it would help if the Department could have a serious, high-level discussion with the Brits on Nepal. We might also want to look at a demarche to the Europeans and others (reminding them that the Maoists are not just agrarian reformers and seem to want power rather than peace).” As it turned out, “The Brits” had made the better call.

Among the things Mr. Moriarty believed needed to be done was “brow-beating.” As he put it: “Brow-beating: Ultimately, decisions made by Nepalis will determine whether this country goes down the path toward becoming a People's Republic over the next couple of months. That said, we need to increase the possibility that the leaders here will make the right decisions. I've been meeting regularly with the Prime Minister, urging him (so far unsuccessfully) to use the police to enforce law and order and bucking him up to stick to his bottom line of not letting gun-toting Maoists into the government (with greater success so far).”

 @ The Hindu
@ WIKILEAKS Original Text

Comment(s)

"RHISHIKESH SHAHA WAS ESSENTIALLY RIGHT"
 ---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Facebook 
Date: Tue, Mar 15, 2011 at 9:41 PM
Subject: John Whelpton commented on your note "WIKILEAKS ON NEPAL: WORLD BANK REP AND NEPAL MAOIST LEADER AS...
To: Himalayan Voice

An interesting account, particularly if the Brits did indeed make a better forecast of the Maoists' electoral chances than many others. The British ambassador at the time, Andrew Hall, had the advantage of more experience in the country than most diplomats as he'd done anthropological research in Rasuwa district back in the 1970s as well as serving as 1st secretary in the early 90s, That said, virtually everyone (including the International Crisis Group, whose rep at the time was also a Nepal specialist) had reckoned the Maoists would get a substantial vote but not emerge as the strongest party.

During the `People's War' I personally took a stronger line against the Maoists than most foreign academics because I was worried that if any peace agreement made the Maoists look like winners, people would vote for them to align themselves with the strongest force. This was an analysis I'd originally heard from veteran politician and diplomat Rhishikesh Shaha and events proved he was essentially right. In the run up to the 2008 election, however, the consensus against that opinion was so strong that I allowed myself to be persuaded by it!

In defense of analysts both foreign and Nepali, I should add that predictions in 2006 -2008 were very difficult to make because so many people refused to give an opinion to pollsters. The actual situation in the country now remains an uneasy balance between the various forces - ironically, the PR element in the electoral system, which the Maoists themselves pushed for, prevented them from getting an absolute majority in parliament as they would have done under a pure `first-past-the-post' system.

John Whelpton
Hongkog


(Editor's note: John Whelpton has written two books on Nepalese history: a) Kings, Soldiers & Priests in Nepalese Politics and Rise of Jung Bahadur ( PhD Thesis - 1991) and b) A History of Nepal.)


"NOT IN PREDICTION BUT ON THE ACTUAL POLITICAL CONDITION OF THE COUNTRY"

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Kalyan Bhattarai
Date: Thu, Mar 17, 2011 at 2:20 AM
Subject: Re: John Whelpton commented on your note "WIKILEAKS ON NEPAL: WORLD BANK REP AND NEPAL MAOIST LEADER AS...
To: The Himalayan Voice
Cc: Raman Raj Misras

 The problem lies not in whose prediction was correct on  the CA poll results but on the actual political condition of the country. We should not forget the following realities:

  • This country was looted rampantly by the so-called leaders, whom I call ‘camouflaged dacoits’ with few exceptions since 1946 Andolan (revolution) and the people were so tired of  the looting that they voted for the Maoist not because they liked it but against the parties who were ruling the country since 1990.

  •  Almost all the ‘so-called leaders’ of our country are so selfish and corrupt that people had no choice other than to vote the Maoists for the change in the country.

  •  The political parties after being kicked out from power; and rejected by the people also had no choice other than licking the boot of the Maoists to come back to power. And the people had realized this reality. It was neither for peace nor for any other development of the country they licked the Maoist boots but it was only to loot the country. And this reality is known to all Nepalese.

  • Is there any example where the politicians change their ideology without any logical explanations ? In Nepal, the same political parties who were against the Maoists’ political demands and even declared them as terrorists and announced bounty over their heads; bowed down to their political demands of CA election and republican state; only when the king kicked them out from power.  I think they are responsible for all the killings and destruction during the  insurgency and should be hanged for their crime should we want to keep democracy in the country.

Kalyan Dev Bhattrai,
Kathmandu, Nepal.

***

[भूल जाओ तुम्हारी मस्जिद ओर मेरा मंदिर भूल जाओ गोधरा कांड| जब अपने मा- बाप को भूल जाते हो तो मंदिर मस्जिद ओर गोधरा को नही भूल सकते|]


लेखक अरुण कुमार निम

कट्टर हिंदू कहता है हम सबसे अच्छे है ..| कट्टर मुस्लिम कहता है हम सबसे सबसे अच्छे है...|

बस लगे है खून की होली खेलने मे कभी उपर वाले की भी सुनलो उसको क्या चाहिए| सब का मलिक एक है पर इन मूर्ख लोगो को समझ नही आता यार इंसानियत से बड़ा धर्म भी कोई हो सकता है| हर कोई लगा है कट्टर हिंदू कट्टर मुस्लिम बनाने मे पर कोई कट्टर इंसान बनना नही चाहता..

भूल जाओ तुम्हारी मस्जिद ओर मेरा मंदिर भूल जाओ गोधरा कांड| जब अपने मा- बाप को भूल जाते हो तो मंदिर मस्जिद ओर गोधरा को नही भूल सकते|

कभी तो इतना अफ़सोस होता है मतलब धर्म की लड़ाई तो एक तरफ धर्म क अंदर भी लड़ाई| मुस्लिम मे शीया ओर सुन्नी, हिंदू ने तो कमाल ही कर दिया जाति विभाजन करके 1000 जाति हज़ार लड़ाई..

कभी कभी तो यह लगता है के भगवान है भी या नही अल्लाह है भी या नही अगर है तो सबका मालिक एक क्यो नही है|

भगवान या अल्लाह है तो क्या वो भी ऐसे ही लड़ते है जैसे हम उनके नाम लेकर यहा लड़ते है| क्या वो भी मंदिर ओर मस्जिद तोड़ने मे विश्वास रखते है| वाहा भी ऐसे ही ख़बरे होती होगी के भगवान ने आज एक मस्जिद गिरा दी ओर अल्लाह ने एक मंदिर मे आग लगा दी| जैसे हमारे माता पिता है ओर यहा बच्चे होते है वाहा भी भगवान के बच्चे होगे क्या वो भी भगवान को ऐसे ही घर से भर निकल देते है जैसे यह इंसान अपने माता पिता को... 
वो बच्चे भी आपस मे ऐसे ही बात करते है जैसे हम  वो भी एक दूसरे का खून बहने मे शान महसूस करते होगे| धर्म की लड़ाई कभी ख़त्म नही होने वाली क्योकि हम अपने धर्म की अराधना करने मे कम दूसरे के धर्म की कमिया लिकलने मे ज़्यादा प्रतिफूलित महसूस करते है| मुझे तो अब अंत नज़र आने लगा है| एक दिन ऐसा ज़रूर आएगा हम धर्म को भूल कर इंसानियत बचाने मे लग जाएगे| 
आज तो हम कितना भी खून बहाले एक दूसरे का पर कुछ दिन बाद ऐसा आएगा के मुस्लिम हिंदू से बोलेगा चल भाई आज भगवान की पूजा करता हू तेरे साथ ओर हिंदू मुस्लिम से कहेगा आज मस्जिद मे नॉवज़ अदा करनी है| पर यह एकता जब नज़र आएगी जब इंसानियत तो छोड़ो इंसान का अस्तित्व ख़तरे मे होगा| ओर सब शान से कहेगे हिंदू मुस्लिम भाई भाई| पर आज मत कहना एक होने के लिए क्योकि अल्लाह ने पेगम भेजा है एक मत होना ओर भगवान को तो एकता प्यारी नही..

मुझे पूरा यकीन है के हम आपस मे कभी भी एक न हो पर जब जब देश पर विपदा आई है हमने एक साथ उसका सामना किया है.. पर अगर कभी बिना दुख के भी एक हो जाओ..कितना अच्छा लगे|

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