Dowry Death
Dowry deaths are the deaths of young women who are murdered or driven to suicide by continuous harassment and torture by husbands and in-laws in an effort to extort an increased dowry. Dowry deaths are reported in various South Asian countries such as India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Dowry death is considered one of the many categories of violence against women in South Asia. According to Indian National Crime Record Bureau, there were 1948 convictions and 3876 acquittals in dowry death cases in year 2008.Most dowry deaths occur when the young woman, unable to bear the harassment and torture, commits suicide. Most of these suicides are by hanging, poisoning or by fire. Sometimes the woman is killed by setting her on fire; this is known as "bride burning", and sometimes disguised as suicide or accident.
Eve Teasing
Eve-teasing has been a notoriously difficult crime to prove, as perpetrators often devise ingenious ways to attack women, even though many feminist writers term it as "little rapes", and usually occur in public places, streets, and public transport.
Bride Burning
This has been treated as culpable homicide and if proven, is punishable accordingly (mostly up to death sentence or life imprisonment) According to Indian National Crime Record Bureau, there were 1,948 convictions and 3,876 acquittals in dowry death cases in 2008.
Virendra Kumar and Sarita Kanth point out that bride burning has been recognized as an important public health problem in India. They say that it is a historical and cultural issue accounting for around 600-750 deaths per year in India alone. In 1995 Time Magazine reported that dowry deaths in India increased from around 400 a year in the early 1980s to around 5,800 a year by the middle of the 1990s. A year later CNN ran a story saying that every year police receive more than 2,500 reports of bride burning.
Bride-Buying
Rape in India
Fastest growing crime in India and New Delhi has seen more than 10 rapes last month alone.As an embarrassed government gets ready to enact tougher rape laws, the victims continue to face an insensitive police and criminal justice system.Nearly three years ago as India was celebrating the festival of lights, the world dimmed for an 18-year-old as she was returning from work late in the night.Iris was first stalked by four drunken men and then raped by one of them in the heart of New Delhi."The whole night he raped me. My hands were tied and my voice deserted me," Iris recounts the incident.And the trauma didn't stop there.The police first refused to lodge an FIR and when they finally did, no medical tests were ordered.
Instead in a misguided attempt at justice they got her married to her rapist.Two years on, with a child she conceived the night she was raped, Iris is out on the road, deserted by her husband and looking for justice again."Some times I feel I should commit suicide," she says.Iris is part of statistics that have got sociologists worried.The reported cases of rape have grown by 700 per cent since 1953. Last year 20,000 rapes were reported in the country. And India's rape capital New Delhi has seen 10 cases last month alone.One case was that of a minor girl being raped by a policeman.Sociologists say reasons for this sudden increase is a complex mix of migration, shrinking spaces in cities and the high visibility of women outside their homes.However, law enforcement agencies argue that actual rape cases haven't increased substantially, what has is their reportage.
And in any case since 80 per cent of the accused are known to the victims, it's a crime virtually not preventable.