Parents Regret Not Bringing Daughter Home Earlier After She Dies Due To Dowry Harassment

Living in the 21st century one would think that practices like dowry are done and dusted, right? But let me assure you that is not the case. From Kerala to Ludhiana, the cases of dowry have been practised with alarming regularity (read more about this here). And with all these cases, it makes me wonder why we still are tolerating this practice? Why are women and their families not standing up to this? The practice of dowry has caused a lot of deaths of women across the country.

Recently, a 34-year-old woman in Ludhiana was burned to death by her parents-in-law. The woman, Mandeep Kaur, was allegedly harassed over dowry which led to her death. 

Her father, Surinderpal Singh, when approached said that he had received a call from Mandeep’s father-in-law, informing that she had suffered from severe burn injuries. He was told that she was rushed to a civil hospital. He also later revealed that Mandeep was repeatedly getting harassed over dowry which had started right after her marriage.

Shedding more light on the dowry case, he said that he rushed to the hospital when he found out but by the time he got to his daughter, she had already died. It were the wounds on her body that shocked him and it is now that he regrets not bringing her home. 

Mandeep and her husband, Balram had married three years ago and have a one-year-old daughter. With regards to their relationship and the harassment over dowry, Surinderpal that her husband had called him asking him to take Mandeep home or else he would kill her. 

He said, “My son-in-law told me that he would kill my daughter if I didn’t take her home… Had I brought her back home on time, she would have been alive today.” With regards to raising a complaint against the dowry harassment, Surinderpal also added, “We had raised the matter with the village panchayat. Some responsible people in the village helped us settle the issue but my daughter continued to suffer abuse at her in-laws’ house…Had I brought her back home on time, she would have been alive today.”

The police have booked Balram Singh, Chand Sing (father-in-law), Rajwant Kaur (mother-in-law), Kulbir Singh (brother-in-law), and Rajvinder Kaur (sister-in-law), under Section 304-B (dowry death) of the Indian Penal Code.

We as a society really need to step up and stop the practice of dowry. We need to understand that women are not a commodity. Only because she is married into a family does not mean that she is supposed to be providing the in-laws with things that they demand. It is time that we put an end to supporting and practicing dowry.