Sixty years ago, India banned the giving and taking of dowries. Yet the practice continues to date, with deaths due to dowry demands showing no signs of abating. An average of 20 women die every day from dowry-related violence in the country, according to official statistics.
In a recent incident in Greater Noida in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, a 28-year-old woman, Nikki Bhati, was burnt alive in front of her little son. The child subsequently recounted to neighbors that his father doused his mother with a flammable substance, hit her and set her on fire.
A video of Nikki’s husband burning her, which was recorded by Nikki’s sister, Kanchan, who is also married into the same family, has gone viral.
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