India’s Efforts to Deal With ‘Bride Burning’

Wendy Lozano’s letter (Jan. 16) on “bride burning” in India displayed a lack of perspective.

“Dowry deaths,” as they are referred to in the Indian press, are notoriously difficult to track down. Typically, a young woman is brought to hospital with severe burns, with her in-laws claiming that her “sari” (a long, flowing garment) caught fire while she was cooking. Sometimes they may claim she committed suicide. The problem is further compounded because even women who survive long enough to make a dying declaration rarely implicate their husbands. The difficulty, therefore, is not one of the laws being improperly written, but one of proper reporting and policing.

Lozano’s horror is understandable and all right-thinking persons would share it. However, the difference between India’s “dowry deaths” and the plight of Russian Jews and South African blacks is: the government of India does not sanction bride burning and punishes offenders with all the vigor a crowded society and an underpaid police force allow. It is absolutely incorrect to say that India “neither enforces nor change laws (to) stop it.”

Bride burning is homicide, plain and simple, and it is dealt with under appropriate laws. Lozano’s indignation would be justified if India ignored--or even encouraged--bride burning. Then a parallel could be drawn to Russia, South Africa and Central American regimes, which oppress their own people.

As it stands, Lozano’s letter is unspeakably arrogant. One can’t reduce crime in a Third World country by threatening to cut off its aid. It is a disgrace to India, with her 3,000-year-old civilization, that there should be even one dowry death. Similarly, it is a disgrace when a gunman shoots several people in a fast-food joint and when parents sexually molest their children. As yet, India is thankfully free of the last mentioned horror.

Lozano’s call for “international pressures and sanctions” against bride-burning crimes in India would be equivalent to the rest of the world boycotting America for molestation of 2-year-old children. India does not “permit this (bride burning) horror to exist” any more than America “permits” its own home-grown horrors to exist.

J. SREEKANTH

Goleta

We appreciate Wendy Lozano’s concern for the welfare of Indian womanhood, but certain facts have to be put straight.

The problem, is unfortunately not a legal problem and hence there are no easy constitutional or legislative remedies for the situation. The Indian Constitution guarantees equality before law and equal pay for equal work. In this respect women have the same rights as men. Similarly, whereas under traditional Hindu law, women had no rights of inheritance, recent legislation has corrected this bias also.

Lozano is correct in mentioning that few convictions were earlier obtained on charges of “bride burning,” as the peculiar circumstances of the crime rarely saw any witnesses. However, the law and rules of evidence are also being sought to be changed in a manner such that convictions can more readily be obtained.

It is heartening to note that the pressure of Indian public opinion has already made the courts and police even more acutely sensitive to the need for ensuring effective prosecution of perpetrators of these crimes.

Bride burning is undoubtedly an acute social problem attributable to the deep-rooted prejudice of relatively small sections of Indian society. The government of India has repeatedly expressed its horror at this social evil, and social welfare agencies, governmental as well as private, are actively engaged in counseling, educating and materially supporting the victims of these crimes.

Along with the Indian media they have strongly aroused public opinion on this issue. We are, therefore, confident that this particular social evil, is well on the way to becoming a thing of the past.

A.K. PANDEY

Consul of India

San Francisco