Dowry Law Page #3

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for her daughter-in-law's death?

[Smita]

Basically,

the boy was very jealous

and they were fighting

very badly.

And the sister-in-law feels that

this was a tension

between husband and wife

and they got involved in it.

She feels very lonely

and abandoned also,

because the son

doesn't come to meet her either.

He has gotten married again,

he has family.

[Adam]

And then he doesn't come here

any longer?

[speaking in Hindi]

She says that,

if I had done something

I would've felt satisfied,

"Okay, I did it

that's why I'm here."

[Adam]

But-- yeah.

But she feels

she didn't do anything.

And now

she's been abandoned here.

The so-called accident

is always the same.

It's always in the kitchen

and nobody's ever at home.

She says that, yes,

I've been committed unfairly

that my daughter-in-law herself

said that while she was cooking,

her nightgown caught fire.

She gave that

a dying declaration.

Everybody here says,

"It wasn't me,

I'm not-- I'm not guilty."

And I-- I'm-- I'm puzzled

by what they're doing here then.

The conviction is if the dowry--

if the suicide or the death

has been abetted--

[Adam]

Right, that's enough.

That is also a reason

for conviction.

[Adam]

Yeah, right, right.

And that reason

can be either present

very obviously

like in the actual burning

or a mental state of mind

or the pressures that are there

on the daughter-in-law.

[Adam]

So if you're involved

in the harassment,

in the view of the court,

you're part of the crime.

Yes.

What they say is that,

"Look, our mother-in-laws

used to taunt us,

so we were made to work

very hard or whatever.

Or we did not have any freedom

of doing anything on our own.

We were like kind of answerable

to everybody in the family."

[Adam]

It's no surprise that few say

they're guilty.

But some are behind bars

carrying the can

for the dowry crime

committed by their sons.

Because in Indian society,

men are simply more important.

They can remarry,

find a new wife,

and get the new dowry

that goes with her.

To parents' minds,

it's ingrained in our system

that boys mean that-- it'll--

[Adam]

Boys mean cash, basically.

Uhuh, yeah.

[Adam]

I mean they do--

they do at marriage time,

certainly.

Yes.

[Adam]

Boys mean cash.

Yeah.

[]

[Adam]

Kajal and Anand,

the perfect union.

Two young doctors

from good families,

an arranged marriage

and a financial deal.

It looked like

a match made in heaven.

Beautiful, upwardly mobile,

Kajal Sharma

and Anand Singh

from a higher caste family

in need of cash.

So this is um-

[Smita]

This is Kajal's room.

Hmm.

[Smita]

There are gifts to be given

throughout the year

at every festival

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