Dowry related violence on video!

The news of inhuman treatment of a girl or woman at the hands of her husband and in laws has become a regular phenomenon. But the story of in laws taking a video of their torture of a woman in Rupganj (DS February 6), takes this kind of sadistic behaviour to a different level. The woman was beaten, her hands and feet tied, hair cut off and forced to wear a garland of shoes to complete her humiliation. All this for dowry which her family could not provide. What is most sickening is that this barbaric treatment was carried out not only by her husband, but by her in laws as well as by the husband's first wife.   

The depravity of these acts should ring alarm bells for every one of us, for what kind of society are we that we allow entire families to inflict humiliation and injury on helpless girls and women because they failed to meet dowry demands? Such demands, moreover, are illegal as proclaimed by the Dowry Prohibition Act 1980, amended as the Dowry Prohibition Act 2017, that punishes offenders with 14 years imprisonment for instigating the victim's suicide and 12 years for serious injury. But despite such stringent laws, cases of dowry related violence and death are abundant with no sign of abating. Does this mean that people are not aware that the demanding, taking, even giving of dowry is unlawful and punishable? Or is it because they don't care because the law is seldom enforced?

The answer is both. The government with the help of its citizens must publicise that demanding dowry is unlawful and shameful. Law enforcers and the entire legal system must diligently and promptly punish the culprits who are responsible for dowry related violence.