Death of three sisters spotlights India's dowry violence

Death of three sisters spotlights India's dowry violence
June 8, 2022, 11:59 am

Sonu, an elder sister to the three married women, at the family home in Chhapya village of India’s Rajasthan state on May 31, 2022. (AFP)

Three Indian sisters and their children were found dead in a well. Before their death, they left a letter blaming the family in which they were married.

Kalu, Kamlesh and Mamta Meena had wed brothers from the same household and lived under the same roof. They were victims of a dispute over dowries, the often hefty sums Indian parents pay to marry off their daughters.

According to the trio’s grieving relatives, they suffered constant violence from their husbands and in-laws.

They were abused constantly, they say, including when their father failed to meet demands for more money.

All three were found dead last month near their marital home, a village on the outskirts of Jaipur, along with Kalu’s four-year-old son and infant child. Both Kamlesh and Mamta were pregnant.

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“We don’t wish to die but death is better than their abuse,” a cousin said, according to a message on WhatsApp left by one of the sisters after their disappearance.

“Our in-laws are the reason behind our deaths. We are dying together because it’s better than dying every day.”

A senior police officer in Jaipur said, authorities are investigating and currently treating the deaths as suicides.

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The sisters’ distraught father, Sardar Meena, said life had been a living hell for his daughters, whose husbands banned them from pursuing their education and constantly harassed them for more payments.

“We had already given them so many things, you can see them in their home,” he said, counting off the beds, television sets and refrigerator he provided to the family.

“I am the father of six girls, there is a limit to how much I can give,” added Sardar, who earns a meager income as a farmer. “I had educated them and just doing that was difficult.”

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Attempts to contact the men’s family were unsuccessful.

India outlawed the practice of paying dowries more than 60 years ago, and harassment or extortion over the payments is a criminal offense.

But the custom persists, particularly in rural areas, undergirded by social conventions that treat women as an economic burden and demand compensation for accepting them as brides.

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