The Pulse | Society | South Asia

Why Indian Women Are Being Driven to Suicide

Harassment for dowry and failure to produce male heirs are forcing women to take their lives.

Suicide is the leading cause of death for married women in India. According to a study published by the medical journal, The Lancet, married women in India accounted for 28,085 of 44,498, or 63 percent of all suicides by women between 2014 and 2020.

The latest data (2024) from the National Crime Records Bureau indicates the same pattern. What is more, young married women in India are at greater risk of suicide than anywhere else in the world. The majority of these women (67.6 percent) were under the age of 30. Their deaths are triggered primarily by marriage-related issues involving an intensely patriarchal custom of dowry (now legally banned), which young brides are expected to keep giving the groom’s family. The failure to fulfill these demands often turns fatal, with the woman either committing suicide or being killed.

Dowry is primarily a South Asian phenomenon and more intrinsically an Indian one. At least 15 dowry-related deaths occur every day in India. Significantly, the domestic violence and torture that the woman is subjected to does not stop with dowry payment. Then comes the pressure to bear male offspring.

Grave crimes of dowry-related torture and deaths are not confined to less educated or economically vulnerable families.

This was the case in a recent incident where 33-year-old Twisha Sharma was found hanging at her marital home in Bhopal on May 12, just five months after her marriage in December last year to Samarth Singh, a lawyer, whose family is rich, upper-caste, and educated. His mother, Giribala, is a retired district judge and was chairperson of the Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum in Bhopal at the time of the incident.

Sharma herself was well educated. She had a degree in business management and was a former beauty queen as well.

Sharma’s family alleges that her in-laws were dissatisfied with the dowry they gave and she was routinely subjected to mental torture and violence. Her mother told police that minutes before her death, Sharma spoke to her over the mobile phone, and she overheard her son-in-law shouting at Sharma.

According to unconfirmed reports, Sharma was pregnant and her husband had forced her to undergo an abortion.

Sharma’s family allege that the autopsy and investigation were not conducted properly as Giribala used her influence in the state to obstruct justice . They refused to cremate the body until a second autopsy was conducted by doctors from AIIMS Delhi. The first autopsy had been conducted by AIIMS Bhopal doctors. Sharma’s family had even protested outside the Madhya Pradesh chief minister’s residence, demanding a fair probe into their daughter’s death. They finally cremated her 12 days after the incident.

The family’s apprehensions of a biased probe were not unwarranted. Not only did Giribala manage to get anticipatory bail from a local court, but Samarth too absconded initially. It was pressure from Sharma’s family and public anger that resulted in the high........

© The Diplomat