A Divorced Daughter Is Better than a Dead Daughter
Dear parents, please let your daughter return home.
The headline is depressing — “ Another suspected dowry death, third in the past 72 hours”.
It is more than depressing.
It is tragic.
It is heartbreaking.
But above all it makes my head hang in shame. What is a nation of 1.3 billion people doing to its daughters?
Google “India + Woman + Dowry + Death”, and hit the news section. Not a day goes by when a horrific case of dowry related “death” is not reported in the media.
From the hinterland of rural India to metropolitan cities that are global technology hubs, the entire nation is suffering from an epidemic of dowry “deaths”.
And I fail to comprehend why these cruel murders are still called “deaths” ?
A death is due to natural causes — due to old age, poor health, or the wrath of nature. Throwing your daughter-in-law off the balcony of her own home, burning her alive with subsidised kerosene oil, or strangling her with the very “saree” she wears does not qualify to be labeled “death”.
It is murder — cold, brutal, pre-meditated murder.
