Filing A Complaint Against Dowry in India is Easy Now

Though Dowry cases have reduced considerably thanks to the awareness initiatives and legal reforms in India, this dreadful system is not totally eliminated as yet. It is still prevalent in many regions of rural as well as urban India. The prevalence of this custom has led to thousands of homicides as well as suicides in India, sadly so. As per statistics India tops the list of dowry related cases and around 30,000 dowry cases were officially reported in the year 2013-14. This is a huge number and speaks the torment of the women in India due to dowry. There have been almost 10 K cases of suicidal deaths due to dowry harassment as well as reported by the National Crime Records Bureau besides almost 4000 harassment cases by husband and in-laws for dowry were filed by the year 2015. 

Many of us are aware of the dowry prohibition act that was brought into effect in the year 1961. Under this act of IPC section 498 (A) - taking, giving or abetting dowry by imprisonment is a punishable offense and can cost you a fine of upto five thousand bucks or six months of jail. A woman has to raise her voice without fear of any sort and file a case so that the government and the law can help her out.  The government has over the years simplified the case filing procedures so that women can take optimum benefit of the law. As per a retired IPS officer Mr Mukherji added that a women needs to give an accurate description of what happened and present facts rather than making half-baked statements. 

The government has even made provisions for women police stations so that women can comfortably go and register complains there. The first one was opened in 1992 itself in Tamil-nadu. Besides every police station today is equipped with a women’s cell. Furthermore, the government has also made it mandatory for any and every police station to take complaint of a dowry related case of a women irrespective of jurisdiction. The FIR is registered under a zero number and later transferred to the relevant jurisdiction.  The government has also made a provision for women to be able to complain online to the website of any NGO or website of the National Commission for Women. Online case or FIR filing facility is also already available on their official website. 

Report this Page