NEW DELHI: Dowry murders remain common in India because the practice has survived legal bans, adapted to changing social conditions and continues to be tied to caste, class, male status and family honour, according to new research.
Although dowries have been banned in India since 1961, demands from a groom’s family remain widespread. When the bride’s family cannot meet these demands, women can face harassment, abuse, violence or death.
A new paper by Dr Kriti Kapila of King’s College London says dowry deaths have increased sharply over the decades. India recorded 6,516 dowry deaths in 2022, compared with 1,841 in 1988.
The study argues that the dowry system has changed form rather than disappeared. Historically, dowry was seen as a ritual offering to compensate the groom’s family. After being outlawed, it became an extractive demand, where grooms could “command a price” based on education, income, caste and professional status.
Kapila describes dowry as a “premium on the male child,” linked to his economic value. This has also contributed to sex-selective abortion, as some families see daughters as future financial burdens.
The research also says public anger over dowry deaths has faded. In the 1970s and 1980s, such killings sparked major feminist protests, especially when women were murdered in staged kitchen fires. But as these cases increasingly shifted towards suicide after harassment, public grief became private shame.
Kapila says the deeper issue is not only why anti-dowry laws failed, but why such killings no longer generate collective outrage.
