Deterring Dowry Deaths in India: Applying Tort Law to Reverse the Economic Incentives That Fuel the Dowry Market (original) (raw)

Time did not stop on May 21, 2001, in Banglore, India. But for Rinki, a newly-married nineteen-year-old housewife, this day was her last one alive. Rinki had been married to a man named Anil for barely a month before she turned up dead. Rinki was allegedly tortured and set on fire by Anil’s family. The circumstances surrounding this heinous murder were a familiar scene in rural India.

Soon after Rinki married Anil, Anil’s father demanded that Rinki’s family buy him a motorcycle and a color television to replace the black and white television set they provided as dowry. Rinki’s family was unable to meet such demands. Consequently, Anil’s family allegedly subjected Rinki to severe physical torture, and, on one Saturday morning in Banglore, Rinki was found charred to death after having been doused with kerosene and set ablaze. It was another incident of a “dowry death” . . . .