Harassment and Dowry Deaths are not only in villages or small cities, it is also in big and metropolitan cities. This happens not only in poor families although this also happens in rich and popular families on a very large scale. 

It is ironic that in India dowry was originally designed to safeguard the woman and it was the provision of " Sthreedhan" ("Sthree" meaning woman and "dhan" wealth) in the form of money, property or gifts given solely to the woman by her parents at the time of her marriage. "Sthreedhan", an inheritance was meant to exclusively belong to the woman at the time of her marriage.

The abuse of this custom eroded and aborted the original meaningful function of dowry as a safety net for the woman and was corrupted to become the price tag for the groom and consequently the noose for the bride.

             The price of the Indian groom astronomically increased and was based on his qualifications, profession and income. Doctors, Chartered Accountants and Engineers even prior to graduation develop the divine right to expect a "fat" dowry as they become the most sought after cream of the graduating and educated dowry league. A reactionary preliminary wave of preserving oppressive practices of dowry demands, harassment and placing Indian males as high commodity line of goods, appeared to surface also in the West and other countrieswhere immigrants of Indian origin established themselves.
            

Harassment and Dowry Deaths

• The Indian Penal Code provides that where any women dies an unnatural death within seven years of her marriage and it is shown that she was harassed or subjected to cruelty by her husband or his relative for dowry, such death shall be called a Dowry death. The husband or the relative shall be deemed to have caused the death of the women. The offence is punishable with imprisonment of not less than seven years (Section 304B Indian Penal Code).
   

• Whoever, being a husband or relative of the husband subjects such women to cruelty shall be punished with imprisonment for a term of three years.

   Cruelty has been defined as

• Any conduct which is likely to drive the women to commit suicide or to cause grave injury or danger to life, limb or health (Mental or physical) of the women, or
   

• Harassment with a view to coercing her or any person related to her to meet any lawful demand for property or valuable security or is on account of failure by her or any person related to her to meet such demand. (Section 498A Indian Penal Code).

                                     Current Law Scenario

• The continued efforts to uproot the evil like dowry system through the mechanism of law has a long history and dates back to the Sindh Leti Deti Act of 1939. But then dowry incidents started increasing at a high speed and this alarming situation called in for a central legislation and thus the first national anti-dowry legislation popularly known as the Dowry Prohibition Act was passed in 1961 and applied to all the communities in India, though the act proved to be ineffective and demanded changes.
   

• The Act was amended twice once in the year 1984 and in 1986 thus making the Act more stricter and stringent than it's earlier version. Certain provisions in IPC, CrPC and Indian Evidence Act to combat this social evil were recommended in the Law Commission 91st report 1983.
  
                                      Anti Dowry Laws
   

• The IPC section 498-A was added that said that cruelty by bride's husband or the relatives is punishable and is entitled to imprisonment up to three years. The section 304-B was added to the Indian Penal Code by the Criminal Law Amendment act passed in 1986. which addresses that the death of a woman caused by an burns or any other way other than the normal circumstances within seven years of the marriage and shows that she was harassed before her death such a death will be called as a dowry death. The sub section (2) provides punishment with a minimum seven year imprisonment which may extend as being life imprisonment. The section 174 and 176 of CrPC, caters to the investigations and inquires into the causes of unnatural deaths, by the police and magistrate respectively. The Amendment Act of 1983 makes it compulsory for the police officer to send the body for post mortem if the death of the bride has occurred within seven years of her marriage which might be suicide or any the result of any other suspicious circumstances. 113-B was the new section that was added to the Indian Evidence Act which deals with proofs in dowry deaths according to which the Court has to presume that a dowry death was caused by the person who is shown to have subjected the woman to cruelty or harassment soon before her death.
  
                                         Judicial Efforts
   

• The judiciary of the country apart from the legislature is trying it's best to eradicate the evil dowry system from the Indian society. In case of Kundula Bala Subrahmaniam V State of Andhra Pradesh, gave certain indications in dealing with the dowry related violence.
   

• The Apex Court suggested that such cases should be dealt in a much more realistic manner and that the criminals should not get the advantages of long procedural technicalities and that the court should be more sensitive in cases involving crime against women.