India All-Women Police Pursue Dowry Complaints

BANGALORE, India (WOMENSENEWS)–In her three years working at the
Basavangudi all-women police station in Bangalore, Constable Mylaaiah
Rangajura has taken hundreds of statements of women with dowry-related
complaints. Some are freshly bruised, others have been starved for days
and some fear that their husbands or in-laws will burn or strangle them to
death, a tragically common end to a dowry dispute.

When a wife’s husband and her in-laws are called in for lengthy
interviews, Rangajura listens as family members explain and often deny the
accusations of abuse and harassment.

While dowry was once a gift from a bride’s family to a daughter often
consisting of cash, jewelry and fine clothing, it has increasingly come to
be seen as a payment to her husband and his family that reinforces or
improves their financial and social standing. Abuse frequently begins when
additional dowry demands are unmet. It is a form of emotional and physical
blackmail that continues until the wife’s family finally relents.

“The in-laws will say that she is lying and that the woman will not
adjust to the in-laws,” says Rangajura, who wears the same uniform as most
male police officers: a khaki shirt and pants with a thick black belt.

Rangajura takes notes as her supervisor tries to negotiate
reconciliation, the most common approach to solving dowry disputes.
“Sometimes there is no compromise,” she says, referring to the more
egregious cases that involve severe physical and mental abuse, “but you
have to think about what both parties want.”

Part of Overall Antiviolence Effort

Rangajura is part of India’s effort to address the problem of domestic
violence, particularly dowry-related violence.

Though outlawed in 1961, dowry practices have continued to flourish,
regardless of religion, caste, educational background or whether marriages
are arranged or “love” matches.

Dowry-related violence increased more than three-fold between 1990 and
2000. Dowry deaths rose by 38 percent during that same time period and
since then about 6,000 to 7,000 women have been murdered each year.

In 2005, the National Crime Records Bureau recorded a dowry death every
77 minutes. Still, many argue that extremely low reporting and conviction
rates mask the true number of dowry deaths, which could reach as high as
25,000 per year.

In 1992, the government of Tamil Nadu opened the first all-female
police station in Chennai, largely in response to complaints that the
social stigma of confessing one’s family problems to a stranger and the
possibility of being raped kept women away from male-dominated
stations.

Mangai Natarajan, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice
in New York, has authored the most extensive studies on female police
stations in Tamil Nadu. She says the stations give women a safer, more
comfortable place to report domestic violence. “They don’t want to talk
about their personal relationships with a man,” Natarajan says. “They
think they won’t get any justice.”

In 2005, India adopted a federal domestic violence bill that offers
victims state-sponsored advocacy and aims to speed up the legal process by
creating more courts and hiring additional judges.

India, in addition to Brazil, has pioneered the use of the all-women
police station. In 2005 India had 295 units. Brazil, which began opening
the stations in the 1980s, now has more than 300.

Authority Figures and Counselors

Part authority figure and part counselor, the women who staff these
stations are supposed to be trained to field complaints ranging from
violence to neglect to infidelity to dowry harassment.

As leverage, they often use the pressure of social embarrassment to
remind an errant husband and his family that their behavior is
unacceptable and, in many cases, illegal.

“Families do have a great respect for police officers,” Natarajan says.
“Women will threaten their husbands with going to the police and it’s
effective.”

In 1990 the federal government created the National Commission for
Women to ensure progress on issues such as female feticide, poverty and
sexual harassment. In the years that followed, 26 state commissions were
mandated to address these problems at a local level.

Women who turn to branches of the women’s commission often see it as a
middle ground between reporting a dowry crime at the local police
station–which can put women at odds with their families–and seeking the
help of an advocacy group that doesn’t have the government’s backing.

The emphasis on counseling and “patching things up” in the all-women
police stations has left some victims feeling betrayed, says Ranjini
Srikumar, temporary chair of the Kerala State Commission for Women.

“The women officers say, ‘Oh, it doesn’t matter, my husband beats me
too. Don’t make such a big deal, it happens to all of us,'” Srikumar says,
adding that some women have told her they had better experiences at
regular, male-dominated stations.

Though female officers do receive gender sensitivity and counseling
training, it often occurs infrequently and differs from station to
station.

Shobana Khatavkhar investigated dowry cases at the Basavangudi women’s
police station in Bangalore from 2003 to 2005 and acknowledges that some
officers can be callous and that training could be improved.

Of the 75 or so dowry cases Khatavkhar examined, she says only five
resulted in a conviction. The main benefit of filing reports, she says, is
that it creates a permanent police record.

“When asked about dowry harassment, they always deny it,” she says,
referring to the accused husbands and in-laws. “But (the station) keeps
the record and then they won’t continue to harass because it’s on
file.”

Detecting the Warning Signs

A.K. Siddamma, an investigator for the Karnataka State Commission for
Women, worked as a police officer for 33 years and investigated 180 dowry
deaths for 10 of those years. She ticks off the signs of neglect and abuse
that might escalate to murder: “The husband won’t buy his wife proper
clothes, won’t give her food, will beat her and threaten her.”

When a husband is asked to appear in her office as part of the
investigation, Siddamma says she tries to restore the bond. “When you took
your husband or wife,” she says, “you took him or her to look after. I
tell them that marriage is more important than dowry.”

However, she says some cases must be referred to the police.

Gouramma Venkata Ramana is a staff member at Vimochana, a Bangalore
women’s nonprofit organization that has scrutinized unnatural deaths for
most of the last decade.

Through a translator, she said that the police often fail women who
come forward with complaints of abuse. “The police are given training to
see that while dealing with family matters, they ought to make sure the
family does not break up and instead comes to an understanding,” she
says.

Of the 714 unnatural death cases Ramana investigated last year, she
determined that at least 150 of them were dowry-related.

Rampant domestic violence, she emphasizes, is the underlying problem
and a likely contributing factor to the other deaths. She believes
reducing the level of domestic violence requires encouraging women to step
forward and helping them once they do.

“Education is important,” Ramana says. “But we are also here to support
the women when no one else will listen or help.”

___________________________________________________________________