In Bangalore, an average of one hundred women dies suspiciously every month. Every month. They die from ‘suicide’, ‘kitchen fires’, other unspecified disasters. Their deaths are called Suspect Deaths. Did they really die by accident, or at their own hands? Or did they die at the hands of their husbands, mothers-in-law, extended family members? These women die because they have not given birth to a child – particularly a boy child; they die because they can bring no more dowry money into their new family; they die because they are ‘having an affair’. Dona Fernandez, the woman talking to me, runs Vimochana, a powerful, activist, feminist, pro-women Bangalore agency. She laments that Indian men are SO insecure. “If you look at a man, you’re having an affair; if you come late home from work, you’re having an affair; if you talk to a man on the phone or on the street, you’re having an affair; if you take care of your appearance or wear a nice saree to work, you’re having an affair. For these reasons and more, women are murdered.
Did they kill themselves by hanging, or were they throttled and then hung from the ceiling fan? The rope may remove signs of strangulation. And what about those kitchen fires? As the story goes, women in synthetic sarees are cooking over a gas burner. They use the saree material as a potholder, and take the pot from the flame. Oops, the saree catches on fire! And in the kitchen, with water close at hand, they burn to death. Most of the women who die each month die from burning. How many fumble-fingered women can there possibly be in the kitchens of Bangalore? Lots, according to the families of the deceased. The most useful aspect of burning, of course, is that it removes all traces of beatings and other violence from the body.
I am stunned by Dona’s disclosure. And horrified for the women of India. This is Bangalore, high-priced, cosmopolitan, IT capital of India. I can’t stop myself, tears spring to my eyes. My very first thought: If this is happening in the literate South, where many people have at least some education, where jobs are more plentiful, where money flows and lots of people actualize their potential – what on earth is happening in the illiterate, corruption-ridden, uneducated, poverty-stricken North? How many women die in Bihar? In other Northern states? I can’t bear the thought.
Dona tells me that these murders are by no means confined to the poor. Affluent and middle class young women are also murdered by their in-law families. Underlying the violence is globalization, greed, commercialization, commodification and consumerism. A rampant consumer culture pervades India in the same way that it does the West. In India, dowry provides an additional source of revenue to meet those greedy consumer needs.
Of course, poor families are not free from greed, and they too attempt to raise wanted cash through the dowry system. When they fail, some women are murdered. The poor women who survive the initial attack are taken to the burn unit at Victoria Hospital, a government-run endeavor. In 1997, Dona and her agency first visited this hospital. They found women dying in filthy, appalling conditions; some lying on the floor, others on beds with sheets covered in the pus from their wounds. In this government hospital, where all costs are supposed to be covered, the staff demanded Rs.70 to change a bedsheet, Rs. 10 for an injection, money for each meal, money for filtered water, and on and on. The smell was unspeakable. Husbands and in-laws walked in and out of the ward freely, bringing germs and constant threats.
Vimochana staged a lengthy and noisy protest; government officials promised to act. There were minimal improvements, but three months later the place was right back to its previous state. This time Dona organized a hunger protest; for two days women sat in front of Victoria Hospital, rejecting food and water. Their protest garnered nation-wide press. The government caved, renovated the ward, provided adequate supplies, stopped the practice of charging patients, and allowed Dona to place two social workers on the ward.
These social workers, who still work on the Burn Unit, are particularly important in bringing the murderers to justice. When first admitted to the ward, most women are terrified and insist their burns are from a kitchen fire. After time with the social worker, they admit to being set on fire by a family member. Like all women who are the victims of violence, they are frightened and ashamed. But they are also brave, and most agree to make a Dying Statement to the Police. And then they die, burns covering 60, 70, 80% of their bodies.
One further comment. During the election the president of the BJP party celebrated his birthday in Lucknow, home of former BJP Prime Minister Vajpayee. Contrary to the Election Commission’s Moral Code of Conduct, he lured people to this ‘non-political’ event with the promise of free sarees. At the end of the party he announced that sarees were available at the gate. In the stampede for these Rs. 40 sarees – about 30 cents Canadian – 22 women died, countless women and children were injured. The news is still in the papers. The deaths were in the North; even the papers of the South continue to agonize. Don’t get me wrong, I’m horrified at the deaths of these women. I just wish there were some political gains to be made through exposing dowry deaths, other suspect deaths, and the ongoing violence against women in India.
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