DomainK Posted October 16, 2012 Posted October 16, 2012 Shocking incident really. Apparently they just decided to burn alive the mother and daughters when they were both asleep. The case has shocked India, a country where people have become use to reports of bride burnings and dowry murders - there are more than 8,000 women killed every year because their husbands' and in-laws' demands for lavish dowry payments are not met. What is particularly alarming is the attempted murder of a daughter and grand-daughter whose first birthday they had celebrated just weeks earlier. In Delhi's Safdarjung hospital, 13-month-old Idika's eyes peer fearfully out from her heavily bandaged face as she fights for her life, after suffering 55 per cent burns. Her mother Pravartika Gupta, a 25 year-old technology graduate, died in the hospital on Sunday shortly after making a statement to a magistrate. She told the magistrate that as they were sleeping in their room on October 6, a fire broke out just in front of their bedroom door and no-one came to their rescue. Her father-in-law suffered minor burns in the fire, but ran away from the hospital before police could arrest him. Both he and Pravartika's husband are now on the run after police said they would be charged with murder, attempted murder and making illegal dowry demands. Her uncles claimed Idika's father Ashutosh Gupta, a media event planner, and his father, a local government engineer, had been angry with Pravartika not only because their dowry demands had not been met, but also because they had wanted their first child to be a son. Idika's uncles kept a vigil outside the hospital last night as nurses treated her in an intensive care burns unit where she is being kept heavily swaddled in bandages and cooling gels inside a protective tube. Her uncle Rajesh Gupta said Pravartika had married Ashutosh Gupta in 2010 after the families had agreed a dowry payment of 1,200,000 Rupees (ŽÂ£15,000) and a Honda City car to the groom's parents. They had spent ŽÂ£15,000 on the wedding ceremonies, had paid 1,000,000 rupees (ŽÂ£11,700) in cash and were about to pay the remaining balance when the in-laws demanded a new apartment too. "They said they had given a flat to their daughter's in-laws in dowry and we should do the same. They are economically well-off but greedy," he said. "We bought gold and clothes for them on the baby's first birthday but they were not satisfied. A flat would cost between 30 lakhs rupees (ŽÂ£35,000) and a crore (ŽÂ£117,000). They said you got our royal family, you are not as good as we are. You must be proud to be our relatives and you must pay." Women's rights campaigners said the attack on a baby girl as well as a mother was "extreme" even in a country where people have become "desensititised" because of the high number of dowry deaths. "They were going to kill the mother and they didn't want the daughter. Then the man will marry again and get another dowry. With a child, someone has to look after it, and no-one wants the responsibility of a girl if it had a boy this would not have happened. It is appalling," said Ranjana Kumari of the Council for Social Research. Outside the hospital, Idika's shocked surviving relatives were trying to grasp how such barbarity could have been committed for money. "Why did he do this? He had everything, a beautiful wife, a beautiful girl, a prosperous house. What was in his mind we don't understand," said Rajesh Gupta.
diga Posted October 16, 2012 Posted October 16, 2012 Only if Nehru had made 14 year education compulsory instead of 5 year grandoise plans, hopefully, some of these incidents could have come down..
EnterTheVoid Posted October 16, 2012 Posted October 16, 2012 I never really understood the concept of a dowry. Dowries place great financial strain on the brides family to pay up.
DomainK Posted October 16, 2012 Author Posted October 16, 2012 Everyone in this case is educated. The groom's family even claims to be a royal family. The woman was educated and so were her parents. Still it happened. I can not understand why, on today's date, an educated woman would agree for a marriage based on Dowry. What is the use of education if she can not stand for herself and say no to such obviously dangerous decisions? The dowry amount was 12,00,000. That is a huge amount. She could have built such a nice career with such money. But she and her parents decide to give it away to greedy animals, knowing fully well what they are, and bought her a servant's post in their royal household.
DomainK Posted October 16, 2012 Author Posted October 16, 2012 Only if Nehru had made 14 year education compulsory instead of 5 year grandoise plans' date=' hopefully, some of these incidents could have come down..[/quote'] If you had watched Aamir's show, you would have known, education has little to do with dowry cases.
diga Posted October 16, 2012 Posted October 16, 2012 If you had watched Aamir's show' date=' you would have known, education has little to do with dowry cases.[/quote'] Ohh.. I meant culture/civic sense which develops from generations of educated people in a family/society not just 1 or 2 people.
DomainK Posted October 16, 2012 Author Posted October 16, 2012 Another thing I could never understand is why most dowry murders are by fire? Why do they mostly burn the bride? Why not a gun or a kitchen knife or strangulation or a push from a high floor?
beetle Posted October 16, 2012 Posted October 16, 2012 This has nothing to do with education.Most dowry deaths like these happen in non poor educated families.This is the accepted culture(dowry) in many communities. in such cases the girl and her family are also to blame. Why did they have the money deal in the first place?What kind of women need to pay money to get married and what kind of parents need to keep giving money to keep their daughter live and safe? As for the father...how does this effing excuse of a man get to marry and have a child.
beetle Posted October 16, 2012 Posted October 16, 2012 Another thing I could never understand is why most dowry murders are by fire? Why do they mostly burn the bride? Why not a gun or a kitchen knife or strangulation or a push from a high floor? Apne desh ka culture hai...
diga Posted October 16, 2012 Posted October 16, 2012 Apne desh ka culture hai... influenced by Sati & numerous films
beetle Posted October 16, 2012 Posted October 16, 2012 influenced by Sati & numerous films Dowry deaths and female feoticides have been happening before any films.It is a social evil that is part of the culture passed on to generations some times openly and sometimes veiled in the form of culture and traditions.
Tiger80 Posted October 16, 2012 Posted October 16, 2012 Another thing I could never understand is why most dowry murders are by fire? Why do they mostly burn the bride? Why not a gun or a kitchen knife or strangulation or a push from a high floor? To escape law.Acidents with gun , knife or strangulation don't happen in homes but accident of someone especially a woman catching fire in kitchen is possible
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