Marriage should be a beginning. For too many Indian women, it’s a countdown. We dress extortion as “tradition,” put it on a mandap, and then act shocked when the same ritual ends at a morgue. That isn’t culture. That’s a criminal economy with good PR.

The Week That Ripped The Mask Off

On August 21, 2025, Nikki Bhati died after being set ablaze in her in-laws’ home in Greater Noida. Her sister’s FIR alleges dowry harassment and names her husband Vipin Bhati and relatives; police have made arrests and are probing CCTV clips and prior assault complaints against him. The story has spiraled with competing claims (accident vs. murder), but the dowry-demand angle is central to the complaint and investigation. This is not gossip; it’s on record and under active probe. 

Two days later in Delhi’s Dwarka, a 22-year-old pregnant woman was found dead; her family alleges a dowry death just four months after her wedding. Police registered a case. Different city, same script. 

And it didn’t stop. In Amroha (UP), police booked six people after a woman was set on fire days after the Noida horror. Patterns aren’t anecdotes; they’re data with emotions. 

Numbers That Should Ruin Your Appetite

Strip away the hashtags and you’re left with this: 6,516 dowry deaths were reported in 2022, per NCRB. That’s roughly 18 women a day. Uttar Pradesh alone accounted for 2,142, followed by Bihar (1,057). These are not “stray incidents”; this is industrial-scale violence. 

Justice is slow and often toothless: in 2022, only about one-third of concluded dowry-death trials ended in conviction; over 60,000 cases were pending. Low conviction rates aren’t proof that women lie; they’re proof our systems stall. 

The Law is Tough on Paper. Paper Doesn’t Arrest Anyone.

India banned dowry in 1961 and criminalized “dowry death” under IPC §304B. Since July 1, 2024, the new Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) §80 replaces 304B but keeps the core: if a woman dies under unnatural circumstances within seven years of marriage and was harassed for dowry “soon before her death,” the law presumes culpability; punishment ranges from 7 years to life. In evidence law, a presumption regarding dowry death is carried forward as well. Translation: the legal architecture exists; our execution doesn’t. 

What’s Actually Broken (and Fixable)

Let’s retire the excuse that “our hands are tied.” They’re not. They’re just comfy.

  • Registration drag: FIRs get delayed or diluted as “ghar ka mamla.” This delay kills evidence and courage. Penalize non-registration in dowry-linked violence; measure SHO performance on time-bound FIRs. The data on pendency and weak convictions shows the cost of delay. 

  • Trials that outlive the outrage: Create fast-track tracks (90–120 day targets) for BNS §80 cases. Speed isn’t theatrics; it’s deterrence. (See again the 2022 conviction/pendency stats.)

  • Economic exits for survivors: Shelters, relocation stipends, and rapid protection orders matter more than moral lectures. Financial independence lowers extortion leverage; even research on financial inclusion links expanded banking to lower dowry-related cruelty and deaths. 

  • Visibility beats whispers: State dashboards that publicly track dowry-death FIRs, charge sheets, and trial timelines, district by district. If we can track potholes, we can track femicide.

“But misuse!” the Convenient Detour

You’ll hear about “false cases.” Courts and studies do flag misuse debates in 498A (cruelty) cases; that’s real and should be handled with due process. But turning misuse into a smokescreen while 6,516 women are reported dead in a single year is policy malpractice. Low conviction often reflects investigation gaps, hostile witnesses, and social pressure, not universal falsity. Balance is simple: protect due process and protect women from being burned alive. T

Perspective: stop romanticizing a shakedown

Dowry is not a cultural quirk. It’s organized extortion, enforced by violence, laundered by ritual, and subsidized by silence. When society tells a new bride to “adjust,” it’s not giving advice. It’s passing the lighter.

What Accountability Looks like Tomorrow Morning

  • Zero-delay FIRs + compulsory 24-hour evidence capture in unnatural deaths of married women within seven years. Body-cam norms for initial scene visits.

  • Automatic inquest + special prosecutors for BNS §80 cases, so they don’t drown in the general docket.

  • Cash-transfer safety net for women exiting violent homes, tied to speedy interim maintenance orders.

  • School and premarital counselling modules that explain what coercion looks like dowry demands aren’t “gifts,” they’re crimes.

Why This Moment Matters

In Nikki Bhati’s case, police are unpacking CCTV, prior complaints, and new video evidence while the dowry allegations sit at the core of the FIR. In Delhi, a newlywed’s suspicious death is under probe as a dowry case. In Amroha, another woman is fighting for her life. This isn’t the news cycle being dramatic; it’s the state of the union for Indian marriages that monetize women. 

Dowry deaths aren’t inevitable; they’re engineered. The laws exist. The numbers scream. The cases keep coming. If we don’t demand enforcement with teeth and put money behind survivor exits, we’re not observers; we’re bystanders.