Date: Tue, 12 Aug 97 09:19:57 CDT
From: rich%pencil@UKCC.uky.edu (Rich Winkel)
Subject: "Kitchen Fires" Kill Indian Brides With Inadequate Dowries
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** Topic: "Kitchen Fires" Kill Indian Brides With Inadequate Dowries **
** Written 4:18 PM Aug 11, 1997 by mmason in cdp:headlines **
/* Written 11:03 AM Aug 3, 1997 by DEBRA@OLN.comlink.apc.org in hrnet.women */
/* ---------- "IND: 5,000 dowry deaths in India ea" ---------- */
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## author : gagliajn@netcom.com
## date : 23.07.97

"Kitchen Fires" Kill Indian Brides With Inadequate Dowries

From UPI. 23 July, 1997

[This article has been excerpted.]

NEW DELHI, July 23 (UPI): A UNICEF report says...at least 5,000 women die each year in India for not bringing enough dowry in marriages.

The report says today...at least a dozen women die each day in kitchen fires, which are often passed off as accidents, because their parents-in-law are dissatisfied with their dowries.

The Progress of Nations' report says...only a few of the murderers are brought to justice.

Although dowry is legally banned in the country, Indian customs stipulate that a bride's family should pay the groom's relatives money and gifts as a precondition to the marriage.

The traditional dowry system in India has led to female infanticide among poor families who cannot afford the enormous gifts required to marry off a daughter. The report says...the preference for sons, particularly in Asian societies, is another insidious force directed against women. Genetic testing for sex selection, though officially outlawed, has become a booming business in China, India and Korea.