Behind every statistic is a woman, a family, and a system that keeps failing both.
Twisha Sharma, a 33-year-old actor and model, was found hanging at her marital home in Bhopal’s Katara Hills area on May 12, 2026 just five months after her wedding on December 9, 2025. Within days of that discovery, 24-year-old Deepika Nagar succumbed to multiple trauma injuries in what her family described as 17 months of sustained harassment for money and a luxury vehicle.
Two women. Two families torn apart. Two dowry cases in the same month. And yet, according to government data, these are not exceptions. They are the norm. India recorded 5,737 dowry deaths in 2024 alone, which means that while you read this article, the country is on track to lose another woman before the hour is out.
Who Was Twisha Sharma and What Does the CBI Say Happened?
The Central Bureau of Investigation took over the Twisha Sharma case following public outcry and registered an FIR against her husband Samarth Singh, a lawyer, and her mother-in-law Giribala Singh, a former district judge.According to the CBI’s investigation, Giribala Singh demanded Rs 2 lakh from Twisha’s family at the ‘vidai’ ceremony after the wedding.
The FIR was filed under Sections 80(2), 85 and 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), which replaced the Indian Penal Code in 2024, as well as Sections 3 and 4 of the Dowry Prohibition Act. The Singh family has denied all charges. They have publicly claimed that Twisha struggled with drug addiction, a claim her family has strongly rejected.
Is the Marital Home India’s Most Dangerous Place for Women?
The question sounds provocative. The data makes it unavoidable. The National Crime Records Bureau’s Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India 2024 report found that homemakers formed the second-largest group among suicide deaths in the country, with 22,113 deaths. Only daily wage earners, with 52,910 deaths, recorded a higher number.
Among women specifically, homemakers account for an overwhelming share of suicide fatalities. When millions of women give up careers, financial independence, and social networks to become homemakers after marriage, they enter a social arrangement that measurably increases their risk of death. Dowry harassment is a significant driver of that risk.
This is not a coincidence. It is a structural consequence of economic dependency, social isolation, and the absence of legal accountability for indirect harassment. For these women, the marital home is not a sanctuary. The data suggests it is something closer to an occupational hazard.
Are Dowry Deaths in India Actually Declining? What the NCRB Numbers Really Show?
Official statistics have occasionally been cited to argue that India’s dowry problem is improving. The claim rests on the observation that dowry death registrations peaked in earlier decades and have shown some nominal decline since.
But between 2023 and 2024 alone, dowry-related suicide cases rose 6.7 per cent, from 1,587 to 1,693 cases. When a woman is pushed to take her own life through sustained harassment for dowry, her death may be counted as a suicide not a dowry death, even if it is prosecuted as one.
The apparent decline in one category of dowry deaths may therefore reflect reclassification, not genuine improvement. The rise in dowry-linked suicides in the same period supports that reading.
What Is Section 80(2) of the BNS and What Legal Rights Does a Dowry Victim Have Today?
India’s Dowry Prohibition Act was passed in 1961. When the Indian Penal Code was replaced by the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita in 2024, legal provisions on dowry deaths were renumbered. Old Section 304B of the IPC, which dealt with dowry deaths, is now effectively captured under Section 80 of the BNS.
Key legal provisions in dowry cases (BNS and DPA):
- BNS 80(2) Dowry death: Death of a woman caused by burns, bodily injury, or unnatural circumstances within seven years of marriage, where she was subjected to cruelty or harassment for dowry. Prescribed punishment is a minimum of seven years, extendable to life imprisonment.
- BNS 85 Cruelty by husband or his relatives: Covers harassment of a woman that drives her to commit suicide or causes grave injury. This section is the primary tool used when a direct dowry death cannot be established.
- BNS 86 Defines ‘cruelty’ to include willful conduct likely to drive a woman to suicide or cause grave injury, and harassment linked to coercive demands for property or valuables.
- BNS 3(5) Common intention: Applied when multiple family members are accused of acting together in the harassment or crime.
- DPA 3 & 4 Dowry Prohibition Act Sections 3 and 4: Prohibit the giving and taking of dowry (Section 3) and penalise any demand for dowry (Section 4). Section 4 carries up to two years imprisonment and a fine.
One critical and often misunderstood feature of Section 80 is the presumption clause. Once a woman’s death within seven years of marriage is established and cruelty or harassment for dowry is shown, the law presumes the accused caused the dowry death. The burden then shifts to the accused to prove otherwise. In practice however, the rate of conviction remains low due to the challenges of evidence, hostile witnesses and delays in prosecution.
What Is ‘Streedhan’ and How Is It Being Used to Legalise Dowry in Plain Sight?
Streedhan is a woman’s legal property like gifts given to her, by her own family or others, that belong exclusively to her and cannot be touched by her husband or in-laws without her consent. It is a legally protected category and has been upheld by the Supreme Court repeatedly.
The problem is that accused families routinely use the language of streedhan and ‘voluntary gifts’ to reframe what is functionally a dowry demand in court. When a family demands a car, more and more gold rings, a refrigerator, furniture, before or during a wedding, the defence in court is typically: these were gifts from her family, offered out of love. Nobody asked. Nobody demanded it.
Courts have seen through this defence in many cases, but proving coercion behind a ‘voluntary gift’ remains extremely difficult, particularly when the woman is no longer alive to testify. The distinction between streedhan and dowry is legally clear. In practice, that line is where impunity lives.
At What Point Does a Dowry ‘Joke’ Become a Crime Under Indian Law?
One of the most underreported aspects of dowry-related domestic violence is how it begins, not with open demands or physical violence, but with a pattern of indirect comments, comparisons, and ‘jokes’ that build pressure over weeks and months. Legal experts call this the grooming phase of dowry harassment. It is actionable under BNS Section 85 and 86 even when no direct demand is made.
Here are some cases to the specific forms this indirect harassment takes, as identified by legal and social researchers.
‘It Is Not Dowry, It Is Love’: How Indian Families Rationalise an Illegal Practice?
The most sophisticated tool in the indirect dowry demand arsenal is not a taunt or a joke. It is the language of love itself. The phrase most frequently heard in cases where the bride’s family complies with a dowry demand is: “We gave it out of love, not because they asked.”
This rationalisation serves both sides. As a means of preserving dignity, the bride’s family reframes coerced compliance as a lesson in parental generosity. The in-law family maintains legal cover by ensuring no demand was ever formally made. Everyone agrees it was love. The woman caught between these two performances of affection has nowhere to turn.
The systematic use of the language of love to make illegal demands is one of the primary reasons, the Dowry Prohibition Act has produced so few convictions in over 6 decades.
What Needs to Change?
The Twisha Sharma case has several features that make it unusual: a high-profile accused, a former district judge as the mother-in-law, CBI involvement, and significant media attention. Most dowry cases have none of these. Most are filed in overwhelmed district courts, investigated by local police with limited resources, and quietly settled or abandoned under family pressure.
Here are some reforms that can help increase conviction rates in dowry cases:
- The first is faster investigation timelines, as evidence in dowry cases deteriorates quickly and witnesses turn hostile.
- The second is stronger witness protection for the woman’s natal family, who face social and sometimes physical pressure to withdraw.
- The third is mandatory psychological autopsies in all cases of unnatural death of a married woman within seven years of marriage.
Until those changes happen, the daily toll of dowry-related deaths will continue! That’s 5,737 a year. But each one is just a number in an NCRB table but it’s an unforgettable pain for a family.