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After over 16
years of reporting on significant political developments as The
Telegraph correspondent from Washington, Seema today has
something non-political and more humane in nature to talk about.
Using the tool she knows so well, the petite journalist has
attempted to bring the issue of dowry back in the limelight by
documenting the case histories of six dowry victims across the
country. Sita’s Curse, the first book of its kind,
traces the lives of women who have suffered the curse of dowry
and of their families, which fought legal battles for justice.
One of the cases
is especially significant for its contribution to the anti-dowry
law in India. This is the case of Delhi’s Satyarani Chadha,
who fought for 20 years to seek punishment for her son-in-law,
who had burnt to death his six-month pregnant wife. So long
drawn out was the legal battle that even the laws changed during
the course of the case proceedings. It was during the hearing of
this case that the IPC was amended in 1986 to incorporate
Section 304-B that, for the first time, defined a dowry death.
Although Satyarani finally secured a sentence of seven years’
rigorous imprisonment against her son-in-law, he actually served
only two months in jail, thus defeating the very purpose of the
law.
Seema Sirohi was
in the city recently on a private visit. She talked of how she
documented the cases that laid bare the pain of women subjected
to dowry violence in India. "This book is a detour. It
makes no pretence to anything academic and is purely
non-fictional in nature. The focus is on pain of betrayal and
abuse; on parents’ relentless fight against injustice; and on
the tardy legal processes that serve to aggravate the situation
rather than control it." Seema began researching about
three years back when her husband (who works with the US Foreign
Services) got a posting to Kolkata. "When I came here I
realised that cases of dowry harassment no longer merited prime
positions in newspapers. Even stories of dowry deaths were now
being pushed to the inside pages, reflecting a clear shift in
social priorities. Where earlier dowry was a principal concern,
now even women’s organisations were focusing more on the other
emerging problems like child abuse and female infanticide. I was
not comfortable with the idea of allowing dowry to be relegated
to the background. I had to do something to bring it back into
focus. Hence the book."
Seema used to sit
in libraries, flipping through newspaper clippings for hours.
"I picked up stories where the family had reacted and
sought legal recourse. There had to be some logic behind what I
wanted to convey. I also chose stories of courage exhibited by
some dowry victims in reconstructing their lives," said
Seema. After three years of extensive research that included
interviews with the families of victims, police officers
involved in the investigations, lawyers and women activists,
Seema came out with Sita’s Curse, published by Harper
Collins India Ltd.
A poignant account
of six victims of dowry, it deals with each case in a separate
chapter. The book begins with Mother Courage, the story of
Satyarani whose daughter was burnt for dowry by her husband.
"Satyarani invested all her money in fighting the case
which was dismissed by the police as a kitchen accident. Even
the Supreme Court dismissed the case, but she went back to the
trial court with a private complaint and fought the case again
for 20 years. Finally, her son-in-law, who was sentenced to
seven years’ rigorous imprisonment, served only two months in
jail," said Seema. The next story is that of Delhi’s
Jyoti Dhawan, whose husband was starving her to death for dowry.
She weighed only 21 kg when the Delhi police rescued her from a
hole of an apartment away from her home. Jyoti is now fighting
her case in a trial court. The next account is that of
Chandigarh’s Tikka Preet, whose husband drove her to suicide
for dowry. Tikka’s father Col N.S. Pandher is also fighting a
legal battle in a trial court.
To reaffirm hope
in life, Seema has also included the story of Karnataka’s
Archana, a dowry victim from America, who later became a lawyer
and helped other women in trouble. Besides, there is the account
of Mary Pierrera from Karnataka who walked out on her husband
who demanded dowry 24 hours before the marriage. The book wraps
up with the case of Maria Bee, who is still engaged in a legal
battle to secure justice for her daughter who was burnt to death
in 1998. Apart from showing how the victims faced a backlash
from the male-dominated system for trying to bring their
tormentors to justice, the book also shows how the perpetrators
of dowry crimes exist everywhere, irrespective of class, caste
and country.
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