Behind closed doors, women in Goa are tortured for dowry TEAM HERALD
Behind closed doors, women in Goa are tortured for dowry Two suspected dowry deaths in a week shock State TEAM HERALD [email protected] PANJIM: Suvarna Naik and Rashika Kuttikar’s deaths due to suspected dowry harassment and branded as suicides, has taken the lid off Goa’s pretensions of being a progressive gender equal State. Herald has learnt that more and more women are struggling to combat this dowry menace in all parts of the State. In the past fortnight, a leading NGO fighting for women’s rights Bailancho Saad received three complaints from harassed married women and their relatives. In the first case, a girl in her twenties, from a rural taluka was prevented from meeting her parents till their increasing dowry demands were met. It was only when neighbours approached a NGO saying that she was depressed and suicidal that it went and “rescued” the girl and sent her to her parents. In the second, a Government servant joined his parents in harassing his wife. The girl was a minor when she got married, with the marriage not being registered. The harassment for dowry reached its peak after she had a baby. The NGO is now fighting a case against the in-laws and husband of the girl. In the third case, which proves that time doesn’t stop harassments, a mother of four is still being pressurized to get more dowry. Her husband and in-laws have been constantly after this woman in her mid-thirties for property. These cases may or may not be in the official ambit but it’s clear that the official record of 21 dowry harassment cases booked in 2009 and 17 in 2010, are nowhere near the overall reality. Goa is no different from any other State where its married women are harassed, tortured and either killed or forced to end their lives. The two suspected dowry related deaths reported in less than a week of Suvarna Naik and Rashika Kuttikar also drives home the point that social standing sometimes is directly proportional to the harassment. Naik’s in-laws are well known businessmen in Panjin and her wedding was attended by the Panjim MLA Manohar Parrikar. Rashika’s husband Guruprasad Kuttikar is a Home Guard with the Goa police. Sabina Martins, noted women’s rights activist said that the degree of harassment is increasing. “We had cases of dowry harassment earlier that was restricted to taunting. But in the recent years, we are witnessing that there is physical violence on women and even torture to the extreme level”, she said. “There were rarely any cases of suicides. But, recently, it is coming to fore with two dowry-related deaths reported now. People are still reluctant to open up until the violence is extreme. There is much more happening but because it becomes unbearable, the matters are reported to NGOs”, Martins added. Auda Veigas, who heads women’s group Bailancho Saad says that authorities need to stringently act against the ‘evil practice’. She demanded that a woman’s death in the husband’s house be treated and investigated as a case of murder. Former chairperson of the North Goa Zilla Panchayat, Amol Morajkar said “Parents should not bow down to dowry demands and report the matter to the police immediately as such greedy people need to be exposed. Girls should refuse marrying such boys and expose them in public”, Morajkar said. Goa State Women’s Commission, which is flooded with such cases, said that any such complaint should also be filed under Domestic Violence Act. For the married women of Goa, the reality that horror lies in the next room or even on the same bed, has been driven home. -- DEV BOREM KORUM Gabe Menezes.
