Why are Indian women burning?
Five months after 19-year-old Anwari Begum’s wedding, her body was found charred beside two empty kerosene cans near her home in South Delhi, India. Years later, a court found Begum’s husband and mother-in-law guilty of her murder. Their motive: The young bride had not paid a large enough dowry. Fire accounts for 2 percent of all deaths in India, according to a report published recently in The Lancet by Veena Das, chair of the Krieger School’s Department of Anthropology, and colleagues from Harvard University. Women, most between the ages of 15 and 34, account for nearly two-thirds of those deaths, the study found. Indian women usually cook family meals, leaving them more vulnerable to kitchen accidents. But experts attribute most of the gender skew in fire deaths to dowry disputes and other forms of domestic violence. Although outlawed in 1961, demanding a dowry — even several years into a marriage — remains common practice throughout India. Some Indian women also practice hypergamy,
