About a month ago, 33-year-old Indian actress Twisha Sharma was talking on the phone with her mother when communication was abruptly cut off. Worried about their daughter, who had mentioned disagreements with her husband’s family, Twisha’s parents tried to call again several times, without success. Twenty minutes later, the actress’s mother-in-law answered and said the shocking phrase: “She is no longer with us”.
With divergent narratives, the episode quickly dominated the country’s news. While the actress’s family maintains that she was tortured and murdered by her husband and mother-in-law, both refute the accusations, claiming it was a suicide. Yet beneath the controversy, the case has brought to light a crucial discussion about a widespread but rarely highlighted practice in India: the violence that arises from demands for dowry, the often large sums that Indian parents pay for their daughters’ marriages.
Since Twisha’s demise grabbed the headlines, at least three other similar incidents, all linked to dowry, have been reported. Although it has been illegal in India since 1961, experts indicate that the practice remains deeply ingrained in the country’s culture. Data released in May by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) reveals that, in 2024 alone, at least 5,700 women lost their lives due to dowry-related violence. Despite being a lower number than the 7,400 deaths recorded in 2017, the average is still alarming: 16 women die per day, or one every 90 minutes.
In the same period, 12,300 incidents were registered under the Dowry Prohibition Law, in addition to more than 120,000 cases of “cruelty perpetrated by husbands and relatives”, maintaining a pattern of more than 100,000 episodes annually for more than a decade.
Sandhya Raju, founder and director of the Cochin-based Center for Research and Advocacy of Constitutional Rights (CCRI), pointed out that the most regrettable part is the way society accepts this patriarchal norm in the name of tradition and culture, with women being raised to internalize it. She added that even though illegal, dowry continues to be demanded under the camouflage of “gifts”, and the problem arises when these “gifts” are extorted, resulting in physical violence and cruelty.
The Sharma family reports that tensions began shortly after the wedding, in December. They claim that even though they provided the dowry, they were constantly intimidated by their daughter’s husband, lawyer Samarth Singh, and her mother-in-law, retired judge Giribala, who criticized the ceremony for not meeting their “standards”, an accusation the Sharmas deny. After Twisha’s death, the family released messages in which she described her life as “hell” and mentioned having been a victim of torture.
On the other hand, the Singhs questioned the actress’s mental health and generated public outrage by insinuating that the young woman, described by friends and relatives as “cheerful and generous”, was “promiscuous”. The case continues in court, with a Bhopal court extending, on Tuesday, the judicial custody of the two until June 30. Recently, Giribala filed several complaints about his treatment in prison and the media coverage of the case, suggesting the creation of a “parallel narrative” outside the judicial sphere.
How dowry-related violence remains structural in Indian society
Within days, reports of violence intensified. In Uttar Pradesh, the state responsible for more than a third of dowry deaths in 2024, 25-year-old Deepika Nagar died under questionable circumstances, and her family accused her in-laws of harassment. In Madhya Pradesh, the family of Palak Rajak, 21 years old and recently married, who died by suicide less than a year after marriage, alleged that she suffered continuous abuse, despite her parents offering her a car and 116 grams of gold at the wedding.
Amita N. Vyas, director of the Maternal and Child Health Program at George Washington University, noted that dowry-related violence has never been restricted to low-income or rural families. Cases like Twisha’s draw attention to a group often considered immune: educated, urban, successful women. Education can increase a woman’s earning potential, but it does not automatically change her in-laws’ view that they have control or ownership over her, nor does it prevent the dowry from being used as an instrument of domination.
Similar to Twisha’s case, Deepika’s family received a call from their daughter on the day of her death. Married for 18 months, she had allegedly been facing increasing demands and, that night, she reported having suffered physical attacks from her husband, father-in-law and other relatives. Her father decided to go to meet his daughter to try to resolve the conflict, but, hours later, he was informed that she had fallen from the slab — a version that is not supported by the autopsy, which revealed nine injuries compatible with blunt and repeated trauma. The young woman’s relatives claim that she was murdered and subsequently thrown from the slab. The police charged seven members of the husband’s family and arrested the husband and his parents.
Raju commented that the fact that she remained in that hostile environment, despite the harassment, suggests the lack of support from her own family, or that the family context did not encourage her to leave an abusive situation. She pointed out that, even today, many parents feel more comfortable with a deceased daughter than with a divorced daughter back home, especially if she becomes financially dependent on them or has children. When a daughter reports problems at home, the most common response is to encourage her to “fit in.”
Parents, added the director, often see themselves in a lower hierarchical position than their son-in-law and his family. In many cases, they already spend more than they can on their marriage, which also hinders women’s ability to report abuse. At the same time, the victim’s mother tries to comfort her by reporting that she has been through a similar or even worse situation, while, in the husband’s family, the mothers-in-law perpetuate the violent system. According to Raju, this dynamic occurs because only by following patriarchal norms do women achieve some degree of acceptance or autonomy within the family structure.
Vyas emphasized that one of the most painful truths about gender-based violence is that patriarchy does not manifest itself exclusively through men. She explained that this represents an adaptation to a system that values conformity and authority based on age and status, not proof that women are exempt from perpetuating harm. When women who have suffered under this system become its guardians, the intergenerational transmission of violence is maintained.
The Persistent Challenges in Eradicating Dowry Demand in India
With almost half of its population in their 20s, India is one of the youngest nations on the planet. This implies that most Indians were born in a country where the practice of dowry was criminalized. However, the law is repeatedly disrespected by families on both sides. In 2023, a study by economists Jeffrey Weaver of the University of Southern California and Gaurav Chiplunkar of the University of Virginia revealed that despite the increase in education and employment opportunities for men, the practice of dowry intensified: between 1930 and 1999, approximately 90% of unions involved a dowry.
Weaver explained to the BBC that, between 1940 and 1980, more men were obtaining educational training and obtaining better quality jobs, which drove the increase in dowries. He added that from 1950 to 1999, dowry payments amounted to nearly $250 billion.
At the same time, those seeking justice may encounter a slow and inefficient judicial system. An example often cited in the Indian press is the case of Satya Rani Chadha, an activist who launched the anti-dowry movement in India in the 1980s after the loss of her daughter. His son-in-law was only convicted in 2013, almost 35 years after the victim’s death. Among the main obstacles, Vyas highlighted the difficulty in collecting evidence of a pattern of cruelty that often occurs away from the eyes of third parties, in addition to family pressure on victims and witnesses not to take cases further.
Vyas said a good law on paper is worthless if the first police officer a woman approaches tells her to go home and “adjust.” She added that it is not possible to eradicate with a law a social norm that families still use to measure status and guarantee their daughter’s place in a new home. Legislation prohibited the transaction but did not confront the belief system underlying it. This is the challenge faced by women and girls across India and the world.