From: vtg1714@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Viswanath Tirupattur )
Subject: Violence Against Women - A report of APCLC
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Fri, 21 Aug 1992 04:47:04 GMT

The Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee (APCLC) has come out with a
systamatic analysis of the violence against women, by focussing on the
dowry deaths and harassment of women in and around the city of Vishakapatnam
during the years  1989 and 1990. 

The following is a summary of the report.  

31 cases of dowry deaths and 104 cases harassment of women have been         
registered in and around the city during 1989 and 1990.  

Some background of the victims is helpful in analyzing the issue.  

Age Distribution:

     Years                  Deaths          Harassments

     15-20                    8                  27
     21-25                    8                  37
     26-30                    8                  24
     31-35                    4                   7
     36-40                    -                   3
     Age not recorded         3                   6

     Total                   31                 104

Education:

     Illiterate               9                  40
     Primary school           6                  11
     Secondary school        13                  34 
     Collge                   3                  19

     Total                   31                 104

Occuaption:

     Employed                 4                  11
     Housewives              27                  93

     Total                   31                 104


It may be seen that an overwhelming majority of the women who died or were
harassed were young, had little education and were housewives.  Most of these
victims were in the first few years of their marriage.  Of the accused, most of
them were skilled/semi skilled workers in case of the deaths and employees in
the services sector accounted for the bulk of the accused in cases of          
harassment.  

Of the 31 cases of death registered, by March 1991, 6 cases have been tried,
24 are pending trial and 1 case is still under investigation.  Of the 104
cases of harassment (that includes cruelty towards the victims), only 8 
cases have been tried, 84 are pending trail and 12 are still under 
investigation.  

The specific sections of the Indian Penal Code under which these cases have
been registered is also very revealing.  Sections 304 B and 498 A are two
comprehensive sections specifically dealing with unnatural deaths and domestic
violence respectively.  Punishments under these sections entail stiffer 
punishments.   Of the 31 cases of deaths, 17 have been regsitered under the
section 306 (abettment to suicide - max sentence of 10 years of imprisonment),
10 under 304 B (min sentence 7 years and max sentence life imprisonment) and 4
cases under section 302 (murder - max sentence being capital punishment). 
Note that despite the availability of a special section that deals specifically
with dowry deaths, over half the cases were booked under another section that
attracts a lighter penality.  

The functioning of the judiciary is also revealing.  The table below gives the
number of convictions and acquitals.  

Deaths:   
  
      Section       # of charges     # of acquitals       # of convictions

	304 B            3                  2                   1
	306             12                 11                   1

	Total           15                 13                   2

Harassments:

	498 A           16                 15                   1
	   
(Note: The number of charges does not correspond to the number of cases tried
       because of instances of multiple charges in some cases)

Most of the acquitals have been on account of the insistence of the judiciary
on direct evidence rather than circumstantial evidence even in cases of
unnatural deaths.  

There are no support and shelter facilities in the city to help women being
harassed to walk out, leaving the mostly helpless women to bear the cruelty 
silently and endure the abuse of their fundamental right to live. 

					 
Vishwanath