World Trouble Spots

^ In April 1989, Shalini Malhotra, 20, a Delhi newlywed, was beaten and doused in whiskey and then set aflame. Four days later, after accusing her husband, she died of her burns. Women's rights organizations were quick to label it a "dowry death," the murder of a newlywed because she does not bring enough money to the marriage. Before her death, Malhotra told authorities that her husband Praveen had been pressuring her family to give him money to start a business. Malhotra had resisted this request.

Her murder is cited as one of 110 such dowry deaths in Delhi last year, an alarming increase from the 17 reported in 1980. In recent years the ancient Hindu system of dowries and arranged marriages has taken on a gruesome commercial aspect. By custom, a bride's family is obliged to give cash and gifts to the groom in accord with his social standing. A lowly clerk, for instance, might command $5,000, but a physician or engineer $50,000. Fearful of the disgrace attached to unmarried women, a bride's family will often go beyond its means to secure a good home for a daughter. Such tribute can come in the form of television sets, refrigerators, VCRs or automobiles, and payments may stretch out for years. But when a bride's family has no avenues for raising money, a husband sometimes kills the woman, so that he is free to remarry and claim another dowry. Investigating police are usually more than willing to rule these incidents suicides: less than 5% of such cases ever result in convictions.

Surprisingly, these men have little trouble remarrying. "Girls are looked upon by their parents as burdens," says Gargi Chakravarty of the National Federation of Indian Women, who links the rise in dowry deaths to increasing consumerism in Indian society. "Modernization has not changed general views on women, whose status remains low and devalued," she says. "But at the same time, consumerism has brought increasing greed. The dowry system has become a convenient way of fulfilling greed for luxury items."

Praveen Malhotra, who denies killing his wife, is out on bail. According to a prosecutor, he will almost certainly be acquitted.