Barbarism Alert - One woman killed in India every hour - not enough money in dowry

Indian woman blinded and
burned in dowry crime

Bride burning and other related "dowry crimes" take the life of one woman in India every hour.

8,233 Indian women were killed in 2012 due to dowry-related violence.

Dowry deaths continue to rise year after year, as do crimes related to "cruelty by husbands and relatives".

A dowry, in this case, is the the money, goods, or estate that a woman brings through marriage to her husband and her husband's family.

Dowries have been illegal in India since 1961, but the law is largely disregarded at all economic levels of society. Even the highly educated demand dowry money.

The "problem" of dowry related deaths and violence is thought to be larger than the statistics show because many women and their parents are reluctant to seek

It's all about the rupees

prosecution for fear of a scandal that would destroy their other daughters' chances of getting married. In other words, no dowry - no marriage, or if you are cheap with the dowry money - no marriage.

Only one-third of those accused of killing women while trying to extort more dowry money from their families are ever convicted. The other two-thirds of women-killers in India walk free.

Women's rights activists report that marriages have become commercialized. It's like a business proposition where the groom and his family make exorbitant demands. And the wealthier the family, the more outrageous the demands.

As you read this, one women in India is being killed for money. An hour from now another woman will be killed for money. 

Pray for a change to this way of thinking. It is barbarous.  

Pray for the women of India.  

God help us. Amen.