NCJ Number
177916
Journal
Violence Against Women Volume: 5 Issue: 5 Dated: May 1999 Pages: 525-547
Date Published
1999
Length
23 pages
Annotation
This article critically analyzes suicide as self-directed violence against Indian women who have been abused within their marriages.
Abstract
The analysis involves case studies, suicide as reported in newspapers, and suicide in statistical accounts. Although suicide statistics for India show a higher incidence of suicide among men than women, it is women's suicide that is widely discussed in print media, within communities, and among families. The focus is on the suicide of young married women. Women's suicide is often viewed as closely allied to, if not synonymous with, dowry death. Dowry death refers to the intimidation and lethal violence against women by the marital family, which is ostensibly tied to dowry demands. Based on the author's ethnographic research in Maharashtra, India, she argues that women's suicide shows a pattern of internalized violence directed against the self due to violent abuse within the marriage. Women suicides in India are often perpetrated through drowning in rivers or wells and burning to death. For Maharashtra, Bombay, and Pune, there are more than twice as many female suicides by fire than male suicides by this method. All too often, the investigation of alleged suicide ends by reinforcing the social roles around the suicide; the police vindicate themselves and the marital family by the investigation, even though it may be incomplete and inaccurate. 18 notes and 30 references