HARVARD GAZETTE ARCHIVES

Conference on Bride-Burning in India To Be Held at Harvard

By Alvin Powell
Contributing Writer

It is a hidden problem, like wife-beating once was in the United States, but bride-burning in India is a threat driven by greed and exacerbated by denial, according to Michael Witzel, the Wales Professor of Sanskrit.

Authorities on the problem from around the world are scheduled to visit Harvard this Saturday for a conference examining dowries and bride-burning in India. The fourth annual conference will feature India's Minister of Social Welfare and Empowerment, Maneka Gandhi. Gandhi's presence is an encouraging sign, Witzel said, since it is the first time someone from India's executive branch has attended the conference.

"We're lucky to have the minister here because ultimately [the work] has to be done [in India]," Witzel said. The current Indian government has taken some interest in the matter, he added.

The conference, sponsored by the University's Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies, the International Society Against Dowry and Bride-Burning in India, and the Saheli of India Association of Greater Boston, will be held in Boylston Hall and feature 16 speakers from as far away as Australia.

Harvard has hosted three of the four annual conferences. Last year's conference was held in London and the aim is to hold next year's conference in India, Witzel said.

The problem of bride-burning stems from the ancient custom of giving a dowry. In India the dowry is given to the groom's family to ensure the bride gets a good husband. The amount given as a dowry has increased over the centuries, Witzel said, to the point where today the bride's family often goes into debt, sometimes for generations, in order to put together the dowry.

In some cases, the bride can become something of a hostage as the groom's family demands more and more, sometimes exceeding the original agreed-upon dowry. If more money isn't forthcoming, the bride can suffer an "accident" in the kitchen, where kerosene used for cooking can be spilled on her and lit, Witzel said.

"The groom's family constantly asks for more, or the bride's family can't keep up with payments [of the original dowry]. If the pressure doesn't work, there's an 'accident' in the kitchen," Witzel said.

Part of the problem is that people don't want to acknowledge there is a problem, Witzel said. Women returning to their families out of fear are often sent back to their husbands' houses because people deny there's a potential problem.

"You can compare it to the battered-women syndrome in the U.S. - people don't want to acknowledge it," Witzel said.

A six-point program to end bride-burning was adopted at the first conference and revised at the next two. The program will be discussed again at this year's event.

It includes development of facilities for dowry victims, complete with telephone hotlines, and accommodations and counseling facilities. Other points include legal reforms, development of national support groups for students and parents, mass education campaigns, programs to address the economic roots of the dowry system, and the creation of loan funds so young men can pay off their parents for the cost of raising them. The goal of the fund would be to to stop parents of young men from seeking a dowry in the first place.

Speakers at this year's conference include Witzel, Indian Ambassador to the U.S. Naresh Chandra, Bishakha Sen of the University of Orlando, Chandana Chakrabarti of Elon College, and Werner Menski of London University.

Other speakers include attorney Manjaree Chowdhary of New Delhi, Mahesh Mehta, of Viswa Hindu Parishad, and Himendra Thakur of the International Society Against Dowry and Bride-Burning in India.