Suspicious Deaths in Newly Married Females in the Southern Marathwada Region

Abstract

Though females are important pillars of our society, dowry deaths continue to be a burning issue in Indian society in low as well as in high economic classes for many years. The unnatural deaths of newly married females due to dowry are routine headlines of every newspaper. Dowry is a payment of cash or valuable gifts to the groom from the bride's family at the time of marriage. It has become a social menace in modern India leading to the cruelty of women which includes physical violence, causing financial and emotional stress on the parents of the bride, which leads to marital conflict. The purpose of this study is to observe the magnitude of unnatural deaths among newly married females. An observational study was conducted in Dr. S. C. Government Medical College, Nanded (MS) the period from February 2014 to July 2015. A total of 1726 medico-legal autopsies were performed during the study period, of which 347 (20.10%) were married females. In 149 (42.94%) cases, suspicious deaths among newly married females were observed, of which 90 (60.4%) cases were within 3 years of married life. The burn was the most common (63.76%) cause of death & most of them (60.40%) were suicidal in nature. In 30 (20.13%) cases, crime was registered for dowry death.