The Human Development Report for 1995 published by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) made a striking revelation that there was not a single country where women enjoyed equality with men.

Hoardings put up by the traffic police at prominent places along Bangalore’s traffic-congested road exhort reckless drivers to go slow. Grim statistics loom over traffic snarls – 704 men and women died in traffic accidents in the city in 1997, 726 in 1998 and 168 until June 1999.

It was in Deorala village in Rajasthan on September 3, 1987 that the last incident of sati was reported. Then an 18-year-old Roop Kanwar had committed sati by jumping into the funeral pyre of her 23-year-old Rajput husband, Maal Singh.

It is unfortunate that a measure of confusion has set in about the precise nature and ramifications regarding the immolation - whether self, sati, or otherwise of the 55-yearold Charan Shah on the funeral pyre of her husband at Satpura in Uttar Pradesh on November 11.

The self-immolation by Charan Shah on the funeral pyre of her husband in a remote hamlet in Mahoba district in Uttar Pradesh has elicited a spate of articles dealing with the practice of Sati. Of these, a number of articles by Ms.

The available literature on evolution of Indian culture and civilization reveals that although the ancient writers pretended to record their revered admiration for the womanhood yet in actual practice women have always been suppressed and exploited by the dominant male members of the society.

As with Bhanwari Devi, gross injustice was committed in the Roop Kanwar sati case, when yet another session court in Rajasthan, acquitted all 32 of the accused in October last year.

Dowry has been a widespread social evil among the Hindus. Now it has spread to other communities also such as Muslims and Christians as well. The Parliament passed the Dowry Prohibition Act 1961 with a view of eradicate the rampant evil.

This study seeks to keep alive the struggle for justice by recapturing the process involved in three cases WARLAW [1]has conducted in the courts.

Prior to 1983, every form of violence committed within the family, either in the natal or the spousal home, was not considered an offence.