A Study of Epidemiological Profile of Dowry Death Victims in Aligarh

ABSTRACT

Background: Dowry death is considered as one of the categories of most heinous crime in all the societies against the women in India. It is one of the important causes for the abetment of suicide and murder Methods: This retrospective study was done by Department of Forensic Medicine, J.N Medical College & Hospital in collaboration with district mortuary Aligarh during the period of 2 years from 1st January 2014 to 31st December 2015. Results: Amongst Out of 1015 female victims, 415 females died within 7 years of marriage unrelated to dowry and 52 victims died in relation or with demand due to the dowry. Most of the deaths occurred in the age group 18-25 years (65.53%). Maximum number of death occurred within first 3 years of marriage in 37 (71.15%) cases. Majority of married female victims were Hindu 39 (75.00%) and used to live in the rural areas (69.23%) belonging to joint family 32 (61.53%). Burn was leading cause of death in 18(34.62%) cases followed by hanging 16 (30.77%). So the strict laws and proper investigation is the need of hour to save our sisters and daughter from the devil of Dowry.