TV3 looks at dowry abuse in New Zealand

TV3 has highlighted the story of a young woman left unable to speak, eat or drink after she alleges her husband forced her to swallow drain cleaner in a case of dowry abuse.

Shila Nair, Senior Advisor and Counsellor at Shakti said that with dowry, "The family of the bride is compelled to provide gifts in the form of cash or in kind to the groom and his family at the time of marriage".

TV 3 said, "In some families dowry is expected to continue throughout the marriage, marking festivals and holidays.

The practice was outlawed in India in the 1960s because if the groom doesn’t get what he wants, his wife is often harassed and in some cases killed so another bride and more money can be acquired.

In 2011 more than 8500 were killed because of dowry – that’s one bride murdered every hour. Incredibly though, the practice of dowry is not illegal in New Zealand."

The fully story can be viewed online:

'Forced to drink drain cleaner, alleges young migrant', TV3 3rd Degree, 24.07.2013

Image: Say no to dowry by Tara Hunt

Licence: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0)