As many as 22 women are killed for dowry in India every day. During the last three years, 24,771 dowry deaths have been reported from across the country with Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh witnessing the highest instances of dowry deaths.
"Uttar Pradesh with 7, 048 reported the maximum deaths followed by Bihar and Madhya Pradesh with 3,830 and 2,252 deaths during the same period," said Maneka Gandhi, woman and child development minister in a written reply in lok Sabha.
Citing National Crime Records Bureau data, Maneka said that 8,233 dowry death cases were reported in 2012, 8,083 in 2013 and 8,455 in 2014 under section 304B of the Indian Penal Code (Dowry Death) in the country.
As per NCRB data, the country has recorded 3.48 lakh cases of cruelty by husband or his relative and West Bengal tops the chart with 61,259 such cases in past three years, followed by Rajasthan (44,311) and Andhra Pradesh (34,835).
In another set of data highlighting cases of atrocities against women, the National Commission for Women (NCW) has registered 16,584, 22,422, 32,118 and 9,786 cases of violation of rights of women in 2012-13, 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16 (till date), respectively Since April this year, more than 9,700 cases of atrocities against women, including domestic violence and rape, have been registered with the National Commission for Women (NCW).
Uttar Pradesh has seen the highest number of women rights violation cases so far this financial year at 6,110, followed by Delhi (1,179), Haryana (504), Rajasthan (447) and Bihar (256).
Giving details in the lok Sabha, Maneka said reasons for violation of women rights include "domestic violence, outraging the modesty of women, dowry harassment, property dispute, rape."
"The Commission has forwarded the complaints to concerned authorities and is regularly following up on the cases," said Maneka.
"Other actions taken by the government include enforcement and implementation of laws and programme for the protection of women such as Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005, Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961, Sexual Harassment at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 and women helplines," she added.
Maneka said that the Government conducts awareness generation programmes and publicity campaigns on various laws relating to women including Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961 through workshops, fairs, cultural and training programmes, seminars etc.