井戸から３姉妹の遺体、結婚持参金めぐる虐待で自殺か　インド

【ジャイプールＡＦＰ＝時事】インド西部ラジャスタン州ジャイプール郊外の村で５月、井戸から３姉妹とその子どもたちの遺体が見つかった。姉妹は、親が娘を結婚させる際に支払う持参金「ダウリ」の犠牲者だ。（写真はインド西部ラジャスタン州で、生家に飾られた亡くなった３姉妹の写真。左からマムタ・ミーナさん、カルさん、カムレーシュさん、カルさんの息子）
　姉妹の生家によると、３人は同じ家族の兄弟と結婚し、同居していた。姉妹の父親が、要求された通りの持参金を支払えなかったため、夫や義理の家族から日常的に暴力を振るわれていたという。
　カルさん、カムレーシュさん、マムタ・ミーナさんの３人は、嫁ぎ先の家の近くの井戸の中で死亡していた。カルさんの４歳の息子と赤ちゃんも一緒に遺体で見つかった。カムレーシュさんとマムタさんは妊娠していた。
　３姉妹の一人は亡くなる前、いとこに「死にたくないけど彼らに虐待されるよりはまし」というメッセージをワッツアップで送っていた。「私たちが死を選んだのは義理の家族が理由。毎日死ぬ思いをするよりは、一緒に死んだ方がいい」と書いてあった。
　ジャイプールの警察幹部はＡＦＰに対し、３姉妹が自殺したとみて捜査を行っていると述べた。
　姉妹の父親サルダール・ミーナさんは動揺した様子で、３人は生き地獄を味わっていたとＡＦＰに語った。学業を続けたいと望んだが夫は許さず、持参金をもっと支払うよう嫌がらせを繰り返したという。
　婚家には、ベッド数台やテレビセット１式、冷蔵庫１台など多くの物品を収めていたと述べた。「彼らの家を見れば分かる」
　ミーナさんは農民で、収入はわずかだ。「娘が６人いる。渡せるものには限りがある」と訴えた。
　警察は、持参金をめぐる嫌がらせと配偶者虐待容疑で、３人の夫と義理の母親、姉妹の５人を逮捕した。
　ＡＦＰは夫側の親族に取材を試みたができなかった。

■「家族の尊厳」
　インドでは、６０年以上前に持参金の支払いが違法化され、支払いをめぐる嫌がらせや強要は犯罪となった。
　だが、特に農村部では今でも持参金が支払われている。女性を経済的負担とみなし、嫁として迎え入れる見返りを要求するという社会的慣習がそれを支えている。
　インドでは離婚がタブー視されており、離婚率はわずか１００組に１組にとどまっている。このため、既婚女性は虐待されていても離婚をためらうことが多い。
　３姉妹の家族も虐待に気づいてはいたものの、離婚は選択肢になかった。
　ミーナさんは「一度結婚をしたら、家族の尊厳を守るため、嫁ぎ先にとどまるべきだ」と述べた。「再婚させて、その家の状況がもっとひどかったらどうすればいいというのか。私たちの面目がつぶれてしまう」
　国家犯罪記録局（ＮＣＲＢ）によると、２０２０年には７０００人近い女性が持参金絡みで殺害された。１日当たりおよそ１９人に上る。同年の「持参金に関する問題」で自殺した女性は１７００人以上に上る。
　これらは警察に通報があった人数で、他の家庭内暴力のデータを踏まえると実際の死者数ははるかに多いと専門家は指摘する。
　「自由権のための人民同盟（ＰＵＣＬ）」の活動家、カビタ・スリバスタバ氏は「１時間に約３０～４０人の女性が家庭内暴力の犠牲になっている。警察に届け出があっただけでもだ。実際はもっと多い」と述べた。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2022/06/16-15:16）

Before the three sisters and their children were found dead in a well, they left a message blaming the family they had married into.
Kalu, Kamlesh and Mamta Meena were victims of a dispute over dowries, the often hefty sums Indian parents pay to marry off their daughters.
The sisters had wed brothers from the same household and lived under the same roof, but suffered constant violence from their husbands and in-laws, according to the trio's grieving relatives.
They were abused constantly, they say, including when their father failed to meet demands for more money.
All three were found dead last month near their marital home, a village on the outskirts of Jaipur, along with Kalu's four-year-old son and infant child. Both Kamlesh and Mamta were pregnant.
We don't wish to die but death is better than their abuse, read a message on WhatsApp left by one of the sisters after their disappearance, a cousin said.
Our in-laws are the reason behind our deaths. We are dying together because it's better than dying every day.
Authorities are investigating and currently treating the deaths as suicides, a senior police officer in Jaipur told AFP.
The sisters' distraught father, Sardar Meena, said life had been a living hell for his daughters, whose husbands banned them from pursuing their education and constantly harassed them for more payments.
We had already given them so many things, you can see them in their home, he told AFP, counting off the beds, television sets and refrigerator he provided to the family.
I am the father of six girls, there is a limit to how much I can give, added Sardar, who earns a meagre income as a farmer.
I had educated them and just doing that was difficult.
Police have arrested the three husbands, their mother and a sister-in-law on charges of dowry harassment and spousal abuse.
AFP's attempts to contact the men's family were unsuccessful.
- 'Dignity of the family' -
India outlawed the practice of paying dowries more than 60 years ago, and harassment or extortion over the payments is a criminal offence.
But the custom persists, particularly in rural areas, undergirded by social conventions that treat women as an economic burden and demand compensation for accepting them as brides.
Local news outlets regularly report on marital property disputes that end in murder.
Last year, a man in the southern state of Kerala was jailed for life after using venomous snakes to murder his wife and take sole control of their property, which included a new car and 500,000 rupees ($6,500) provided by her family as dowry.
Courts have also been punitive in their treatment of dowry harassment, last month jailing a man in Kerala for 10 years after his payment demands were blamed for driving his wife to suicide.
A pervasive taboo around divorce -- only one in 100 Indian marriages end in dissolution -- has kept married women from contemplating escape from abusive situations.
For the Meena sisters, leaving was never seen as an option, even though their relatives were aware of the violence.
Once they were married, we thought they should remain in their marital homes, to maintain the dignity of the family, Sardar said.
If we had gotten them remarried in another home, and if that situation turned out to be worse, then what will we do? We'll lose face.
- 'End of the road' -
India's National Crime Records Bureau recorded nearly 7,000 dowry-related killings in 2020 -- around 19 women every day.
The same agency reported that more than 1,700 women killed themselves that year over dowry-related issues.
Both figures are dependent on reports to police, and experts say the actual number of cases is much higher, as with other data on family violence.
In an hour, some 30 to 40 women are victims of domestic violence... and these are just documented (cases), so it must be much more than that, Kavita Srivastava, an activist with India's People's Union for Civil Liberties, told AFP.
Srivastava said the dowry dispute involving the Meena sisters was just one part of their tormentors' efforts to control their lives and restrict their independence.
The fundamental cause, she added, was a widespread social acceptance of domestic violence in India that leaves women feeling trapped in oppressive and violent relationships.
If even one woman has to kill herself because her marital life seems like the end of the road, she said, I feel the Indian state has failed for those women.