Know your law, lady!

Female Infanticide Law

Female infanticide is a distressing phenomenon in India.

The Indian Penal Code makes it a criminal offence to prevent a child from being born alive or to cause it to die after birth, if such action is not undertaken to save the life of the mother. Punishment for such action may be imprisonment for up to 10 years and/or fines.

The Indian Penal Code also criminalises child abandonment.

Finally, Section 318 of the Indian Penal Code makes the "concealment of birth by secret disposal of the body," whether such child died before or after birth, a criminal offence.

Such an offence is punishable by up to two years imprisonment and/or fines.

Child Marriage Law

Although personal law, incorporating family law, is governed by a variety of religious laws, secular law deals with the issue of child marriage.

Because early marriage is prevalent in India, the central government, as early as 1929, promulgated the Child Marriage Restraint Act.

The act makes the contracting of a marriage, where the boy is under 21 years of age and/or the girl is under 18 years, punishable by imprisonment or fines.

However, courts have held that the Child Marriage Restraint Act does not render legally invalid marriages that were performed in contravention of the statute.

Domestic Violence Law

Although marriage and divorce are permitted on grounds of cruelty or physical harm, a major domestic violence problem is that of dowry deaths.

Dowry - a custom in which the bride's family provides the groom's family with material goods and possessions - is widely practised by all Indians.

Often, if the dowry is not paid in full, the new bride is burnt to death by her husband and in-laws. Section 304B of the Indian Penal Code, promulgated in 1986, criminalises such "dowry deaths."