Bride Burning

Bride burning is a form of domestic violence, most common in South Asia, in which a bride is killed at home by her husband or husband's family due to his dissatisfaction over the dowry provided by her family. The act is often a result of demands for more or prolonged dowry after the marriage. Kerosene is most often used as the fuel. It has been a major problem since at least 1993.

This crime has been treated as culpable homicide and, if proven, is punishable accordingly, typically up to a death sentence or life imprisonment. Bride burning has been recognized as an important public health problem in India, accounting for around 2,500 deaths per year in the country. In 1995, Time Magazine reported that dowry deaths in India increased from around 400 a year in the early 1980s to around 5,800 a year by the middle of the 1990s. A year later, CNN ran a story saying that every year police receive more than 2,500 reports of bride burning. According to Indian National Crime Record Bureau, there were 1,948 convictions and 3,876 acquittals in dowry death cases in 2008.

Bride burning is not the same as the ancient custom of Sati, formally abolished in 1829, where a widowed woman was forcibly placed on the burning pyre of her dead husband (usually a man in his old age) and burnt to death.