Gujarat round up: Dowry demands pushed 180 women to suicide in the past 3 years

Close on the heels of a  married woman, Ayesha, committed suicide by jumping into the Sabarmati river in Gujarat’s Ahmedabad two weeks ago, in connection with her husband’s constant dowry demands,  Gujarat state known to be “safe” for women has seen almost 180 of them take their own lives over dowry demands in the past three years, the Gujarat government revealed in the legislative assembly on recently  adding that the police have nabbed a total of 529 persons in these cases.

Replying to a series of questions put to the Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani by Congress legislators in the ongoing Budget Session, the home department said that a total of 178 daughters of the state had been pushed to commit suicide due to dowry demands.

The legislators had asked how many suicides were committed due to dowry in the three-year period ended September 2020. Surat district accounted for the highest number of dowry deaths with 53—44 of which occurred in the Diamond city.The police have arrested 152 persons in this regard but 10 are still free. Ahmedabad saw a total of 49 women committing suicide; where one woman ended her life in Sanand block, while all the rest were from the city. The Ahmedabad police have nabbed a total of 126 persons regarding the crimes, the Home department said. The third highest number of dowry-related suicides in three years occurred in Surendranagar district, where 26 women killed themselves.

Seventyseven persons have been arrested. Morbi registered eight suicides, Vadodara had six, Patan, four, Sabarkantha had three, and Jamnagar and Kheda each registered two suicides. Vadodara police registered the state’s only case of attempted suicide during this period. Nine districts—Devbhoomi Dwarka, GirSomnath, Mahisagar, Dahod, Panchmahal, Navsari, Gandhinagar, Botad and Anand—did not report a single suicide case due to dowry in this timeframe

At a time when politicians have polarized whole communities in their quest to garner votes or consolidate their vote bank, a Muslim Non-Resident Indian (NRI) businessman settled in the US has emerged as the torchbearer for helping out Hindu men who had been rendered unemployed due to the lockdown and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Janubhai Memon of Himmatnagar has proved to be a good samaritan for providing help to the underprivileged without discriminating on the basis of caste, creed or religion.Yogeshkumar Ratibhai Nayak, a resident of Brahmaninagar area of Himmatnagar lost his job post the lockdown periods and could not get another one with a regular income.Nayak used to collect Memon from the airport when he visited India. When he came to know about Nayak’s plight, he decided to call on other Muslim brothers to help Nayak set up a small grocery shop.Expressing his heartfelt gratitude for Memon’s help, Nayak said, “I had lost my job during the lockdown and was struggling to feed my family. Janubhai helped me stand on my feet again despite being so far away in America.

I don’t have words to express my thanks to him. Whatever he has done, setting up my shop, I do not think that nobody else would have done this for me and my family.”He added, “The place where I used to work before the lockdown, he also never called me to ask if I needed any help. But, Janubhai came to my rescue by sending money from there.I had been jobless for four months when he came up with the idea of setting up a grocery shop. He even bought me all the stock I have in my shop for sale. He is akin to God for me.”Memon’s actions have earned him praise from people of the city as well.

      Is this vibrant Gujarat? Ahmedabad, Surat emerging as crime capitals in the state

 Even as the Ease of Living Index named Ahmedabad and Surat among the Top 5 cities to live in, data revealed during the ongoing Budget session in the Gujarat Legislative Assembly showed that these two cities are emerging as major centres of crime in the state. On average, Gujarat has seen two murders, four rapes, and six kidnappings every day for the past two years, Minister of State for Home Pradipsinh Jadeja told the House. Most of these crimes were reported in Ahmedabad and Surat. As many as 1,944 murders, 1,853 incidents of an attempt to murder, 3,095 rapes, 4,829 abductions, and over 14,000 cases of suicide were reported across the state in the two years ended December 31, 2020, Jadeja said. He added that more than 21,000 incidents of theft and 1,520 incidents of loot were also reported in the state during the same time frame. Surat district led in terms of murder, with 280 cases, while Ahmedabad had the most cases of loot (479) and theft (5,566), the data revealed. Ahmedabad reported 620 rape cases, and Surat reported 465. Ahmedabad reported 211 murders and 347 attempts to murder while Surat reported 238 attempted murders. Among other crimes, Surat reported 701 kidnapping cases followed by Ahmedabad with 641. The Home department also admitted that 4,043 persons accused in these complaints over the past two years are yet to be arrested. This information was shared in response to the questions raised by different Congress MLAs during Question Hour recently

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