Greater Noida woke up from sleep after hearing the news of a young woman, 28-year-old Nikki Payla was burned to death in her house. Her husband, Vipin Bhati poured an incendiary substance on her and then set her ablaze, apparently while their young son looked on horrified. The child’s tearful words “Meri mumma ke upar kuch dala, fir unko chanta mara fir lighter se aag laga di” shows the heinous reality of dowry violence that still devours women all over India. Just hours before his arrest, Vipin went live on Instagram, sharing beaming videos with Nikki and his son, insisting he had been “wronged.”
This is not a singular tragedy. Behind closed doors in numerous Indian homes, dowry harassment continues to play out every day, often quietly, in despair, or death. As much as there have been decades of reforms through laws and campaigns, dowry remains a normalized practice, disguised as “gifts” or “marriage settlements,” but actually a poisonous bargain that commodifies women as chips to be exchanged.
Trigger warning: Visuals of domestic violence
Recently, the painful incident of Nikki Payla in Greater Noida has shaken society. According to NCRB data, more than 6,000 dowry deaths are recorded in India every year (an average of 16–17 daily)Uttar Pradesh has the highest number of such cases#YogiAdityanath #justicefornikki pic.twitter.com/Ck9FZth0Lm
— Avnish Dhama (@adgurjar9) August 23, 2025
Southern India too marks rise in dowry death cases
In Kerala, the memory of 24-year-old medical student Vismaya V Nair’s death still hurts. Married only for a year, she was found hanging after continued torture over dowry. Her husband, Kiran Kumar, was held guilty, but the recent move by the Supreme Court to order interim bail to him angered the public particularly as another dowry death was reported in Tamil Nadu almost at the same time.
Ridhanya, 27, had taken poison after sending desperate audio messages to her father: she could not tolerate the daily abuse anymore even though her family presented her with gold, a luxury car, and a crore-fiat wedding. The next victim was 22-year-old Lokeshwari from Ponneri who committed suicide when her husband asked for more gold and household items.
The brutality of dowry demands does not remain within India’s limits. In Sharjah, UAE, 29-year-old Athulya Sekhar from Kerala was allegedly beaten and strangled to death by her husband. Her mother asserted that she had been subjected to repeated assault attributed to dowry demands, and it is apparent that the shadow of this practice follows Indian families overseas too.
Back to Aligarh, the brutal reality of dowry exposes
State by state, the same dismal tale is narrated. In Aligarh, a woman was subjected to a hot iron torture before murder for unpaid dowry. In Pilibhit, another was set ablaze.
In Chandigarh, a young bride took her own life after domestic harassment. Wherever we go in Indian states, the story is the same: child marriage, continuous demands for money, gold or vehicles; mental cruelty and finally an act of violence.
What do the numbers tell us?
The statistics present a bleaker picture than the stories do. The National Crime Records Bureau reported in 2022, 6,450 dowry deaths. In this, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Rajasthan and Haryana reports 80% of dowry deaths. National Commission for Women has registered 4,383 complaints of dowry harassment in 2024 alone, and 292 dowry death cases. In metropolitan cities, there is no difference, and within the same period, Delhi accounted for nearly 30% of the dowry deaths of India’s metropolitan cities, followed by Kanpur, Bengaluru, Lucknow and Patna.
Each number hides a lost family, a silenced voice, and a lost future. Legislation exists in the Dowry Prohibition act of 1961, and Section 304B of the IPC, but the poor implementation, sexualized shame, and social complicity continues. So long as dowry is decked out as “tradition” and young brides are viewed as cash cows, these murders won’t cease.
The question now is not anymore if India has anti-dowry laws yes, it does. The question is, why, in 2025, are women still being murdered in the name of marriage? Why is dowry harassment a daily ritual in Indian homes? Until society declines to accept the normalcy of this, until families reject such marriages, and until the law is speedy and unyielding, Nikki, Vismaya, Ridhanya, Lokeshwari, and many more will continue to be tragic examples to a killing tradition.
ALSO READ: ‘Why Did You Do This?’ Accused Husband’s Instagram Post In Greater Noida Dowry Death Case Goes Viral
Sofia Babu Chacko is a journalist with over five years of experience covering Indian politics, crime, human rights, gender issues, and stories about marginalized communities. She believes that every voice matters, and journalism has a vital role to play in amplifying those voices. Sofia is committed to creating impact and shedding light on stories that truly matter. Beyond her work in the newsroom, she is also a music enthusiast who enjoys singing.
