Study of some socio-etiological aspects of unnatural female deaths at government medical college, Aurangabd

Crimes against women are increasing faster than the rate of general crimes in India. The male female ration is also declining. In Maharashtra, it has declined from 934 in 1991 to 922 in 2001 census. [8 districts less than 900 in 2001 as compared to none in 1991 ¹] To study the contribution of social conditions towards the main causes of unnatural female deaths this study was conducted from April 07 to March 08 at GMCH Aurangabad. Total 520 cases were studied. 65% of cases were from rural area, third decade was the most common age group involved, 68.1% victims were Hindu females followed by Buddhists 20% and 8.26% were Muslims. 83.7% of the cases were married women, 72.35% of cases were matriculate or less studied, in 51.7% of the cases occurred within 7 years of marriage. Burns was the commonest cause (49.5% of cases) and Most of the deaths 53.7% were accidental and 40.4% were suicidal in manner.