A Study of Socio-Demographical Profile of Dowry Death Victims in a Tertiary Care Unit of West Bengal

High incidence of unnatural deaths of young newly married females following disputes over the dowry is a dark spot on the noble tradition of our society. Sadly, awareness and education, particularly of young people and women, has not helped to control the situation. The aim of the present study is to describe the different pattern and socio demographic profile of dowry death cases. This study is a retrospective, observational Study which was conducted between July 2012 to June 2014 at the Department of Forensic Medicine & Toxicology, Nil Ratan Sircar Medical College & Hospital, Kolkata; where 216 cases were taken out of total 5589 autopsies conducted during the study period. Most of the victims of dowry deaths were aged between 18to 20 years (43%), religiously belonging to Hindu (67%). Joint family (83%) of lower socio-economic status (40%) in rural (58%) residence, housewife (73%) being educated up to primary school (55%) were predominant. Most common cause of death was due to burn injury (67%).