The Dying Statement

    My relative was posted in the burn unit of the capital’s hospital for a month or so. Luckily I had a chance to roam around with him for few hours for few days. During a conversation, he shared an observation, that ,in most of the burn cases related to domestic violence , the dying declaration of the victim changes .

Initially, the statement squarely blames the offenders, the man’s family but later the statement labels the incident as an accident.The reason being, the victim is emotionally blackmailed on multiple fronts.

• One being, to depart on a good note, the victim is stressed by an array of relatives to believe the event was, a mistake, a momentary lapse.
• Victim is told about the consequences of a police case - elders would be in jail , in that case , who will take care of her kids .If she complains it would have a corresponding effect on her kids . Both implicit and explicit .        

                The doctor in conversation believed, motherly love is the prime reason for the change in dying declaration. Here is the case of co-existence of best and worst of human behaviors .On one side, A mother’s decision to let go of her killers for her kids and on the other a “family’s” attempt to kill a woman in a uniquely grotesque fashion.

                Before we go gaga about women, it shouldn’t be ignored, the mother-in-law, a women herself would have been a partner in crime in all entirety. Also we shouldn’t forgot the gross mis-use of anti-dowry laws by the urban educated women .(Recently a SC panel has recommended to tone down the the law owing to its misuse )
                May be this needs to be looked from the paradigm of how and who we abuse. Who is a fair game and what makes the victim so. The Doc also told me, the tribals never come with such cases ( CG being a tribal state , the hospital concerned is in Raipur ) .It’s predominantly a caste specific phenomenon .Also, given the class divide, it being a govt. hospital, only people belonging to lower economic class were coming .,there are a large number of such cases in upper economic social circle and only a miniscule ever get registered.
               Add to it the nature of death, don’t under-estimate burns , they are one of the most painful ways to die You die slow , with a lot of pain in case you escape the spot-on death . If some-one gives you an option , keep this at-last . This was suggested by the doc ,as  a joke , a deathly sense of humor indeed .
           
Dowry death is a tragedy , our apathy makes it a statistic