Satya Rani Chadha (1933 ca. – 1 July 2014) was a women's rights activist. She is known for launching the anti

dowry A dowry is a payment such as land, property, money, livestock, or a commercial asset that is paid by the bride's (woman's) family to the groom (man) or his family at the time of marriage. Dowry contrasts with the related concepts of bride price ...

movement in India in the 1980s together with fellow activist Shahjahan Aapa. Both women were mothers whose daughters were killed as a result of dowry disputes, and for decades campaigned for justice and to change dowry practices in India. Together they founded Shakti Shalini, a Delhi-based refuge and women's rights organisation and combating dowry-related and gender based violence. Chadha is a recipient of the

Neerja Bhanot Award The Neerja Bhanot Award is an award of recognition conferred up to once a year by the Neerja Bhanot-Pan Am Trust in India to a woman of that country subjected to social injustice, who faces the situation with grit and determination and extends help ...

Killing of Shashi Bala and battle for justice

In 1979, Satya Rani Chadha's twenty year old daughter, Shashi Bala (also known as Kanchanbala), died of severe burn injuries while at home, a victim of

bride burning Bride burning is a form of torture murder practiced in countries located on or around the Indian subcontinent. A form of dowry death, bride-burning occurs when a woman is murdered by her husband or his family for her family's refusal to pay a ...

. She had been married less than a year and was six months pregnant at time of her death. Chadha could not afford to give the full dowry request to the family of her daughter's husband, which included demands for a scooter, a television, and a refrigerator. Still, Chadha managed to pay some money towards the television and gave a refrigerator. Even so, two days before her daughter's death, Chadha's son-in-law, Subhash Chandra, warned her of dire consequences if the demand for the rest of the dowry (the scooter) was not met. He denied involvement with the death, but suspecting her daughter was killed due to the partly unfulfilled dowry request, Chadha reported the death as murder. The police neglected to gather basic evidence and charged Chandra not with murder, but under the Dowry Prohibition Act. This led the Supreme Court to rule in 1980 that because Chandra's demands for a scooter came ten months after the marriage, it could not be connected to the death. Chadha continued to pursue a suit for murder, but it took until 2000 for the case to be heard in court. Chandra was eventually convicted of the lesser charge of abetting a suicide in 2000. On appeal his conviction was upheld in 2013, and was ordered to serve a seven-year sentence. He failed to hand himself in and has not served the sentence.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chadha, Satya Rani Indian human rights activists Indian women human rights activists 1929 births 2014 deaths