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Photo Essay - Flames of Desperation

Photo Essay - Burning Brides of Bangalore

Women in South Asia - India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka - suffer the most deaths from burning of any in the world.

Official figures from the World Health Organisation show that in India, 12 women per thousand died from burns in 2000. This is the highest of any country .
The female patients in the Burns Ward of Victoria Hospital, Bangalore, India show the horrendous reality of these grim records.

Most of the women are burnt in their attempts to commit suicide. They see the only escape from their horrendous lives of physical and psychological domestic violence is to kill themselves. The easiest and surest way they have to do this is to burn themselves with kerosene.

However, the women will state that the cause of their burns is accidental. The reason for this is that attempting to commit suicide is illegal in India. Further, if the husband or in-laws have abetted a suicide then they have committed a crime.

These female patients come from mixed religions - Hindu, Muslim, and Christian. They are generally from lower middle income families and have had some education. The women are in love and arranged marriages and most have been married for less than seven years.

Case studies of some of the female patients at the Burns Ward at Victoria Hospital show a very personal and revealing insight into what these women have lived through, why they attempted suicide and what the future may hold for the few that do survive.

Victoria Hospital is a government hospital and covers a population of 6 Million people, in and around Bangalore.
In 2002, there were 854 female admissions to the Burns Wards of Victoria Hospital, Bangalore. Up to the end of September 2003, there were 657 female admissions to date this year. Seven out of ten of these females died because of their burns. Most of these burns are Kerosene fuelled

There are few methods available to women to kill themselves other than covering themselves with kerosene and setting light to it.
They have limited knowledge in methods that they could use, as well as access to them, most of the time they are limited to their home environment and surrounded by children.
A woman has daily-unquestioned access to kerosene and matches, for cooking. It is known that it is likely to be successful as a means to commit suicide, it is also quick and needs little preparation and premeditation and can be done at any time of day or night.

There is also a great importance of the purifying aspects of fire in Hinduism, poignantly, with Sita– who following her abduction, she proves of her fidelity and innocence to her husband by entering fire and not being burnt.
However, this may be a diversion from the real reason for the choice of self-incineration as the women who burn themselves come from mixed religious backgrounds and did not mention this aspect.

Educationally this may play a part along with the economic and social aspects. Women do not know what drugs and medication would kill them, also medication is sold singularly, and an accumulation of medication would be noticed both by the seller, the neighbors, also her husband, and his family economically.
Jumping from tall buildings is limited by access and availability.
Jumping in front of a train is difficult, as the children have to be looked after by someone and hanging around a rail track would cause suspicion. Hanging from a fan in the house is difficult and requires strength and time.

In India, if a woman has an unnatural death within the first seven years of marriage, authorities under the Dowry Prohibition Act 1961 automatically investigate it. There is a presumption that the death is caused by harassment by her husband and in-laws over dowry. Consequently, 70% of the female admissions at Burns Ward Victoria Hospital Bangalore are officially attributed to dowry harassment –though dowry rarely is a factor in the women’s death.