A Sikh mother-in-law has been ordered by a UK court to pay her young daughter-in-law £35,000 in damages for making her life a ‘living hell’
LONDON: A Sikh mother-in-law has been ordered by a British court to pay her young daughter-in-law £35,000 in damages for making her life a ‘living hell’ during the four months she lived in her marital home.
This is the first time a mother-in-law has been sued in the UK under the 1997 Harassment Act that is generally used for stalkers.
26-year-old Gina Singh told a court that her domineering mother-in-law Dalbir Kaur Bhakar subjected her to bullying, isolation, humiliation and mental torture so much so that she became seriously ill after entering into an arranged Sikh marriage.
Singh, who was 22 at the time of her marriage to Hardeep Bhakar, willingly came to live with her in-laws in Ilford, Essex only to be treated like a slave by her mother-in-law. The young bride was made to work 17-hours a day in the house beginning from 6.30 am every morning.
Among other menial household chores she was made to clean the toilets with her hands. Gina Singh’s contact with her family and the outside world was restricted to only one supervised phone call to her parents in Nottingham in north England each week.
Her mobile phone was taken away by her in-laws and she was not allowed to watch television, listen to the radio or read newspapers.
Singh was also not allowed to go out on her own and was not allowed to even go to the local gurudwara. Bhakar made Singh bleach her skin because she considered her daughter-in-law to be too dark and also forced her to cut her hair into a shoulder length bob, knowing fully well that Singh was a devout Sikh.
“I look back now and I can’t understand how I survived those four months being treated like a slave,” said Singh. She fled her marital home in March 2003 and got divorced in 2004 and is now living with her parents and working in the family’s fashion business.
“Gina Singh was utterly miserable and wretched during those months and was suffering from what was for her an incomprehensible personal attack,” said Recorder Timothy Scott, who awarded damages to the daughter-in-law, accepting that she had endured ‘misery and humiliation’.
“We were happy together. Arranged marriages do work if there’s no interference from in-laws, especially mother-in-laws,” said Singh of her ex-husband and her marriage.
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