‘Woman opting for sati is a victim’

A woman committing sati may not face the long arm of the law. The move, of course, is not to encourage the evil practice, but out of humanitarian and social considerations and to treat a woman attempting to commit sati as a “vicitim” and not an offender. 

The government is considering major changes in the anti-sati law which, among other things, would treat the woman as a victim being forced to commit suicide rather than as an offender.

Sati is the practice through which widows are voluntarily or forcibly burnt alive on their husband’s pyre.

Giving this information to the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, union minister for Woman and Child Development Renuka Chowdhury said the government is considering amendments in the Commission of Sati (Prevention) Act, 1987. The Act, if and when amended, could hold the entire community for the crime and a collective fine could be imposed.

Chowdhury said the proposals included making the Panchayat functionaries responsible for implementation of the Act. In its present form, attempt to commit sati is punishable with one year imprisonment and a fine. Sati was banned in 1829 but due to resurgence it was banned again in 1956. The practice revived again, forcing the government to promulgate an ordinance against it 1987.