Information on dowry harassment involving Sikh women in Punjab could not be found among the sources consulted by the DIRB.

Please consult the attachments for general information on dowry harassment and dowry burning in India.

The Associated Press (AP) attachment of 25 March 1995 refers to an anti-dowry mass wedding that took place in Punjab in February 1995.

For information on dowry in the Sikh community, please consult Response to Information Request IND18196.F of 19 August 1994, which is available at Regional Documentation Centres.

For general information on the situation of women in India, please consult Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1990 to 1994, which are available at Regional Documentation Centres.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the DIRB within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Please find below the list of sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

Attachments

The Associated Press (AP). 25 March 1995. Harbaksh Singh Nanda. "State-Sponsored Mass Marriage Allows Women to Avoid Dowries." (NEXIS)

Reuters. 11 March 1992. AM Cycle. "Indian Dowry Demands Kill More Than Punjab Revolt." (NEXIS)

St. Petersburg Times. 13 March 1992. City Edition. Reena Shah. "India's Invisible War Against Women." (NEXIS)

Women's Studies International Forum [Tarrytown, NY]. 1995. Vol. 18, No. 2. Linda Stone and Caroline James. "Dowry, Bride-Burning, and Female Power in India," pp. 125-34.

The Xinhua News Agency. 2 June 1995. "Most Crimes Against Women in India Unreported." (NEXIS)

Additional Sources Consulted

Amnesty International Report. Yearly. 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995.

Asian Survey [Berkeley, Calif.]. Monthly. January 1990 to present.

Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. Yearly. 1991, 1992, 1994, 1995.

Critique: Review of the Department of State's Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. Yearly. 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995.

Current History [Philadelphia]. Monthly. December 1989 to present.

Documentation, Information and Research Branch (DIRB), Immigration and Refugee Board, Ottawa. March 1995. Women in India.

_____. March 1995. India: Chronology of Events, February 1991-November 1994.

DIRB "Amnesty International: India" country file. January 1990 to present.

DIRB Indexed Media Review [Ottawa]. Weekly. December 1991 to June 1992, July 1994 to present.

DIRB "India" country file. June 1990 to present.

Encyclopedia of the Third World. 1992.

The Europa World Year Book 1995. 1995.

Foreign Report [Surrey]. Weekly. June 1995 to present.

Freedom in the World: The Annual Survey of Political Rights and Civil Liberties. Yearly. 1993, 1995.

Human Rights in Developing Countries Yearbook. Yearly. 1992, 1994, 1995.

Human Rights Watch Global Report on Women's Human Rights. 1995.

Human Rights Watch World Report. Yearly. 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996.

In Search of Answers: Indian Women's Voices from Manushi. 1991.

India Abroad [Toronto]. Weekly. July 1995 to present.

India Today [Delhi]. Fortnightly. March 1993 to present.

INS Resource Center, Washington, DC. April 1992. Information Packet Series: India: The Status of Sikhs.

Keesing's Record of World Events [Cambridge]. Monthly. January 1990 to October 1995.

National Human Rights Commission (NHRC). Human Rights Newsletter [Delhi]. Monthly. May to July 1995.

ODR-Bulletin d'information [Berne]. November 1990. "Inde."

Office of Asylum Affairs (OAA), Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, United States. February 1995. India: Comments on Country Conditions and Asylum Claims.

Refugees, Immigration and Asylum Section (RIAS), Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Australia. June 1994. Country Profile: India.

Stokke, Hugo. 1991. "India," Human Rights in Developing Countries Yearbook 1991.

On-line search of media sources.

Oral sources.
Note on oral sources:

Oral sources are usually contacted when documentary sources have been exhausted. However, oral sources must agree to be quoted in a publicly available Response to Information Request. If they refuse, the Response will read "no information currently available." Contacting oral sources is also subject to time constraints; for example, there are periods of the year when academics are unavailable.