India, March 10 -- Maharashtra's minister of state for home on Monday informed the legislative assembly that 799 cases were registered and 1,877 persons arrested under the Dowry Prohibition Act in the past five years. He added that the number of dowry-related cases had declined in 2025 and indicated that the government was open to introducing stricter provisions in the existing law.

The minister, Pankaj Bhoyar, replying to a calling attention motion raised by opposition MLAs, said that the number of dowry cases had fallen from 172 in 2021 to 138 in 2025. Admitting that budgetary allocations for awareness initiatives were inadequate, he said that the government needed to increase public awareness against the dowry system.

However, when B...