India, May 27 -- In the hallowed halls of the Supreme Court this week, a singular sentence pierced through the dense legal jargon of the dowry death case, refocusing the national lens on the precarious state of marriage in India. "A divorced daughter is better than a dead one," remarked solicitor general Tushar Mehta. Also read | 43-year-old unmarried Indian woman living alone gets honest about being single by choice: 'In love with my freedom'

It was a blunt, sombre acknowledgement of a national crisis: India reportedly recorded 5,737 dowry deaths in 2024. For many women, the marital home - often romanticised as a sanctuary - has become a site of terminal endurance.

Dr Pretty Duggar Gupta, a consultant psychiatrist at Aster Whitefield H...