Why Are India’s ‘Modern’ Homes Still Deadly for Women?

India is a vast country with a tapestry of traditions rooted in historical, socio-economic and religious factors. Yet across this diversity one constant endures: women carry the heaviest burden, mentally, physically and emotionally. Stories of in-laws harassing or harming daughters-in-law are tragically familiar. Now, an alarming rise in daughters being killed by their own families has emerged.

Two recent cases, Nikki Bhati and Radhika Yadav, are a chilling reminder. Both women lived in “modern” urban spaces, were educated and appeared to “have it all.” Yet their murders reveal how deeply patriarchal control still shapes women’s lives and deaths. Urban cities are often imagined as liberated from the pressures of tradition, but for many women this is a façade. In conservative regions, “honour killings” are explained as a response to caste transgressions. In cities, is the motive any less deadly or just harder to name?

The Case of Nikki Bhati

Thirty-year-old Nikki Bhati came from a well-to-do Gurugram family and moved in Delhi’s high-society circles. Married to Vipin Bhati in 2016, she endured relentless dowry harassment despite repeated payments from her parents. She returned to her family multiple times, only to go back under social pressure and Vipin’s false promises to change.

On 21 August 2025 Nikki was allegedly burned alive by her husband and in-laws. Her six-year-old son told police he saw his father and grandparents pour a substance on his mother before igniting it. CCTV footage shows an unknown man rescuing Nikki and rushing her to hospital; she later died of her injuries.

Vipin attempted to escape police custody by trying to grab an officer’s gun and was shot in the leg. He has expressed no remorse, framing his wife’s ambitions, such as making reels and running a parlour, as unacceptable in their family. He claims Nikki committed suicide, yet police recovered thinner bottles allegedly used to burn her. A case has been registered against Vipin and his parents under Section 103 (murder), Section 115(2) (voluntarily causing hurt), and Section 61(2) (criminal conspiracy) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).

The Case of Radhika Yadav

On 10 July 2025, 25-year-old Radhika Yadav, a former state-level tennis player, was shot five times at point-blank range by her own father, Deepak Yadav, in their Sushant Lok home in Gurugram. She took three bullets in the back and one in the shoulder. Police later recovered the last live cartridge at the scene.

Radhika coached young tennis players, maintained a social media presence and aspired to be an influencer. These ambitions became points of conflict with her father. She reassured him she would never disgrace the family, yet Deepak reportedly felt mocked by his social circle for her clothes, her posts and the perception that he lived off her income, a normal dynamic in many families. Financially, Deepak was independent, earning from rental properties. But social taunts, combined with control over his daughter, proved fatal.

Initially, the public believed Radhika owned a tennis academy. Police later denied this claim. Her uncle told the press Deepak admitted he had “committed a sin” but also boasted of spending crores on her career.

Radhika’s longtime friend, tennis player Himaanshika Singh Rajput, posted videos calling it a premeditated murder. She alleged the father had recently bought a new revolver, locked the mother in another room, sent the brother out and kept the dog outside. Her videos drew a disturbing wave of men defending the father, arguing he “knew best” and “did it for her good.” They were defending a murderer.

The Numbers Behind the Horror

These are not isolated crimes. In a 2016 study, Honor Killings in India: A Study on the State of Uttar Pradesh, Anuradha Parasar found fathers were the perpetrators in 27% of cases and brothers in 17%. Forty-eight percent of killings were triggered by family intolerance of relationships. Uttar Pradesh alone accounted for 60% of India’s honour killings.

Official statistics barely capture the scale. In 2021, the National Crime Records Bureau reported just 33 honour killings nationwide, but activists and the UN Population Fund estimate thousands go unreported.

Dowry-related deaths are similarly grim. Between 2017 and 2022 an average of 20 women died every single day due to dowry harassment, a staggering 35,000 deaths. By 2022, 60,577 cases were pending in courts, with 54,416 from earlier years. These figures already outnumber post-rape killings in India.

What These Cases Reveal

Both Nikki and Radhika were betrayed by the very families meant to protect them, their lives ground down by relentless social expectations. The question lingers: in a society that prides itself on being modern and progressive, does “modernity” evaporate the moment a woman or a daughter dares to choose for herself? Is that when a family’s honour feels most at risk?

Their stories show that even the most accomplished women remain trapped under patriarchal norms until society stops treating female autonomy as a threat. How much longer must women shrink their achievements to protect fragile male egos? This is the clearest mirror of a society failing its daughters.

These are not aberrations but symptoms of a deeper rot. In the highest offices of the land we celebrate women’s leadership, such as Smt. Droupadi Murmu as President and a growing number of female CEOs and MPs. Yet ordinary women still struggle for the basic right to live on their own terms.

India cannot call itself truly modern until its daughters are safe not only from strangers but from their own families. Until then, every honour killing and every dowry death is a reminder that our progress is a façade and our freedom is conditional.

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