Nearly 80 years after Independence, India has come a long way. Laws have given women, children and marginalised communities rights that were once denied to them.
But freedom on paper does not always mean freedom in everyday life.
Practices that India outlawed decades ago still surface across the country. Some continue behind closed doors. Others have taken new forms.
Dowry. Child marriage. Hazardous sanitation work. Caste-based exclusion. Witch-hunting.
And in the case of sati, while there is no established evidence of it continuing as a widespread practice today, its glorification remains a legal and social concern.
So, as India celebrates another Independence Day, a difficult question remains: How much can a law change if society does not change with it?
Sati
What was prohibited: The practice of a widow being killed or dying on her husband's funeral pyre.
Law: The Bengal Sati Regulation of 1829 first outlawed sati in British India. After the death of 18-year-old Roop Kanwar in Rajasthan in 1987, Parliament enacted the Commission of Sati (Prevention) Act, 1987.
Sati is different from some of the other practices on this list. There is no established evidence of it continuing as a widespread practice in India today.
Roop Kanwar's death in 1987 is widely regarded as India's last known case of sati. But the story did not end with her death.
Current: In 2024, a Jaipur court acquitted eight people accused of glorifying Roop Kanwar's death. Reporting from Divrala, where she died, has also documented continued efforts to build a temple associated with her memory.
While the practice itself has not been established as a continuing widespread phenomenon, the glorification of sati remains a legal and social concern.
Child Marriage
What was prohibited: Marriage involving a girl below 18 or a boy below 21.
Law: The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006, which replaced the earlier Child Marriage Restraint Act of 1929.
The law is clear. But child marriage has not disappeared.
Current: The latest NFHS data showed that 23.3% of women aged 20–24 had been married before turning 18 during 2019–21. The figure had fallen from 26.8% in the previous NFHS, but remained substantial.
NCRB data recorded 6,038 cases under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act in 2023, up sharply from 1,002 in 2022. Assam accounted for nearly 90% of the reported cases.
The rise in reported cases does not automatically mean child marriages increased by the same amount. It can also indicate greater reporting and enforcement.
The persistence of the problem was one reason the government launched the Bal Vivah Mukt Bharat campaign in November 2024.
Dowry
What was prohibited: Giving, taking or demanding dowry.
Law: The Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961. The law was subsequently strengthened through amendments in 1984 and 1986.
Dowry had long placed financial pressure on brides' families and, in extreme cases, resulted in harassment, violence and deaths.
Yet the practice remains deeply embedded in parts of Indian society.
Current: According to NCRB data, 5,737 dowry deaths were recorded in 2024. Delhi alone recorded 109 dowry deaths, while Bengaluru registered 878 cases under the Dowry Prohibition Act.
A recent example came in Delhi in 2026, when the family of 28-year-old Akriti alleged that she had been harassed over dowry before she was found dead. The allegations were under investigation.
Female Foeticide And Sex Selection
What was prohibited: Sex selection and the use of prenatal diagnostic techniques for determining the sex of a foetus for sex selection.
Law: The Pre-conception and Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act, 1994, which came into force on January 1, 1996.
The law was introduced because medical technology had created new ways to identify the sex of an unborn child, which could facilitate sex-selective abortion.
The practice is difficult to measure because illegal sex determination is deliberately hidden.
Current: One indicator is India's sex ratio at birth. According to the latest SRS data, India recorded 917 girls per 1,000 boys in 2021–23. While this was an improvement from earlier years, the imbalance remains a reason for continued monitoring.
Enforcement also continues. Maharashtra's health department data records 625 cases under the PCPNDT Act, with 127 convictions.
These cases show that illegal sex selection has not disappeared, even though the technology behind it is tightly regulated.
Witch-Hunting And Witch-Branding
What was prohibited: India does not have a single central law specifically banning witch-hunting. Several states, however, have enacted laws against accusing or branding people as witches and against related violence.
Law: Assam, for example, enacted its Witch Hunting (Prohibition, Prevention and Protection) Act in 2015. Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and other states also have laws addressing the practice.
Yet the violence continues.
Current: NCRB data recorded 74 murders linked to witchcraft-related motives across India in 2023, including 22 in Jharkhand.
In one 2023 case in Jharkhand, a man was killed by a mob after his wife was accused of using witchcraft. Police arrested seven people.
The practice can involve more than murder. Victims have been beaten, humiliated, ostracised and accused of causing illnesses or deaths.
Manual Scavenging And Hazardous Sewer Cleaning
What was prohibited: The employment of people to manually clean human waste, along with hazardous manual cleaning of sewers and septic tanks.
Law: The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013, which came into force on December 6, 2013. The law prohibits the employment or engagement of people as manual scavengers and also prohibits hazardous sewer and septic-tank cleaning.
The legal position is unequivocal. Yet hazardous cleaning continues.
Current: The government reported that 332 sanitation workers died while undertaking hazardous sewer or septic-tank cleaning between January 2021 and June 2026. It also said 193 FIRs had been registered in the previous five years against agencies and officials for hazardous manual cleaning.
In July 2026, the NHRC took suo motu cognisance after a 28-year-old sanitation worker died after reportedly inhaling toxic gases while cleaning a sewer in Noida.
Strictly speaking, not every sewer death is legally classified as "manual scavenging". But these deaths demonstrate how hazardous sanitation work continues despite laws requiring mechanisation and prohibiting dangerous manual cleaning.
Untouchability
What was prohibited: Untouchability and disabilities imposed on people because of caste.
Constitutional protection: Article 17 of the Constitution, which came into force in 1950, abolished untouchability.
Law: The Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955, followed by the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
Yet caste-based exclusion has not disappeared.
Current: In 2023, 24 cases were registered under the Protection of Civil Rights Act specifically relating to untouchability.
The broader problem of caste-based violence and discrimination is much larger. 55,685 cases involving crimes against Scheduled Castes were registered under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act in 2024. These cases cover a much wider range of offences and should not be read as cases of untouchability alone.
Recent cases show what caste-based exclusion can look like.
In March 2025, a priest in Uttarakhand was booked after a Dalit couple alleged they were denied entry to a temple for their wedding because of their caste.
In another 2025 case in West Bengal, around 130 Dalit families said they were being denied entry to a village Shiva temple.
The Madras High Court has also noted that caste-based exclusion from temples remains a concern despite Article 17.
A Law Can Ban A Practice. It Cannot Immediately Erase A Belief.
India's post-Independence legal framework changed the formal status of these practices. What was once defended as custom could become a criminal offence.
But law works alongside social attitudes, family pressure, poverty, caste hierarchies, lack of education, weak enforcement and fear of reporting.
That is why the existence of a law does not automatically mean the disappearance of the practice.
The numbers tell that story.
Thousands of dowry deaths. Millions of women who were married as children. Witchcraft-related killings. Caste-based exclusion. Deaths during hazardous sanitation work.
The challenge for India is therefore no longer simply making laws against harmful practices.
It is making sure those laws reach the people they were created to protect.
TL;DR | News At A Glance
India outlawed or prohibited several harmful social practices through laws and constitutional protections.
Dowry remains linked to thousands of deaths every year.
Child marriage still affects millions of women who were married before adulthood.
Sex selection remains a concern despite the PCPNDT Act.
Witch-hunting and caste-based exclusion continue in some parts of India.
Hazardous sewer and septic-tank cleaning remains deadly despite a legal ban.
Sati has not been established as a continuing widespread practice, but its glorification remains a legal and social concern.
