INSIGHT: Despite dowries being illegal since 1961, more than 7000 women were killed in dowry cases last year in India. Meet the residents of the 'Mother-in-law' wing in one Indian prison.

Women in one wing at the Tihar prison can tell you a thing or two about the tragedies that befall daughters-in-law: kitchen fires and suicides, plunges from apartment balconies and mysterious ailments.

What they tend not to mention is that they are accused - and often convicted - of involvement in those tragedies.

"Televisions and fridges, sometimes even cars, this is what people ask for now," said Jyoti Chaudhary, an assistant superintendent who oversees the jail's dowry wing, a cocoon of seemingly gentle women in a prison holding some of India's most violent criminals.

Around the prison, they simply call it "the mother-in-law wing".

The fact that dowry has been illegal since 1961 means little. And it is an issue which is still taboo in large parts of South Asia and not only in India.

The vast majority of Indian families, from the urban elite to illiterate farmers, still pay some form of dowry to seal their daughters' wedding agreements. Created long ago to ensure that brides had wealth of their own, the tradition has essentially become a fee paid by the bride's family to the groom's.

When trouble arises, it can be horrific.

There has been a sharp rise in the number of dowry-related crimes in recent years, closely paralleling a galloping Indian economy.

The growing consumerism is reflected in the increasingly crowded cells of Tihar's dowry wing, where about 100 women are held. A few have been convicted, but most are awaiting trials.

"Not even one person here is guilty," said Durga Sharma, a 50ish schoolteacher jailed after the death of her son's wife. "These are people from good families."

Sharma insists her daughter-in-law died of an unknown stomach ailment. The police says she was killed in a dowry dispute.

Often, the murders are disguised as suicides authorities say. Sometimes, the crimes are actual suicides where authorities say husbands or in-laws drove the women to kill themselves.

For a few, particularly in sections of the educated elite, dowry payments have become symbolic.

But for many, marriage remains a hard-fought negotiation, and courtship is often replaced by husband-shopping.

Want to marry your daughter to a banker? The Times of India pegged his cost at about £8,000 paid to his parents in cash and gifts. A businessman with an MBA is about £17,000. And a member of the Indian Administrative Service, the country's elite bureaucrats: at least £25,000.

Where grooms' families once asked for bicycles, today they demand motorcycles or cars. Those who would have asked for furniture now submit long requests for electronic goods.

Mamta, a 22-year-old newlywed (not her full name), said she was given a simple choice: "A motorbike or 25,000 rupees (about £300), that's what my husband's family told me I had to bring."

The daughter of a construction worker from a working class New Delhi neighbourhood, Mamta said her dowry included the "usual things'': a television, washing machine, refrigerator and some furniture.

But days after her marriage, another new bride moved in down the street, bringing a new motorbike for her in-laws.

"My husband's family saw the motorcycle, and they told me I had to bring one for them," she said.

When Mamta refused, her husband beat her and locked her in the house. When her brother paid the 25,000 rupees, her in-laws demanded a car.

Threatened with more beatings, she fled to a women's' shelter.

"I feel nothing for my husband, and he never had any feelings for me," she said.

But she still wants to go back. Her alternatives, she says, are limited. Divorce would bring shame, possible poverty and no guarantees.

"If I get married again, my new husband could be even worse than this one."