A number of different cultures within Australia have dowry traditions – the gifting of money and other items to the groom or his family.
In India, the practice is illegal but it is still common and the ban is difficult to enforce.
Amrita's dreams of a happy life were soon shattered.
She became a servant to his family, while her own parents forked out their meagre savings for appliances and other items.
"I didn't have work rights [in Australia]. I didn't have insurance. I didn't have Medicare. I didn't have anything when I came here. I volunteered, because I felt so hopeless and useless," she says.
"But his family, they put me in a situation where I felt choked and suffocated."
At her lowest point, Amrita was abandoned by her husband after being forced to hand over her jewellery – including her gold bangles, which were supposed to be worn throughout the marriage.
But there is hope for survivors like Amrita.
New laws are set to finally recognise dowry abuse as a form of domestic violence when the Family Law Amendment bill passes parliament later this year.
Dowry abuse akin to 'daylight robbery'
Manjula O'Connor is a Melbourne psychiatrist who specialises in the treatment of dowry abuse victims. Many of her patients belong to Australia's diverse South Asian diaspora.
Of those who experience domestic violence, she says half are affected by dowry abuse and sometimes men use their status as residents to claim a huge dowry – at times "in the hundreds of thousands of dollars".
Professor Manjula O'Connor is a psychiatrist who works with victims of dowry abuse. (ABC News: Patrick Stone)
"In return there is a social contract in place, which means that the groom and his family will honour and cherish this daughter-in-law," she says.
"I should say not all families demand dowry, not all families expect it."
Professor O'Connor says in some cases, grooms and their families are keeping the dowry and abandoning the bride, likening it to "daylight robbery".
Kittu Randhawa, who is the founder of the Indian Subcontinent Crisis and Support Agency and an expert on dowry abuse, says when the husband or family is "demanding more money or higher levels of money" it becomes "weaponised" and a form of abuse.
"A lot of dowry abuse is not only perpetrated by the men," she says.
"There are multiple perpetrators. There are the in-laws. Mother-in-law is top of the ranking on that one."
Recognising dowry abuse as domestic violence
Five years after a Senate inquiry called for new national laws identifying dowry abuse as a form of domestic violence, parliament will finally recognise it as part of the Family Law Act later this year.
Professor O'Connor says the change should create a uniform standard across Australia, allow lawyers to produce evidence of dowry abuse, and judges to pursue that line of questioning.
"But what we need is to actually establish a transnational dowry abuse working group with India … to create some kind of shared understanding of what the women are going through and how can the two countries support each other to help the women," she explains.
Ms Randhawa welcomes the inclusion of dowry abuse into legislation but says it's ambitious.
"I think there's still a real lack of understanding on how this abuse manifests, how pernicious it is, and some of the cultural abuses that are part of family violence," she says.
Both Professor O'Connor and Ms Randhawa are also calling for more education within the community on what dowry abuse is, and more awareness from police and service providers of dowry abuse as a form of domestic violence.
'I didn't think of this as domestic violence'
For women like Amrita, the impact on their mental health is huge.
When Amrita's husband demanded she move back to India without him to live with his family, it broke her.
"I felt really hurt, and I was so stressed and depressed at that stage," she says.
"I didn't really think of this as domestic violence, because probably that's the kind of mindset women have when it comes to a husband. We see them as everything. As soon as we get married, they are our lives."
Professor O'Connor says some women feel so powerless and fearful they become suicidal.
She says the pressure to stay married is "immense" due to the shame of being divorced and she sees women who are abandoned go through an intense grieving process and become depressed.
But she wants women to know there is hope after an abusive marriage.
"After walking out of the marriage in Australia, there are enormous opportunities for women to educate themselves and to seek employment and to become financially independent and to learn to live independently for the first time ever," she says.
"Women find that an extremely exhilarating experience … separation gives them an opportunity to actually take control of their life."
A new life in a new country
Since 2022, the Department of Home Affairs has granted permanent residency visas to victims of dowry abuse.
In 2023, the government also boosted financial assistance available to victim-survivors from $3,000 to up to $5,000.
Mental health support is also available.
"If women are suffering dowry abuse, please don't be afraid to mention it to the police and to service providers. There is hope and that you will recover," Professor O'Connor says.
Amrita's mental health was seriously impacted. (ABC NEWS: Patrick Stone)
For Ms Randhawa, the solution lies in a major cultural shift on dowry abuse.
"[For] people who move to Australia … I keep using the word extortion, because it really is. You're getting money from someone you know through nefarious means," she says.
"They get targeted, they get groomed. Anybody who's coming to this country should have some idea if their partner [or] prospective partner has a criminal record, if they've had DV charges before, and some of the DV history on some of these men is just mind-blowing."
For Amrita, life today is not easy. She refused to move back to India and is now working and trying to build a life by herself, fearful of her husband and his family finding her.
She didn't feel safe enough to take legal action because his family is influential in India and live close to her own parents.
She says without the support of organisations in Australia dedicated to helping women like her, she wouldn't have made it by herself.