Tag: dowry

Evils of Dowry

Women for sale?

Dowry system is a great evil that afflicts India. Even after seventy three years of independence and freedom, the evil and menace of dowry system prevails and the parents of a bride are forced to give money, jewellery, costly articles etc in dowry to the bridegroom and his family. It has become very difficult to find a suitable match for a girl without payment of huge dowry. The parents of well educated and highly placed boys demand large amount of dowry both in cash and in kind. Brides are burned alive, tortured, harassed and abused to bring more and more money. In many cases a girl commits suicide to escape this devil of dowry.

Dowry is a crime against women and humanity and severe punishment should be meted out to all those who indulge in it. It is an extreme example of greed, selfishness, degeneration and social sin. It is an old, dead, useless and rotten system that should be done away with in one go. It reduces the status of women and girls to that of commodities which can be easily bought and sold. It is a great curse especially for poor parents. They have to borrow, beg or indulge in corrupt practices to have huge amount of money to arrange dowry for their daughters. That is why people feel sad, unhappy, miserable and unfortunate at the birth of a baby girl. That is why many baby girls are killed before or soon after their birth.

Such a social evil on such a vast scale is to be found nowhere else. It is a matter of great national shame and social decadence in this age. This immoral and vile custom has turned us all into an object of ridicule in the eyes of all other civilised nations of the world. People use double speak and double standards. They often condemn dowry in public in no uncertain terms but in practice and private life they demand dowry, arrange marriages purely on the basis of dowry. In ancient days it might have been relevant to some extent as the girls did not inherit property or were confined to the hearth and home. Therefore, to compensate this loss, a girl was given several gifts in cash and kinds by her parents, relatives and well wishers in dowry. These gifts ensured a sort of security to the newly married girls. New women have equal rights. Now giving and receiving dowry has no relevance, no meaning and sense.

Now, it is a cognizable offence under the Dowry Prohibition Act under which if any person who gives or takes dowry is punishable with imprisonment which may extend to six months, or with fine which may extend to five thousand rupees, or with both. Now, apart from the parents and relatives of the bride, the police and the registered social organisations can also lodge a complaint against the party demanding dowry. Moreover, there is no time limit for lodging such complaints. But laws are not enough. They are being violated blatantly and with impunity. There are over seventeen dowry deaths every day in the country and yet very few offenders are caught and punished. Besides these legislative measures, we need other meaningful and effective social measures. All out efforts need to be made to generate an effective public opinion against the evil. More and more heads of panchayats, priests, social groups, women organisations, leaders, elders etc should be involved in the agitation against dowry. The movement should be taken to villages and far flung areas of the country. Social boycott of those indulging in the evil custom can work as an effective deterrent. Group and mass marriages can also be a very useful in this respect. More and more girls should be made to enter schools. They should be trained to stand on their feet. They should be made aware of their social, family and conjugal rights and privileges. They should never feel weak, helpless, inferior or incapable. They should revolt and expose such antisocial elements who demand dowry. They should refuse to marry when dowry is demanded or given. They should wage a relentless war against all sorts of discriminations and unjust male domination.

Three new deaths in a row in Kerala; all three tortured for dowry. Link below:-

https://www.google.com/amp/s/indianexpress.com/article/india/kerala/the-horrors-of-kerala-dowry-deaths-7387077/lite/

DOWRY

“Oh no it’s a girl child” started because of practices like dowry. When parents find out that they have to pay a huge fee in return for their daughter, no one would be happy at the birth of a girl child. We also have the society showing pity to parents of the girl child and saying things like:

“Oh you have a daughter in your family, you must have to pay a lot.”

“Thank God I am blessed with sons; money shall come my way”

Practices like dowry are what made female foeticide come to life. They check the gender of the child and undergo an abortion if it is a girl child.

Did you know that 20 women die every day due to the harassment of dowry?

You may think that practices like dowry only exists in the rural areas, but it also exists in the metropolitan cities. Well-educated families with both the men and the women working also believe in paying dowry.

Let’s talk about the concept of modern-day dowry. People no longer ask for dowry directly. They just expect “gifts.” These “gifts” make the bride’s side of the family go broke. The bride’s family spends so much money on the “gifts” and the marriage that a lot of the time they have to take a loan.

Do you think it is fair that the earnings and savings of parents are going to the groom’s family? I am sure a lot of us have heard sentences like “we need to save gold for the girl’s marriage”. Sentences like these are so normalised because the girl’s family has no option but to save money because the groom’s family needs “gifts”.

Tell me one reason why they deserve all the earnings of the girl’s family?

In old times the practice of dowry started because girls would not earn. So, parents would give the groom’s family dowry in return for taking care of their daughter’s expenses and living. But, even if the wives did not have a job they would still cook, clean, do the chores and support the groom’s family.

Now in modern society, when women do earn on their own what are we still giving the dowry for?

We as a society need to stop the practice of dowry because:

It financially drains the bride’s family: these so-called “gifts” which come as cars, gold, furniture, properties, money costs a lot and financially drains the family.

It makes the men more superior: if we pay the groom so much just because he is a man, the society is going to keep celebrating the birth of a boy child and look down upon the birth of the female child because it will cost them a lot.

It stops the women from growing: so many women are not able to study because the parents cannot afford dowry and education. Girls often sacrifice their dreams because their parents want to pay money to an unknown family.

Now, here me out. If all the bride’s family stop paying dowry or gifts to the groom’s family what will happen?

The girl won’t get married. Right?

Well, there are many countries where they don’t have to pay dowry to get married.

Shocking isn’t it?

Secondly, we all have to stop our so-called obsession with marriages. When a girl child is born why is marriage the only destination. The woman should be first encouraged to be independent on her own, have her own house, be successful without a man.

So can we all as a society stop these useless practices where we pay the groom’s family for no reason? Instead, can we start fulfilling the dreams of our daughters? The practice of dowry will only stop if all of us come together and say no to it.

Dowry Continues To Remain A Menace In Indian Society

Despite the fact that dowry has been banned in India since 1961, a research found that it is still being given on a regular basis, with over 95% of weddings including the exchange of money.

Dowry is correctly represented as a societal evil since it is the practise of paying and accepting articles of worth (such as clothes, jewellery, furniture, cash, and other items) between two households. Typically, the bride’s family is obligated to pay these items to the groom’s family.

The World Bank carried out the study, which examined almost 40,000 marriages that occurred between 1960 and 2008 in 17 Indian states that account for 96% of the nation’s population.

Researchers calculated “net dowry” to study the difference as to what was paid by the bride’s family to the groom’s family and vice versa, and the results revealed that, in the vast majority of instances, it was the bride’s family who paid more compared to the groom’s family, rather than the other way around.

According to the estimated amount confessed by families, a groom’s family spends Rs. 5,000 on presents to the bride’s family on average. The bride’s family, on the other hand, pays about Rs. 32,000 on presents and other monetary contributions to the groom’s family, taking the net dowry to roughly Rs. 27,000.

It has also been noticed that the dowry value is typically 14 percent of the annual income and includes a significant portion of the family’s savings.

While much has started to change since 2008, experts think the tendency of dowry is still highly prominent in India, since the notion is quite widespread in all major religious groups, with Christians and Sikhs exhibiting a “dramatic increase in dowry.”

Dowry inflation was seen in certain states, including Kerala, Haryana, Punjab, and Gujarat, with Kerala having the highest average dowry in recent years. On the other side, average dowry decreased in states such as Orissa, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, and West Bengal.

This venom affects people of all castes and socioeconomic classes. Neither the husband’s nor the wife’s educational background protects them from dowry harassment. Currently, dowry-related fatalities in Kerala have been documented, with the majority of victims coming from the upper strata of society. The culprits come from well-educated and wealthy families, and the victims are also well-educated. If this is the situation of women in a culture that was matriarchal a few decades earlier and claims of high social indicators in women empowerment, it’s anybody’s imagination how it will be in many Indian states that have numerous social indicators that are much worse than those of war-torn Syria or Sub-Saharan Africa. According to the NCRB study, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar top the list of dowry-related deaths, accounting for roughly 30 percent.

It is time to reform these retrograde societal standards in 2021. Receiving dowry should be considered a societal shame, and all generations should be taught. Young people should also make a stand. Women should explicitly refuse to pay dowry as part of a marriage , and men should also refuse to accept it in any way. Why should brides’ parents be obliged to give pricey “gifts” that are essentially a dowry by another name? 

The wider background for dowry is women’s low labor-force participation and, as a result, their lack of financial independence. Women should be encouraged to work and earn their own money.

Discrimination is present in all parts of life. To combat gender inequality, States should examine gender-disaggregated statistics across the life cycle — birth, early childhood, schooling, nourishment, employment, healthcare access, and so on. Teachers and textbooks shape students’ views and values. Children should be routinely educated on the fundamental ideal of gender equality.