This is 21st century, yet the rate of dowry does not seem to have lowered down or abolished completely. Many people even have the idea of how heinous crime taking and giving dowry is! Yet they keep practicing the same mistake again and again. But wait, this isn’t a mistake if attempted repeatedly, it then turns into a massive criminal offense, very little to be forgiven. The custom of dowry in Indian marriages is a deep-seated cultural phenomenon that has been described as one of the largest obstacles to “confront India on her road to economic and social justice.” Indeed, one of India’s greatest social failures is the extraordinarily high level of gender inequality and female deprivation that has persisted in the nation for the last several decades through cultural practices such as dowry. The custom is held responsible for a number of problems executed against the nation’s women, including dowry violence, bride burning, and wife murder.
"Dowry" in the sense of the expression contemplated by the dowry Prohibition Act is a demand for property or valuable security having an inextricable nexus with the marriage, i.e., it is a consideration from the side of the bride's side of family to the groom or his parents/family for the agreement to wed the bride-to-be.
In this Act, “dowry” means any property or valuable security given or agreed to be given either directly or indirectly:
- by one party to a marriage to the other party to the marriage; or by the parent of either party to a marriage or by any other person, to either party to the marriage or by to any other person, at or before [or any time after the marriage] in connection with the marriage of the said parties, but does not include, dower or MHR in the case of persons to whom the Muslim Personal Law (Shari at) applies.
The expression “valuable security” has the same meaning as in section 30 of the Indian Penal Code (45 of 1860).
Over hundreds of years, however, the definition of the term has evolved from the ceremonial and voluntary gift giving of the bride’s family to a form of monetary extortion demanded by the groom’s family. Studies on the origins of the tradition postulate show that dowry originally and ideally denoted gifts such as ornaments, expensive clothes and other precious items referenced in ancient texts on marriage ritual, voluntarily presented to both the bride and groom’s families during the time of marriage. One very common cause is the social and religious constraints, that leads to reduction of boys for marriage due to prohibition of inter-caste or inter-religion marriage and leaves the bride with limited options, and in order to get rid of the burden, the bride’s family agrees to provide the dowry. Lack of education or lack of awareness is the root cause of the dowry system. Girls are not sent to schools, since the society fears the fact that an educated girl won’t adhere to their unreasonable demands and will fight for her rights.
Few Solutions to eradicate Dowry:
- Education is only the main catalyst to the elimination of dowry in India. The system likely owes its continuation to lack of education, which leads to negligent decisions and financial exploitation of the bride’s family.
- The education should reiterate that a gild child is a valued commodity, not a liability. The education to ensure that young families inculcate the strength to reject the dowry system in the future.
- Mainly, the education of children and daughters in the society should be continued, and they are encouraged to grow their own career without being dependent on anybody. The mainstream community must be at par with the government’s prospects because the legislation is proving inadequate to bring a revolution.
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