Project Report / Essay - "Dowry System"
Dowry System - Introduction

Jalti Bahuch Karen Pukar, Band Karo Yeh Atyachar giving dowry to girls in marriage an ancient Indian tradition. But has been vitiated in the present day.

Body :

Evil of Dowry discussed

(i) Boy’s parent demand money, gifts on the eve of the wedding.

(ii) Brides harassed so that they may bring more dowry from their parents.

(iii) Young girls commit suicide owing to it.

(iv) Young girls burnt by their in laws.

(v) Sometimes unmarried girls commit suicide when they see parents worried.

2. Legal Efforts :

(i) Mobilize public opinion against it.

(ii) Youth should refuse to give or take dowry.

(iii) Girls should be professionally educated, so that they can stand on their own feet.

Lesson - 2

The system of giving dowry to girls in marriage is an ancient Indian custom. It is infact that portion of the parent’s wealth which they wish to give to the daughter. This helps the girls in question and the groom to start a home of their own. However, it is very sad that this custom has been vitiated in our times, and the system has become a menace, a social evil in our society.

Wedding are no longer happy events, but keep the brides, parents on tenterhooks lest the groom’s family demand unreasonable gifts on the eve of the weeding. Infact, quite often, the greedy groom or his parents do demand gift in cash or kind such as a motor car, video, etc. which the girls parents may not be able to fulfill. Then they are caught between the devil and the deep sea. Breaking off the wedding at the last minute brings infamy to the girl. Very often false, malicious stories are spread about her so that re-engagement and marriage becomes difficult. Often girls are driven to suicidal lengths because of the tension created by such a situation.

Another technique adopted by the boy’s family is not to make unreasonable demands before the wedding, but harass the girl after the wedding to induce her to request her parents to give the gifts they ask for. The girl is taunted at every step and her life is made a virtual hell until she can fulfill the unreasonable demands of her husband and in laws.

Another ploy used by such uncouth people is to pack the bride off to her parents house and told to come back only if she can induce her parents to give more dowry.

In such situation, the girl has no option but to accede to these demands and urge her parents to fulfill them. Sometimes, when girl know that their parents cannot fulfill these demands, they are driven to commit suicide. Even worse is the situation where the in-laws join hands to burn the bride to death, so that the son can be remarried to someone who will get them more dowry. This is the lowest level of greediness, degradation and inhumanity to which a human being can sink, and it is indeed a very sad comment on the Indian Character, that there are innumerable examples of this happening. Brides are shamelessly and fearlessly burnt to death to satisfy the greed of such people.

This sorry state of affair should be amended as soon as possible, and the solutions are not very easy. The law has come to our end, and giving and taking dowry is a criminal offence, and yet people fearlessly continue giving and accepting dowry with impurity. Thus it is clear that the law alone cannot solve the problem.

Lesson - 3

The important thing to be done here is to mobilize public opinion against it. Young men should refuse to take dowry. They should realize that marriage is a union of two souls. Marriage gives them their own family and incentive to fulfil their ambitions in their career. Therefore, they should shun accepting dowry. Rather, they should have enough self-respect to refuse the money or gifts which are offered by the bride’s parents to ‘buy’ them. Similarly, girls too should refuse to marry a young boy who is greedy enough to demand anything from her parents. Infact, the slightest indication before marriage of the boy’s greediness should warn her, and instead of being carried away by the sense of romance she should be worry of marrying such a boy.

Another important solution is for every girl to be professionally educated so that she has the ability to earn before she is married. If she is working before marriage it would be even bother, for being financially independent would make her self-confident. It would be easy for her to refuse greedy young men. It would in other words, give her the supreme confidence to rend for herself. It would hurting a working girl who can answer them back in their coin.

Finally, the real solution can only come if public opinion is strongly mobilized against the giving and taking of dowry. Till each individual regards it as an evil it would be difficult to root it out. Therefore, this should be done on a war footing and every government media should be used for this purpose. Till the old and young men women and even children regard it as a social evil not all the laws of the country can put an end to it.

Thus, only a consistent, persistent and co-operative effort by everybody to propagate the message of the social evil of dowry can solve the problem.

Lesson - 4

The dowry system in Delhi

Dowry system in prevalent in almost all section of Indian society. Dowry is what parents give to their daughter at the time of marriage. It is a kind of help given to the newly married couple from bride’s parents to establish a new home. This custom is very old. It was not bed in the past because it was a voluntary after but these days it has become a necessary evil.

Dowry system has eaten into the bones of our society. The birth of a daughter is no occasion of joy for the parents. A girl when become young is a burden on her parents. They have to face great difficulties in finding out a suitable match for their daughter. It is a problem to get her married in a rich and respectable family without a decent dowry. Daughter of poor parents however beautiful and well education cannot be married to a richmen’s son. Many girls commit suicide to save their parents from the evil of dowry.

This custom is the root cause of many other evils. Parents collect money by fair and foul means to satisfy the greed of the bridegrooms.

Our Government has decided to root out this evil from Indian society. Laws are being made to put an end to this big evil. Youngmen are also coming forward to raise their voice against this curse. People should take a pledge to fight this great evil at all costs. It is a slur on the fair name of this great country. Men should also try to wash off this dirty stigma.

Lesson - 5

Dowry System

The Hindu Society is full of a number of evils practices and bad customs such as Dowry has become a major social evil against women today it is difficult to say how and why this evil custom started ? Perhaps it might have originated from the parents desire to give their daughter a share of her parental property in the form of Dowry. Everyday we see how women have to suffer for the sake of Dowry. Day in & day out we read the news of one or another young women being burnt to death because she could not bring dowry with her. Torter of young bride’s because of their failure to bring dowry is even more prevalent and they are forced to commit suicide. The result is that the parents of a girl have to make themselves paupers in order to arrange her marriage.

A girl may be educated. She may be a doctor, a professor or even an I.A.S. Officer. Her parents must give dowry. The parents have to arrange for dowries so that their daughters may get respect from their in laws. These who cannot do this must suffer their daughter to remain unmarried. On other hand, wealthy parents manage to buy suitable bridgegroom’s for their daughter. All this call for stringent steps to a enforce the ban of dowry. It is true that both the giving and receiving of dowry are illegal but these law is honored more in preach man observance.

Really, a dowry system is an evil. It is spreading fast like Cancer. There are anti dowry laws. The police have been instructed to take a serious view of ‘Dowry-deaths’. But it generally seen that crimes done for the sake of dowries are not punished. These cases fail in the courts of law.

So, law alone cannot help much in this respect. Social efforts are needed to end this evil young men should pledge that they would not accept my dowry. Anyone demanding dowry should be put to shame. He should be socially boycotted.

Lesson - 6

The Dowry System in India

No doubt, women are at the helm of life and enjoy equal rights with men in every sphere of life yet there is an under current of the feeling of aversion towards them. Inspite of the fact that they enjoy the prestigious position in government offices, education institution, business organizations, the armed forces etc. they are the victims of many evil practices of the society. One of them is the dowry system which is of cancerous type. Although legislative measures have been taken by the Central Government and the state Governments yet it persists in our society, eating away the very tissues of social life like a canker.

When a female child is born in a Hindu family, particularly in Northern India, the faces of all the members of the family fall. The very expression of joy disappears from their visage. It looks as if they had come under the ellipse to sorrows and miseries. Even the mother who has given birth to the child looks sullen and sometimes becomes the object of taunts and ironical remark of her in-laws.

Do you know why it happens so ? It is because of the dowry system prevalent in our society. The very moment a female child is born, the picture of dowry with the demand of a huge amount of money in cash or kind comes before their eyes.

Now people have gone a step further to avoid this unhappy situation. They go to nursing homes for pre-natal determination of the sex of the unborn child, resulting in undesirable practices. Whether a women wills or net and she has to follow the dictates of her in-laws.

All these things are happening simply because of the dowry system which is a stigma on the fair name of the Indian society and a curse for women. The parents of the girls have to provide a substantial amount of money to the parents of marriage talks. If they do not accede to their demands, the marriage talk receives a great setback. And if they agree under the force of circumstances and fail to pay it, their daughter is taunted, humiliated and subjected to cruel treatment. As a result, she begins to fee that her life is worthless, there is no meaning in living alive and she feels obliged to commit suicide. On the contrary, if she is taunt-proof, she is burnt alive by her in-laws.

This is the fate of our women in a country where luminous figures like Tagore, Gandhi, Swami Dayanand Saraswati, Raja Ram Mohan Roy etc. were born and raised their voice against the dowry system.

Despite the statutory measures of the government, it is continuing prominence in certain parts of the country like Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh etc. In such a case, there is no other alternative left except to mobilize the public opinion against the system of selling boys. On a war scale, this system is to be fought against by all political parties and the press. The dowry seekers are to be black-listed and publicly boycotted. The youths of today have to take a pledge net to allow themselves to be sold to the parents of the girl. They have to come forward and decide their own fate instead of being a puppet in the hands of their parents. The black marketers are to be eliminated because it is they could promote such a system by offering rich dowries in the marriage of their daughters. If this is done, there is every hope of eliminating the dowry system from India.

Lesson - 7

Dowry is an old social practice in India. Actually it has become an evil degrading the status and respect of women in society. Dowry is given at the time of marriage of a daughter by the father.

The evil of dowry is a great insult to womanhood. It is a symbol of male superiority and woman’s degradation. Due to this evil, the birth of a daughter is looked down upon with from woman becomes a burden.

Dowry seekers demanding a heavy dowry, have made the life of the parents and girls really hellish. Naked and shameful display of wealth encourages dowry. The dowry hunters are responsible for the deaths and burning of many bridges.

Dowry has been made a legal offence punishable by law, according to the dowry prohibition Act. The punishment can go up to six months imprisonment and a fine up to Rs. 5,000. However, the evil of dowry lies in the greed and exploitation of women. We have to fight against it socially and culturally.

Conclusion

Only a consistent persistent and co-operative effort can solve the problem.