Dowry- A curse to woman

Dowry system is deep rooted in the society in India finding its origin during the medieval times, when giving gifts in cash to a bride by her family became a ritual. It is one of the problems that has been well established in the Indian society, leading to certain different problems, one of which in the current times has turned out to be domestic violence or simple dowry related violence.

Dowry has been used since ages to show their economic status using the woman or bride as chattel along with that dowry. The higher the dowry, the higher the status in the family of in-laws. If there are two or more brothers in a family then what they get as dowry in their marriage is always compared bringing about a scenario of discrimination in the house which leads to sufferings of the woman with lower dowry.

If the man’s family has a certain amount of land, or he’s well educated and salaried person, they will, in most of the cases, definitely be expecting a greater dowry than normal because they think they’ve spent a lot on their child’s education so they are required to get what they’ve given. The job of dowry system in India has been a way to commodify an individual, equating their equal to the value of the dowry. Dowry’s value further depends on physical looks.

Greed for more money is what gives rise to dowry-related violence. The groom or his family seeks continued payments or more goods from the bride’s family who are unwilling or unable to pay, so the groom turns to violence and thus starts a hell-like life of the bride. Physical violence, marital rape, acid attacks, starvation, eviction and false imprisonment are some of the common methods of extortion that are inflicted upon the woman in the society in order to avenge the non-payment or non-fulfilment of the groom’s wishes for more dowry. Even burning of the wife by setting her on fire has been observed in many cases to be used as a method by the perpetrators. Cases of killing or burning the woman are disguised as suicide or accidents due to some disaster, in an attempt to avoid being convicted for violence.

Studies have shown that greed, social status and illiteracy prevalent in the society have been the root causes of the dowry system in India. With a literacy rate of 74%, it is quite possible for the people to be not well informed about the laws and legislations, which leaves them with no choice other than fulfilling the demands of the groom and his family which otherwise leads to violence against the bride.

In order to maintain their status, the bride’s family tend not to go against the prevalent norms in the society even if they’ re unable to pay the dowry, since their status or financial condition is of little or no significance.

The Dowry Prohibition Act was enacted in the year 1961 in order to fortify the status of a woman in the society and the abatement of dowry system, but even after decades of enactment these acts are still irrelevant due to the lack of mass contribution and it is still a significant part of Indian marriage and people openly defy this law, failing woman empowerment. People are not attentive to such laws and they use the dowry system as a means to increase their material possession under the mask of a marriage proposal. Hence, with this ignorance of anti-dowry laws, the bride’s family and the bride herself suffer at the hand of the groom’s family.

Even though in 1986, the law was amended with a statement that any death or violence within the first seven years of marriage would be tried as related to dowry, still most of the cases go unreported in the name of a maligned status. National Crime Bureau of India in its 2017 report recorded nearly 7000 dowry linked deaths.

Only enactment of a law is not going to work when fighting against a social evil, there need to be a strict and ruthless enforcement of that law. What we need in the current scenario is a zero-tolerance policy for offenders tending to accept or demand dowry. There is a lack of proper investigative procedures leading to the freedom of the accused, so this is also a point to be taken care of by the authorities.

Lack of social awareness is another aspect to be taken into consideration along with the education and self-dependence of women.  Widespread campaigns should be launched to create an awareness among the societies to spread the knowledge about the legal provisions against dowry. Educating the girl child has been a major objective of the governments, which is highly applaudable but still there is a lack of education among the girls. Education is an essential to gain eyes and ears to the world which is beyond the normal vision. Everyone should emphasize on educating the women to let them have the knowledge of their rights. It will enable them to speak up against the dowry system and fight for their rights. Marriage which is seen as the only salvation by the women in the Indian society will no longer be seen as the same and the women will strive for self-dependence.

The present society need to realize that women are perfectly capable of doing anything which a man can do and even the women themselves need to believe that they are not inferior to men and need not depend on them to provide them with things for survival.

Deaths due to dowry violence has been rising and these statistics are worrying. The primary reason behind dowry system is the patriarchal society, owing to which evil practices like the dowry system still find its takers and propagators. In order to ensure the annihilation of the dowry system, governments, authorities and NGOs must ensure the employment opportunities for the women and make education feasible for the girl children.

{Note- Section 3 of The Dowry Prohibition Act,1961 mandates the penalty for giving or taking dowry –

3(1) If any person, after the commencement of this Act, gives or takes or abets the giving or taking of dowry, he shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than five years, and with fine which shall not be less than fifteen thousand rupees or the amount of the value of such dowry, whichever is more. Provided that the Court may, for adequate and special reasons to be recorded in the judgment, impose a sentence of imprisonment for a term of less than five years.

3(2) Nothing in sub-section (1) shall apply to, or in relation to,—"

(a) presents which are given at the time of a marriage to the bride (without any demand having been made in that behalf): Provided that such presents are entered in a list maintained in accordance with the rules made under this Act;

(b) presents which are given at the time of a marriage to the bridegroom (without any demand having been made in that behalf): Provided that such presents are entered in a list maintained in accordance with the rules made under this Act: Provided further that where such presents are made by or on behalf of the bride or any person related to the bride, such presents are of a customary nature and the value thereof is not excessive having regard to the financial status of the person by whom, or on whose behalf, such presents are given.}

“Mentioning the section in an attempt to make the readers known to the punishments given under the Dowry Prohibition Act,1961.”

Many private organizations like the Amnesty International, Human rights watch, have criticized the Indian government for not making any progress to eliminate dowry system. Global Fund for women launched its ‘Now or Never’ funding project in order to raise funds and finance the efforts of global organizations to fight the social evils prevalent in the society against women.

The Bride who would not burn by Rajesh Talwar(*) is a play on dowry deaths and is quite an evaluative work, talking about the dowry and its side effects which is prevalent as a disease in India. With his smart writing and humor Talwar has cleverly shone the light on the typical Indian Hypocrisy, especially when it comes to judging women and when it comes to dowry. 

We, the Indians, need to eradicate ourselves of such disease that is affecting a major portion of our society.

 ~ Abhaas Mishra