DOWRY A ‘SOCIAL EVIL’| UNIQUE ARTICLE:

 

Parents send their daughters to a different home, having a blank idea, what is going to happen if the family won't accept her, simply because they need not fulfilled their perpetual greed!

Every other married couple in India and all over the world had & have faced the Dowry system and it is flourishing at a fair price, in spite of laws.

There are variety of cases of dowry since time out of mind . It has become one among the main causes behind the crime and torture towards women. This led to contamination and pollution within the marriage institution at large.

Roots of Dowry:
Manusmriti: This ancient text is additionally referred to as Hindu Dharma – Shastra, mentioned that a lady must not ever seek to measure independently.

Similarly, from the recent cases, like the crisis happening in Afghanistan, Women are afraid that if shariah comes, then they might be not allowed to continue their education and their way of free life. This thought of school which holds back women behind closed doors gave rise to the thought about Women’s status as Burden on family & Society.

The only resolution which has been made by the social norms to this stratum of society is to undertake to to “Kanyadan” (The act signifies passing over the responsibility of the daughter to the husband), which eventually signifies that a woman has got to be under someone’s authority. To ensure that their daughter will remain proud of the husband, dowry is given, illegally within the name of gift.

In the whole process of marriage, dowry itself accounts for the main cost of the wedding .
Hence the Philosophy of Marriage institution has also played a serious role in suppressing women’s own identity. In marriage, women are given the subordinate status to men, regardless of any culture, hence the Pati as “Permeshwar” came into existence! Women do fasting to possess a perfect husband like god. Although every man aspires to have a beautiful & intelligent wife, we heard of very few or rare fasts (Vrat) which have been made for men to have an Ideal wife. This concept of Wife within the service of the husband is inherent through generations and this tends to develop a standard understanding that during a marriage, it is a man who holds the power. So, to take care of the decorum of a cheerful family, dowry marks its importance in Marriage alliance from bride’s side to groom’s side.

During the first Vedic period, (1500 – 1000 BC), women were considered with respect and dignity whereas with the passage of your time , during later Vedic (1000 – 600 BC), the status of girls fell and that they began to be treated as a burden on the family.
This trend of the falling status of girls became more rigid during the Medieval period and ladies face more hardline rules just like the Purdah system, which eventually gives more power to Patriarchy. During the Medieval period, Polygamy was at its peak, giving rise to several more discriminations at multiple levels.
At the start of the 19th century, the demand for Dowry was raised abruptly, because the groom’s family asked for the dowry as compensation for his or her son’s education . Hence within the 19th century, the govt came with a final break on Dowry by enacting the law -“The Dowry prohibition act 1961”.
The 19th century also marked the start of the many organizations also as Social activists like Aleem Khan Falaki, born in 1956, who worked to eradicate the social evil of Dowry from the Indian subcontinent. He called the Anti- Dowry Campaign as Jihad of this era. He has done PhD on the subject “Marginalization of a lady in Muslim society”. In the same line Socio Reforms society, in 1992, was formed with a sole purpose to eradicate the Dowry from the society. Organizations like Azad Foundation, Bhartiya Grameen Mahila Sangh, One Stop Crisis Centre, International Center for Research on Women, Aasra & Lawyers Collective, are working in the field to rescue people from distress including household violence due to the Dowry issue.
The Evil of Dowry has impacted the ladies life in below-mentioned ways:
Poor families like better to get their daughters married at an early age in order that societal burden would not get on their shoulders.If the family isn't ready to fulfill the desires of the in-laws, the daughter remains unmarried.Women are burnt and made suicidal cases, hence such types of cases are called Bride-burning and in official term “Dowry Death”.
According to the report of TOI, in the survey of 2010, around 8391 dowry death cases & in 2017, around 7000 were reported, whereas unreported cases are still missing from the files.
It means every hour there's one dowry death in our country.
Government Initiatives & awareness programs like “Beti bachao – Beti padhao”, Mahila E – Haat, Ujjawala, have brought some awareness in the minds of women to some extent.

WHAT CAN WE DO AS A CITIZEN?
Start together with your home, attempt to create consciousness, remember it’s not a 1 day job.Create a stigma against Dowry, eliminate yourself from people having an orthodox mindset.Do not accept & do not encourage dowry.Educate your daughters & let them explore their career options.If not today, maybe the upcoming generations will understand that we, ourselves can create a land of Happiness, love, respect and dignity for all. Where nobody would be inferior to anyone and a mere Dowry can't decide someone’s fate!

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