Evils of Dowry
Essay No. 01
The Dowry system in India is a major evil. It is a blot on Indian society. In India, dowry has been an old tradition. It hair; a social and religious approval in old times. The idea of dowry was perhaps to enable the couple to establish better in society. Gradually, it took the form of a compulsory ritual. It has now brought many evils in its turn. It has become a curse and, at times, results in bride-burning. There are cases of a number of suicides by girls whose parents are not in a position to afford a dowry. There is a law in India against giving or taking dowry but it does not have much deterrent effect. The battle against dowry has to be fought by conscience.
Essay No. 02
The Dowry Evil
Dowry is referred to the money, goods, or estate that a woman brings to her husband in marriage. The opposite direction, property given to the bride by the groom, is called dower or mahr. Normally the bride would be entitled to her dowry in event of her widowhood, prior to the evolution of her dower rights; so common was this that the terms “dowry” and “dower” are sometimes confused. The dowry should not be confused with a bride’s price, money, or goods paid by the prospective groom to the bride’s parents in exchange for her hand in marriage. It should also be distinguished from dowry, which is the money obtained by a wife by filing a false dowry case against the husband and his relatives.
In the world, the practice of giving women a dowry on breakage of marriage my husband still holds and is assisted by the judiciary and the police through the threat of imprisonment. In India, the practice is still very common, in arranged marriages and in rural areas as it is widely recognized as a Traditional Ritual of Marriage. Demanding dowry is prohibited by law as of 1961. But these laws are highly misused, including mothers and sisters being arrested without investigation apart from the general trend of the husbands and the father of the bridegroom being arrested. Information is easily available in all government agencies about the dowry and the punishment awarded to the people indulging in the devil of a thing being carried out in the society called dowry found by searching for
the phrase “IPC 498a.” In spite of refusing to be part of dowry systems, many grooms have been brought to grief. The practice of the bride giving a dowry to the groom is said to have originated in the system of recognition that not only the husband was responsible for providing for his wife, but her father shared this responsibility was initially known to be the cause. Women’s rights agencies are now stepping in asking the need for the father of the bride to give payment for the uptake or the well-being of his daughter. While the burden is removed from a woman’s father and brothers, it still remains with the husband.
But things though are slowly changing in the view that taking dowry has begun to be looked at as an evil and of low integrity by people of the society, and this along with the law has played an important role in reducing this evil. But we still hear of our daughters and sisters and mothers are killed by their in-laws because they failed to get dowry. This evil cannot be combated by a few individuals. It requires a widespread transformation. It is for prospect grooms and sensible men to downplay this evil.
Essay No. 03
The Dowry System
The Dowry system is one of the greatest evils of our society The sacred institution of marriage is reduced to a business transaction. In fact, the whole affair has assumed the proportion of a scandal. It is the system that lowers the dignity of women.
The parents of the girl are made to pay not only huge amounts of cash but also give luxury items like television sets, refrigerators, scooters, etc., all in the name of dowry Poor parents borrow huge sums of money on high rates of interest to provide a dowry. Many girls are put in a lot of trouble, and some of them even commit suicide.
The system has been in practice in India from times immemorial. As the Hindu law in the past did not give the girl the right to property, the father gave away a part of his property to the daughter in the form of dowry. It was also thought to be a sort of help to the young couple to set up a new home.
The custom became evil as the greed of the bridegroom’s parents mounted. Thus from grace, it became a shame of our society.
Today girls are educated and some of them are employed and are economically independent. They are in no way inferior to the boys. The argument that since the bride’s parents are very particular about the boy’s income, qualifications, etc., does not hold weight. Giving dowry is no problem for the rich. In order to enhance their false social prestige, they give maximum dowry.
The poor try to imitate the rich and the process ruins them. This inhuman practice must be put to an end. Law cannot produce any desirable results. The Dowry Prohibition Act, first passed in 1961, remained ineffective and the Amendment Bills of 1976 and 1985, which declared taking and giving of dowry as a punishable offense, have brought little respite to the people. The evil of dowry is grinning at us as never before.
This social evil needs treatment at the social, level. The social organizations carry out intensive anti-dowry propaganda. To combat the evil, young boys and girls should come forward and resolve not to give consent to such marriage which involves dowry
Marriages should be performed in the presence of some legal authority. The services of a government employee demanding dowry should be terminated. Above all, if more and more girls are educated and made to enter employment through various competitive examinations the evil can be eradicated. Inter-caste marriages should be encouraged.
The question of marriage should not be melded by the old who lack constructive vision. The young should have more say in the matter. Thus, the most heinous of the social evils can be fought in our country
