Essays

"It is ironic that dowry was originally designed to safeguardthe woman and the provision was made in the form of Sthreedhan”("Stree" means woman and "dhan"as wealth) consisting of money,property or gifts given solely to the woman by her parents at themarriage. The abuse of this custom eroded and aborted the originalmeaningful function where dowry was a safety net for the woman itwas forcible made as a price tag for the groom."

Dowry or Dahej is served by payment in cash or/and kind by the bride's familyto the bridegroom' s family along with the bride (called Kunyadaan} in. Kanyadaanis an important part of Hindu marital rites. Kanya means daughter and dana meansgift.

Dowry originated in upper caste families as the wedding gift to the bride. It waslater given to help marriage expenses and taken as a insurance in case her in-lawsmistreated her. Although the dowry was legally banned in 1961, it continues to behighly institutionalized. The groom often demands adowry consisting of a large sumof money, farm animals, furniture, and electronics.

The practice of dowry abuse is still on the rise in India. The most severe isbride burning when it was considered insufficient dowry by her husband or in-laws.Most of these incidents are given the shape of as accidental bums in the kitchen or aredisguised as suicide.Itis evident that there exist deep rooted prejudices against womenin India. Cultural practices such as the payment of dowry is serving as death warrantsfor women in Indian society.

The need for the enactment of the 1961 Dowry Prohibition Act in Indian PenalCode stemmed from a noticeable increase in the number of Indian brides documentedto have died in their early married years under suspicious and mysterious circumstances.The cause of death was characteristically labeled as "kitchen fires". The rampantoccurrence of bridal deaths by kitchen fires were usually uniform in nature with theclassical setting of the young bride found dead in the kitchen, clad in a kerosene soakedsari, trapped in flames and left alone to bum to ashes. Very often it was the groom'smother or someone from the groom's family. In some cases, the groomhimself acted.The reward in these cases is another bride, another dowry.

Along with curious vicissitudes of a modernizing India, the growing middleclasswithitsopportunities for upward mobility also propagated inevitable inflationarymonetary expectations to an already existing evil. This may be considered as oneof the most promiscuous and prevalent linkages to the past and present of manycultures.

The term, "dowry" as a quantifiable offering does not have its roots solely inthe Indian culture. It has been noted in early 12th century Europe and was oftenreflected in European 1'airy tales and literature making suchreferences to a woman asofferings of a "straw mattress", a "wooden stool" or "farm animals". The amount of"money" for a dowry depended on the status of being a rich or poor woman. Monetaryexchanges also had the show of preserving the aristocracy as a class and as a meansof cultural and economic determination. An interesting event utilization of dowry,symbolizing both marriage as well as an union ofaristocracyand colonial dominancewas observed in 1662 when Charles II of England was given the Indian city of Bombayas a dowry for marrying Catherine of Braganza of Portugal.

The price of the Indian groom had considerably increased based on hisqualifications, profession andincome. Doctors, Chartered Accountants and Engineersexpect a handsome dowry. A reactionary wave of preserving oppressive practices ofdowry demands appeared also in the West and other countries where immigrants ofIndian origin established themselves.

The steady rise of the gruesome dowry deaths has spread a sense ofhopelessnessdue to lack of legal provisions and avenues made available to families who lost theirdaughters. In 1961 with the Dowry Prohibition Act. it was officially outlawed but inreality eradication was far from accomplished. In 1986 harsher legal amendments tothe 1961 Dowry Act such as Section 174 CrPC enforced investigations of suspiciousbridal deaths and punishment of seven years to life imprisonment and possibly deathfor those found guilty and convicted of bride burning. In spite of these legalbreakthroughs, shocking statistics on dowry deaths continued. The 90's showed asteady yearly increase in bridal death tolls with many more deaths unreported. Over20,000 women across India between 1990 and 1993 are reported to have met with thisfatal incidence.

The official records of these incidents are low because they are often reportedas accidents or suicides by the family. In Delhi, a woman is burned to death almostevery twelve hours. In 1988. 2,209 and in 1990, 4,835 women were reported killedin dowry related incidents. It is important to reiterate that official records areimmensely under reported. The lack of official registration of this crime is apparentin Delhi where ninety percentof cases of women burnt were recorded as accidents, fivepercent as suicide and only the remaining five percent were shown as murder. Policeare also found playing cards in these cases for knitting their own nest.

According to Government figures there were 5,3 77 dowry deaths in 1993 withan increase of 12% from 1992. Despite the existence of rigorous laws to preventdowry -deaths under a 1986 amendment to the Indian Penal Code (IPC), convictionsare rare, and judges (usually men) are often seen uninterested and susceptible tobribery. Recent newspaper reports have focused on the alarming rate of such deathsin Hamirpur, Mandi and Bilaspur districts ofHimachal Pradesh.

In spite of banning practices of dowry, harassment, extortion and demands asa preventive measure to avoid dowry deaths, the social evil ofdowry deaths continues.The recent update and legal outcome of some cases illustrates the other side of TheDowry Prohibition Act. The legal system should put the accused of false dowry claimsas a possible counter mechanism to blackmail and extortion via matrimony. There isa considerable rise in "passport weddings" by Indians seek matrimony with non-resident Indians (NRI) holding foreign citizenships. Once they get married and arriveon the desired foreign soil, many of them resort to tactics to earn more "dollars" fromthe NRI they married and the females crying false allegations of dowry harassment.When the mentality of dowry demands, along with accusations of extortion andharassment whether true or false start to be part of the imported and migratingbaggage. It marks a nouveau scenario among some immigrant marital problems andfamily law cases. The autopsy of some arranged marriages which extended beyondIndian soil and resulted in separation and breakdown started to reveal traces ofcarrying the burden of this imported baggage as the norm for negotiating marriagesand staying "happily" married.

Social laws are required where culture failed to institutionally stop injusticesofdowry deaths, an infanticide in case the woman fail to produce sons and leading tofamily breakdown due to dowry harassment. More importantly there needs to be acultural reforming on the status of women which can do away with only througheducation. The problem is compounded by the fact that 63 percent of the femalepopulation in India is still illiterate. Perhaps a good startingpointispopulation controland compulsory education for boys and girls alike.

The continuance of internal contradictions calmly coexisting with the culturalethics ofdowry, arranged marriages and the rights ofyoung girls and women remainsachallenge. Ultimately social responsibility will rest upon the initializeand mentalityof that segment of the Indian male population having a system entrapped in theextortion ofdowry.                                                          

Dowry has reduced the status of women to that of a commodity, available inthe market with so much cash and gifts. The grooms have also become a saleablecommodity available at such a price, earning so many amounts per month. The rates ofdowry have been fixed for the grooms of different categories—Doctors. Engineers. !Bank officers, Govt. officers, Businessmen, commands high ranking in dowry jparameters.

The cancer of dowry is spreading in a virulent form while the law to curb dowryis a total failure. Huge dowry is still demanded, even when the girls are well educated and cam much more to supplement the income of the family. Sometimes, after the jdowry is settled, further demands are increased at the marriage function itself, making’Light the parents of the bride, very pitiable and pathetic.

In case the marriage with dowry lesser than the demand takes place a newchapter of mental and physical violence against the bride begins to extract more dowry.The violence starts from the first day one with taunting remarks from the in-laws andthe docile husband also. Analyzing the things in its crude shape, we find, the womenare the enemy of the women. Has the mother-in-law and sister-in-law of a girlopposed demand for dowry, the harassment being done to the bride; in-law theposition would have been different altogether. Generally, it is the female in a familyinflicting verbal and physical violence upon the bride. In most of the cases of dowrydeath, the mother and sister of the groom are noticed to have active involvement.

Several laws are there to curb the dowry. Many NGO and Social Institutions,Women organizations. National Human Rights Commission also there to help thewomen in such cases. Family courts are also established to settle the disputes in anamicable way. Police are also taking immediate action in cases of violence and dowrydeaths. Press and media also play a great role to make such incidence public, but inspire of all these, a social awakening is required to kill the devil of dowry.

Kudos to Nisha Sharma, a U.P. girl who returned back the 'would be groom'blank handed for the demands of dowry. Kudos to the girls of Delhi and Chennai whodare to refuse to marry the boys demanding dowry and reported the matter to policeand they were put behind the bar. But every girl can't be Nisha Sharma and dare notto report the matter to police.The need of hour is the social awareness atleast amongthe females. If females of all families stop demanding dowry, if they oppose their malecounterpart for demanding dowry, if females refuse to marry aboy demanding dowry,the state of women would be changed. But it also does not seem easy, in thismaterialistic world, where the lust for money, dominates all actions, moral or immoral.

More stringent laws, more awareness, more education to the girls more self-dependence of the girls and a social awakening can only curb this ever increasing evilof dowry.

Vocabulary

1. ironic—ironical, paradoxical, contradictory, incongruous. 2.inheritance—legacy,bequest, patrimony, heritage. 3. eroded—breaking up, breaking down, falling to pieces,friable. 4. noose—hitch, running knot, loop, lasso. 5. prejudices—bias, partiality,unfairness, preconception. 6. enactment—edict, decree, statute. 7.rampant—raging,uncontrolled, growing without check, wild, dressed, attired, invested, costumed.8. vicissitudes—material welfare, finances, outlook. 9. inflationary—of. causing, orcharacterized by inflation. 10. inevitable—fated, certain, sure. unavoidable, impending. 11. comradeship—intimacy, sociability, comradeship, esprit corps. 12. oppressive—burdensome, onerous, harsh, tyrannical. 13. harassment—misuse, misapplication,perversion. 14. gruesome—grim, grisly, fearful. 15.  intricate—involved, elaborate,tricky. tangled. 16.eradication—extermination, annihilation, elimination. 17.reiterate—restate, repeat, iterate, reemphasize spersuasion, confidence, view. 18. lust—appetite,passion, concupiscence.