The dowry system has rooted deeply in the Indian society. We daily see many cases of dowry victims in the columns of the newspapers. The meaning of the ‘dowry’ is the property either in cash or in any other form which a woman brings to her husband at the time of the marriage. It is a kind of assistance given to the newly wedded-couple from the bride’s parents to start a fresh life in the new set up. But it has now become a great social evil. This most cursed system has ruined many families. Many parents have lost their daughters.
Giving a dowry is a very old custom. Even in the past the parents of the girl have been giving dowry in the form of gifts. But in the present scenario it has become one of the biggest evils of the society. Perhaps this is the reason that marriages for millions of families have become a financial burden. The daughters are not welcomed by most of the Indian parents. If a family has more than one daughter, it means it will hardly come out of the debt. This happens because the bride’s family has to provide the most lavish wedding for their daughter.
Nowadays the size of a dowry depends on how much education the groom has and what is his income and social status. This matters because the more education and income the man has the bigger the dowry he can ask for. In such situation if a girl’s father has much money then there is no problem. The girl will get a suitable match.
In case the father is not earning much he finds it difficult to give a suitable match to his daughter. It results in a compromise marriage.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
Sometimes it is the greed of the grooms and their parents which makes dowry system a serious. The more dowry the bride brings with her the more demand is being made by her in-laws. As such if she fails to fulfil her in-laws’ greed she is ill-treated, misbehaved and sometimes burnt. There are many cases of suicide due to this ill treatment.
Dowry is such an evil which spreading likes AIDS and cancer in our society though Government has strict laws against it but to no purpose. It is because people don’t care.
But it is duty of all enlightened citizens of our country to fight out this evil. We must rid our society of this curse. In this regard the youths of the society can be of great help. They should come forward and start a massive campaign for rejecting and socially boycotting the people accepting the dowiy. If this is not done, serious consequences are likely to affect our society. It fills our heart with pity to think that there are such cruel people in our society. They are not humans but killers.
To solve this problem parents should make their daughters bold and self independent by giving them higher education. Thus every effort should be made in order to uproot this evil otherwise girls will always be sufferers.