Dowry SystemBy :- Anil Kumar , Ummeda Ram

To :- Dr.Kanika Pawar

Dowry :-

– The word ‘DOWRY’ means the property and money that a bride brings to her husband’s house

at the time of her marriage.

Facts about Dowry – Middle-class women suffer a higher rate of victimization than lower-

class or upper-class women;

– About 70 per cent victims belong to 21-24 years age group, that is, they are mature not only physically but socially and emotionally also;

– The problem is more an upper-caste phenomenon than a lower-caste problem;

– Before an actual murder, several forms of harassment/humiliation are used against the young brides which show the chaotic pattern of social behavior of the members of the victim's family;

Facts about Dowry – The most important sociological factor in the causation of dowry

death is the offender's environmental stress or social tensions caused by factors endogenous and exogenous to his family, and the important psycho logical factor is the killer's authoritarian personality, dominant nature, and his personality maladjustment;

– No correlation exists between the level of education of the girl and her murder committed for dowry; and

– The composition of a family plays a crucial role in bride burning cases.

Advantages of Dowry System in India.

• Dowry helps newly married couple to establish their family.• Promotes Inter-caste, inter religion and inter-state marriage.•Acts as a provident fund: To face many financial hazards in future

Number of reasons exist behind the tradition of dowry in India.

– Lack of Property Rights for Women in Indian tradition:-women as a part of the household,

– Patre-linear and Patre-local society in India:-Male dominated society, a male centric view.

– The Centrality of Marriage:-marriage as central to the life, An unmarried woman is seen as a source of ill luck to the family and is generally mistreated. Thus women are encouraged to marry as soon as possible, even if she does not have any economic independence.

– Dowry practice enhances psychological tension: parents always remain worried and tensed in arranging money required to pay in dowry for daughter’s marriage. Girls are ill-treated even after the payment of dowry. So they spoil their mental peace .

Evil effects of Dowry System

•IN poor families sometimes the father of an young bride had to take loan from the bank to pay the demand of a groom:-Dowry causes great economic burden on bride’s family•Sometimes young brides commit suicide for the torture..• Increases corrupt attitude of parents:-They undertake unsocial activities like smuggling or earn by unfair means.• Dowry system makes imbalance in the sex ratio : Parent of poor families kill their daughter from their vary birth or at the stage of fetuses in their mother’s womb.

Dowry as part of marriage consideration is prohibited by law in India. The Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961 was enacted to help the women who are victim of Dowry System.

Solution

Empowerment:- Economic empowerment, social empowerment- A woman should be able to make her own decisions about marriage, children, sex or anything related to her life.Family:- Husband's family is considered as her real family.Caste:- By creating artificial restrictions against the choice of partners available to women, Elimination of these barriers of caste would surely go a long way into creating a sustainable solution from dowry. workshops, fairs, cultural and training programmes, seminars

Number of Dowry deaths in India• The figure of deaths in India due to non payment or partial payment

of dowry could be placed around five thousand for one year. • The increase in incidents of dowry offences inevident form the fact

that against 6851 cases of dowry deaths in the country in 2001, 8233 cases were reported in 2012 .

• The number of cases of cruelty by husband and in laws, as stated earlier, was reported to be 1,06,527 in 2012.

• In Lok Sabha, Women and Child Development Ministry Maneka Gandhi said that 8,233, 8,083, and 8,455 cases were registered under section 304B of the Indian Penal Code (Dowry Death) in the country in 2012, 2013 and 2014 respectively.

As per National Crime Records Bureau data, the country has recorded 3.48 lakh cases of cruelty by husband or his relative and West Bengal tops the chart with 61,259 such cases in past three years, followed by Rajasthan (44,311) and Andhra Pradesh (34,835).