The Dowry System In India

by luckky2020 | July 28, 2008 at 01:12 am

6185 views | 15 Recommendations | 3 comments

The dowry system is so deeply rooted in Indian culture, that sometimes one feels that there's going to be no way out - at least not for another century. Even modern, well-educated families start saving up money for their daughter's dowry as soon as she is born, so what can one expect from the uneducated masses, whose only form of education is tradition? When demands for dowry are not met, the bride is subject to torture, and often even killed. The reason many parents don't want to have daughters is because of the dowry they will have to shell out at her marriage, and the stress they go through due to never ending demands from her in-laws. Dowry is an evil, evil system and all of us, at some level, condone it and even contribute to it. Often the boys parents don't demand dowry, but our culture is such that we feel we must give something to the in-laws. In such cases, give as much as you receive. When you go out of your way because you are the parents of the girl, you are contributing to this evil. Come festivals like Diwali or Holi, and the parents of the daughter flood her in-laws with gifts. If gifts are expected - your daughter is married into the wrong family. If such giving is self-inflicted, you're making a mistake. Give a token present to your daughter. If you want to give her something more, do so, but don't feel pressured to give anything more than you receive to her in-laws. You don't need to if your daughter is happily married and has a supportive husband - so DON'T.

Seminar arranged by Rainbow against Dowry

"Dowry is a social malady that degenerates the self-dependent mentality of the men. Apart from that, the custom hinders a good relationship between the provider and receiver of dowry, and as a result, creates problems between families and within the society. Each year this custom costs a large number of women their life while it causes many other women to live a degraded life"- this was the speech from chief guest Mr. R Jamir, Director of MATADOR, at the seminar arranged by Rainbow Nari O Shishu Kalyan Foundation against the dowry custom. Mr. Md. Sohel Alam, the representative from the Qatar Charity Found, Rashal Md. Iqbal Khan the Representative from the PKSF were also present at the seminar as the special guest. Director of Rainbow Md. Altaf Hossain Mahabul read the main article at the seminar. Amongst others who presented their speeches on the occasion were social workers like Mr. Mahbub Alam, Md. Mizanur Rahaman Scientific Officer of PPRC, Mohammad Khairul Alam Executive Director of Rainbow Nari O Shishu Kallyan Foundation and Kazi Nafiza Shultana Chairman of Rainbow. People from different levels of the community participated in the seminar from the areas of Lalbagh, Hajaribagh and Kamrangirchar.

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Sanjay Jha

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 01:19 on July 28th, 2008

luckky2020, I like this story. It's good stuff. Use Highlighter tool, Cheers

Caoimhin1

at 07:35 on July 28th, 2008

luckky2020, I like this story. It's good stuff.

Mohammad Khairul Alam (not verified)

at 00:29 on August 13th, 2008

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