Recently, the Delhi High court in a revolutionary move legalized homosexuality by abolishing section 377 of the IPC. Sometime last year, the Maharashtra cabinet sent a proposal for the legalization of live-in relationships. 2008 also saw the Tamil Nadu government granting recognition to the Transgender community in India. This is a time of progress; the winds of change are blowing. We’re on our way to utopia, an era of peace, tolerance and acceptance. India really does seem to be shining, doesn’t it?
Let’s cut to another picture. On October 14th, this year, 4 people were arrested for allegedly burning a woman to death. The victim, Rukshana, was immolated by her in laws in September. On 6th October Manju, alias Sunita was found dead in her in laws house. She was two months pregnant at the time. Her husband and in-laws were arrested on charges of harassment and murder. The motive in both cases? Dowry. The archaic, decadent, debauched system of dowry, abolished almost 50 years ago, but still as rampantly practiced.
Students have read of the dowry system as a former social evil, long abolished. However, it is hardly a thing of the past. Rukshana and Sunita are merely two names among hundreds of women who are killed every year, and thousands who are suffering silently.
Every year, newspapers throw up many articles reporting instances of bride burning, or married women dying under suspicious circumstances, and the motive largely points to differences arising out of the amount of dowry offered.
Some cases like these come into the limelight, several others are mentioned and then forgotten, and thousands go unnoticed and unreported.
It is the 21st century, the age of modernity and progress, and the menace of something as decadent as dowry still continues to be one of the biggest problems faced by women in the Indian society. But how did this social malaise that has destroyed the lives of so many come about in the first place?
Most studies suggest that the practice of giving dowry or dahej bears its roots in the system of ‘streedhan’. Streedhan was the woman’s stake in her parent’s wealth, given to her at the time of marriage. Property laws in India ensured that only the male heir would inherit family property, leaving the woman with no access to money or property and rendering her economically dependent. Thus streedhan served as a sort of safety net for the woman, which she could access in case she faced marital problems or was left by her husband. What is ironic is how a system meant to create security for the woman evolved into her biggest source of insecurity and threat.
Gradually, the streedhan system changed from something voluntary to something that was demanded by the groom’s family. It was no longer kept aside for the woman but was looked upon as a means to enhance and bring wealth into the groom’s family. The quantity and form of this ‘gift’ also grew to be decided by the husband and in-laws. Dowry could acquire the form of cash, valuables, property or consumer goods. With time, dowry and marriage became inseparably linked. The worth or value of the woman was decided in terms of the amount of dowry she would bring in.
An examination of the origins of the dowry system shows the tragic decline of a system meant to safeguard and protect, to one which grew to spell doom for womankind.
The consequences of this system on women were disastrous. It led to the complete commodification of the woman, who was seen only in terms of the economic value she would add to the family that she would marry into. If the bride’s family was unable to provide the dowry on time or give the agreed upon amount, the bride would be harassed and tortured. Many times, the demands of the receiving family were insatiable. Even after the decided dowry amount was paid, the bride’s in laws would demand more and more, and failure or refusal to provide dowry would lead to the physical and mental torture of the bride. The practice of bride burning became rampant, wherein the bride was burned to death on inability to pay dowry.
The repercussions of the dowry system were not just limited to the married woman, but had a negative impact on womankind as a whole. Links can be drawn between the dowry system and the other serious of gender discrimination, like female foeticide, infanticide and the preference of a male child. As the demands for dowry began scaling new hands, a daughter’s marriage became an extremely expensive affair. Moreover, the daughter had no means of adding to the income of the family. On the other hand, a son would be able to augment the house hold income, both in terms of his earnings and the dowry he would fetch at the time of marriage. Thus, a male heir was increasingly preferred and female infanticide and foeticide was on the rise.
By 1961, the dowry prohibition act was introduced, and dowry was legally abolished. However, dowry and marriage were now so closely linked together, that it continued to be given and taken in a clandestine, undercover manner. The practice began to spread its claws far and wide and moved to areas like South India, where it had not been prevalent before.
The malaise of the dowry system and the oppressiveness that is now synonymous with it questions the whole concept of humanity or what is ‘humane’. It raises the bar of cruelty and is a testament what greed can reduce us to. It paints a very sorry picture of the status of women in India today. It is indeed tragic that in this century, when we have women as politicians, CEO’s, prominent journalists, sportspersons and the like there is a flipside which is as grim as the other is grand. And though prima facie we are in changing times, a lot that is old, decadent and archaic still remains.
Particularly in the case of dowry, the situation hasn’t shown any sign of improvement. Moreover dowry as a problem is not limited to the rural, un-educated or backward sections of the society. In the upper classes, in fact, the scale at which dowry is demanded and given reaches new heights with passing time. Thus education and awareness are not the solutions to this problem. What is needed is a great shift in mindset. The inherently sexist and chauvinistic thinking that most belong to, though don’t acknowledge has to dramatically change. We live in a patriarchal society where marriage is the most important end to a woman’s life, and getting a ‘good’ match is the parent’s mission from the time a girl is born. Many stigmas are attached to a girl who is rejected or marriages that don’t work out, conditions apt for the dowry system to flourish.
We need to change our way of thinking and dramatically so. Till then, no matter how many nuclear deals we sign, and how much our GDP rises, India will not be a progressing nation.
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