Question

essay on dowry death

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Answer 1

Answer:

The first campaign of the contemporary feminist movement was against dowry. Dowry is the sum of all the money as well as other items such as jewellery, car, furniture, and house, etc., given by the bride’s family to the groom and his family. It was in Hyderabad in 1975 that the Progressive Organization of Women organized formal protests against dowry.

Death of young married women within the family had long been treated as “accidental” and recorded as “suicides”. The women’s movement drew the link between demands for dowry and the deaths. They demanded re-categorizations of such deaths as “murder” and not “suicide”.

The first campaign of the contemporary feminist movement was against dowry. Dowry is the sum of all the money as well as other items such as jewellery, car, furniture, and house, etc., given by the bride’s family to the groom and his family. It was in Hyderabad in 1975 that the Progressive Organization of Women organized formal protests against dowry.These protests were not allowed to grow into full-fledged campaigns because of the imposition of the Emergency in 1975. After the Emergency was lifted in 1977, a new movement against dowry started in Delhi. This movement focused upon the vio­lence inflicted upon women for dowry, including bride burning and abetment to suicide.

Delhi has remained the place for sustained agitation against dowry and related issues. This may be because Delhi has witnessed a high number of dowry deaths and dowry harassment cases. There have been protests and movements against dowry demand and dowry deaths in many states across India.

The Mahila Dakshata Samiti was the first women’s organization in Delhi’s contem­porary feminist movement to take up the issue of dowry harassment and dowry deaths. In June 1979, another women’s organization, Stri Sangharsh drew public attention to the problem of dowry and dowry-related crimes by organizing a demonstration against the death of Tarvinder Kaur, who had given a dying statement blaming her in-laws for killing her, as her parents could not fulfill their ever-increasing demands for dowry.

This demonstration gained wide, publicity, and resulted, in a number of demonstra­tions against dowry deaths, including a large demonstration led by the Nari Raksha Samiti (Women’s Rescue Committee). These demonstrations sparked off public debates on dowry and dowry-related crimes.