explain the dowry prohibition act
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What difference has the law made and why are we continuing with this law? This was precisely the question posed to me by a group of six spirited young girls hailing from a global law university, animatedly working on a college project on Dowry. The query and subsequent conversation triggered the feminist in me, to once again question the sexist and regressive practice of dowry and the ineffectual law-the Dowry Prohibition Act enacted in the year 1961, amended twice in 1984 and 1986 and also supplemented by The Dowry Prohibition (Maintenance of Lists of Presents to the Bride and Bridegroom) Rules, 1985.
Dowry culture is endemic to Indian, more specifically Hindu marriages, who seek to find a socio-cultural validation for the same in the ancient concepts of Kanyadaan and Varadakshina. Post-independence, we have a Constitution that declares all persons to be equal and forbids discrimination on the basis of caste, creed, sex etc. If girls are equal to boys, if they are independent persons with the same rights and duties as available to boys, then how can we sustain a custom that allows girls to be gifted away in marriage? Is she some property that can be given away?
Dowry is a decadent practice that has been institutionalized by our society. There are many factors that influence dowry. Region, caste, education, looks, height, skin tone etc. Physical and mental compatibility are the least of concerns while fixing matches in a society obsessed with old practices. For them, if anything is to be matched, it is the horoscope, and the social as well as economic status of the families of the bride and groom. Education, which is supposed to be a tool for empowerment works the other way around. It increases the groom’s price whereas the girl’s parents have to struggle to find a more educated boy that means shelling out more money. A well-placed girl needs a better or at least an equally well-placed groom. Its commonplace to adjunct a girl’s short height, lack of education or darker skin tone by raising the groom price. In a society that insists on an older, taller, more educated and better placed groom and also where the girl has to leave her house and stay with the boy and his family, if there are any differences, as are inevitable in any relationship, the girl for obvious reasons finds herself in a disadvantageous position.
Dowry is seen as a status symbol by not only the groom’s but also the bride’s family who take pride in spending lavishly on their daughter’s wedding. They are reluctant to spend on her quality education, opposed to parting with a share in the property which is rightfully hers, disinclined to spend on building her career but go to the extent of taking loans for her wedding. Is it some latent love for daughter’s well being that suddenly surfaces at the time of her marriage or is it one’s estimation in the society and also the prospect of forging alliance with a well to do family? Even when girls complain about dowry demands after their marriages, the girl’s parents take that as normal and ask her to adjust in the hope that things will settle with time, or with incidences such as child birth. There are two reasons behind this, one is the feeling of having discharged their responsibility towards their daughter and second return of the separated or divorced daughter is stigmatized by the society. The girl’s welfare does not figure anywhere in this entire scheme
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