Dowry Essay, Research Paper

Dowry

Traditionally, dowry in India was regarded as a burden for the bride s parents, but an honor for the bride. The gifts are usually given at the time of the wedding or very soon after. They usually include household goods such as furniture, utensils, bedding, electrical appliances, and clothes (which are usually destined to be redistributed among the grooms kin.)

One of the basic functions of a dowry has been to serve as a form of protection for the wife against ill treatment by her husband. A dowry used in this way was actually a conditional gift to the husband that had to be restored to the wife or her family if the husband divorced his wife or committed some grave offense against her. Such dowries were frequently land or some other form of real property and were made inalienable by the husband, though he might otherwise use and profit from them during marriage.

A dowry can also serve to help a new husband discharge the responsibilities that go with marriage. This function assumed special importance in societies where marriages were regularly made between very young people; the dowry made it possible for the new husband to establish a household, which he otherwise would not have had the economic resources to do. Another function of a dowry in some societies has been to provide the wife with a means of support in case of her husband’s death. In this latter case the dowry is a substitute for a compulsory share in the succession or the inheritance of the husband’s landed property.

In many premodern societies the dowry serves as a reciprocal gesture by the bride’s family to the groom’s kin for the expenses incurred by the latter in payment of the bride-price. These exchanges are not purely economic; they serve to ratify the marriage and consolidate friendship between the two families.

Currently, in India the practice of giving dowries is made more complex by the caste system because it divides Hindu society into classes, groups and subgroups. It gives social power to the upper classes while the lower classes live in poverty and humiliation. Because dowries are judged by there size and expense, the practice makes it nearly impossible for members of the lower class to move up the social ladder.

However, the ironic aspect is that Indian dowry was originally designed to safeguard the woman and it was the provision of Sthreedhan ( Sthree meaning woman and dhan wealth) in the form of money, property or gifts given solely to the woman by her parents at the time of her marriage. Sthreedhan , an inheritance was meant to exclusively belong to the woman at the time of her marriage.

However, there is currently an abuse of this custom, which has eroded and aborted the original meaningful function of dowry as a safety net for women. Dowry has now become the price tag for the groom and in some cases a noose for the bride.

The price of the Indian groom has astronomically increased based on his qualifications, profession, and oppression in an increasingly materialist and historically male-chauvinist society has literally become an issue of life and death to the newly married brides because most brides with inadequate dowries are burned to death by their husband of in-laws, in a practice referred to as bride burning .

Most dowry deaths have occurred in the upper strata of Hindu communities such as the Brahmans, Kshatriyans, and Vaishyas. Most killing of women for non-payment of promised dowry have so far occurred in the urban affluent upper-caste Hindu communities. The problems of dowry death, bride burning and other forms of dowry-related violence on women is a Hindu phenomenon that is now almost out of control due to the following reasons: 1) retention of the caste system, 2) undermining of the woman by religious orthodox and social patriarch making herself and her family vulnerable to socioeconomic pressure and extortion, 3) increasing requirements from the bridegroom and his family, and 4) an economically strangled hyper populated society non-supportive of unmarried women.

The steady rise of the dowry deaths in India has led to some political action. The 1986 Dowry Prohibition (Amendment) Act defines dowry death as where the death of a woman is caused by burns or bodily injury, or occurs otherwise than normal circumstances within seven years of her marriage and it is shown that soon before her death she was subjected to cruelty or harassment by her husband or any relative of her husband for, or in connection with, any demand for dowry, such death shall be called dowry death . The Indian Supreme Court has also decided that even suicide committed by the victim herself would be considered to fall under dowry death .

In addition, the 1986 amendments as defined dowry as any property or valuable security given or agreed to be given either directly or indirectly: a) by any party to a marriage or by other party to the marriage, or b) by the parents of either party to the marriage or by the person to either party to the marriage, or to any other person at or by any time after the marriage in connection with the marriage of the said parties but it does not include Dower or Mehr in the case of persons to whom the Muslim personal law (Shariat) applies.

In spite of these legal breakthroughs, shocking statistics on dowry deaths still continue. In 1995, an Indian newspaper reported that every two hours a women was killed over a dowry. In addition, according to Unicef, there are currently 5,000 women a year who were killed because their in-laws considered their dowries inadequate.

References:

Caleekal, Anuppa. Dowry Death.

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Banerjee, Partha. A Matter of Extreme Cruelty: Bride Burning and Dowry Deaths in India. Injustice Studies, v1 n1 Nov 1997.

Women s Issues 3rd World

www.about.com

Dowry

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Hirschon, Renee. Women and Property-Women as Property.

The Oxford Women s Series 1984

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