Just recently I was leafing through a publication that’s put out by the Vatican called ONE and an article on the dowry system caught my eye. I thought that this custom was all but extinct but found out differently.
Under the dowry system, a bride’s family is expected to pay money or give property to the groom’s family (payment details are negotiated by the families). In areas such as Kerala, which has the highest unemployment rate (about 50%) of any Indian state, dowries can be especially burdensome.
Brides whose families cannot pay a sufficient dowry face more than the breakup of a marriage. Husbands have been known to abuse their wives in such situations and in many cases will be burnt to death - the so called ‘kitchen deaths’, or forced to commit suicide.
Each year there are about 5,000 reported dowry deaths in the country, according to India’s National Crime Bureau. The International Society Against Dowry and Bride Burning claim that figure is probably 5 times higher. The husbands who commit the crimes are rarely punished.
2 comments:
There is and was bias in genders in almost all cultures. In India it might have been to 'x' amount, elsewhere it might have been to 'y' amount, thats about it.
But as a result, there has been repurccussion by the opressed gender, thats manifesting in india as some girls trapping their husbands in false allegations of harassment and cruelty(which is a criminal provision under IPC498a, which has been made harsh, but without suitable checks & balances which had to go with it- thereby making this section of law liable for misuse in the hands of vengeful wives).
But before anyone makes comments like the above view is by a bunch of woman haters, consider this. With 1 husband, 1 mother and sister(of the husband) is also falsely implicated by the wife. So the interpertation that its women hating is void, its against injustice we are speaking, not against women by and large.
You can see my blog and the links in there to see atleast 200 such cases of misuse of law by wife(or her posse). Of course it may be an offshoot of opressed womenfolk, but its wrong too.
regards
Deep
I think before writing over the issues like "Misuse of Dowry Law" you should at least have a look over the time period since when this "Dowry system" is being carried over in our Indian Culture. You are talking about "Today's modern daughter-in-law" just because they are taking away some percent of their husband's property, how would you account for taking away one's right of living in this world just because of "Money". How will you judge the moral values of the society where woman are being killed through various means just for money.Not just this much but, this prevalent "Dowry Culture" has given rise to "Female foeticide" the girls who are not even born are being killed in the mother's womb because of this cruel dowry culture. Women are being considered as a burden at their home, people feel very proud when a male child is born at their home, why not a girl enjoys the same pride and happiness in her family?? families go bankrupt trying to get their daughters married off, choice in forming relations is frowned upon and thousands - maybe lakhs - of young women suffer violence silently behind closed doors. You are talking about some 200 cases against some women who are getting married to a person for money. But, I don't think that they would have been any murder case of a "man" who would had refused to give money to his wife. If you will look at the surveys of "DOWRY DEATH" its "One bride burnt every hour". I guess its not so tough to imagine the "not so happy situation" of women where she is standing right now.
Post a Comment