ARE GIRLS ARE COMMODITY?
When will the horrors of dowry and bride-burning end?
WHEN EVERYDAY U”LL OPEN ANY NEWSPAPER,BE NATIONAL OR LOCAL U”LL FIND THE BRUTAL MURDER OF A INNOCENT GIRL,CAUSE DOWRY.
I FEEL SAD,FRUSTRATED TO SEE THIS AND FEEL HOW MANY YEARS IT WILL TAKE ,OUR SOCIETY WILL LEARN THE IMPORTANCE OF GIRL THAT THEY R NOT COMMODITY FOR WHICH RATE WILL BE FIXED IN OTHER WORDS ONE DICTIONARY LANGUAGE WE CALLED ” DOWRY”.
What is Dowry ?
Dowry ( dahej and varadakshine) is a form of wedding gift prevalent in india, that is also sometimes called price-of the-groom.
In earler stage the dowry system was a security blanket for married women in case of marital problems or abandonment by husband. It was an emergency fund setup by the the bride’s father and brothers and was rarely cash, and instead consisted of valuables such as jewelry, and immovable property.
The dowry system also acted as the girl’s inheritance from her father, because the Hindu joint-family system afforded all the property to the male descendants.
Social Menace of Dowry
Over a period of time, the abuse of the dowry practice has developed in India to the extent that it has become the biggest problem facing women. Many marriages are strained because of the dispute over dowry, and during 1980s, numerous cases of “burning brides” were reported in the media, where newly wed girls either committed suicide or burnt alive by the in-laws over dowry disputes.
As girls started expecting a fair inheritance from their fathers, the grooms also started demanding more and more. Some people went to the extent of deciding such matters as love, status, and prestige in the society depending on how much dowry a family could bring (or afford), and those who could not afford an expected dowry were subjected to humiliation.
As the women in India got more educated, many of them thought that the system of dowry was demeaning to women. The Indian courts have banned the practice since 1961, forgetting that it is indeed a strongly rooted tradition. So in today’s India, the dowry system plays a huge, but largely underground and illegal role in match-making, and forming of marriage alliances.
Silenced by their culture large populations of women in India tolerate abuse and subsequent death because they have provided insufficient dowry. In a culture that is male dominated women are raised to be servants to their husbands often arranged to marry a man that they have never met. Women that are beaten or just unhappy must suppress their feelings to keep their husbands blissful or face shame and be turned away by their own families. Indian women’s household must pay a dowry for the privilege of marrying a man of status. The dowry often consists of money, merchandise, or gold that is displayed when the couple is married. Women are being mistreated for insufficient dowry money because the groom’s family may be greedy and would like more items. If the bride’s family cannot provide more for the in-laws they will kill her so that he may keep the dowry he already had collected and then marries another that may possess more money or status. The original dowry is determined by the perceived value of the husband’s hand in marriage. If the husband is very desirable then he commands a very high dollar figure, if the offer of money is too low then the groom’s family will not accept it because it is an insult. “A woman held a PHD and married a man that was a shopkeeper with less education than she possessed. Her father provided a year’s worth of salary and many gifts. After the couple had been married six months, the in-laws requested a washing machine and other items that the bride’s family could not afford to give. They taunted the bride and eventually she was found hung from a ceiling fan. The groom was never convicted because he told the police she committed suicide, because she did not love him enough. Since the death took place in his home, they had no way of knowing if it was the truth. The woman was cut off from her relatives and had once asked her father to help her because she did not feel safe with her new husband.
It is the dowry system that is the primary cause of female infanticide in India, and the primary reason why everybody wants to have only male children. The system of gift-giving has turned into a system of absurd demands, and one of harassment of women.
i think women mainly responsible for majority of dowry problem and death.It becomes continuous process like ragging,i mean in ragging what happens really that when the ragged students become senior,if they can want in that year itself ragging could be stopped,but no as they were the earlier sufferer ,they also want to enjoy.Likewise women (some mother in laws,and others)think that if we brought dowry means the new girl bound to bring also.Other cause may be there.Men also responsible,without the help of men this torture can’t be done,but if women can help women this ugly tradition can come to end?
what u feel about this?
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