What is Dowry System in India ?

Where the custom exists, women frequently receive dowries in lieu of a right of inheritance from their father's estates (Goody and Tambiah 1973).

About 1200 years after Arrian's visit, another eyewitness scholar visited India named Abū Rayḥān al-Bīrūnī, also known as Al-Biruni, or Alberonius in Latin.

Gender imbalance – the much abhorred practices like abortion of female fetuses and killing of girl babies have resulted into an unnaturally skewed child sex ratio (CSR) in India.

Gold jewelry has traditionally been given to the bride on her wedding day. A girl from a influential family may find herself with gold rings on each finger, a dozen gold bracelets around her arms; nose ring, ear rings, necklaces, belts, anklets, tiarrass, all made of gold. Sometimes she even has gold dust dabbed on he forehead and cheeks. [Source: Peter White, National Geographic, January 1974]

Figures calculated by the Toronto Globalist indicate that comparing this figure to the natural male/female birth ratio show that about three million girls are “missing” from actual population numbers, while recent studies show that girls in this age group have a much higher mortality rate due to violence, negligence or murder than boys do.

The custom of giving dowries may perform several positive functions. First, as with other common forms of marital exchange such as bride-wealth (also called bride-price), a dowry affirms an alliance between two families united by marriage.

In states like Haryana and Rajasthan where these practices are most prevalent, the CSR stands at 830 girls per 1000 boys.

Second, a dowry may provide a bride with some protection against an abusive husband. Should she leave her husband, a woman's family may demand that all or part of her dowry be returned.

Most families will not marry off a daughter until she can be provided with at least two gold bangles, a gold necklace, earrings, a ring and a nose ring. This typically sets a family back around $2,000. Though it is part of the dowry, the gold is for the bride to keep, not only to make her beautiful but also to give her some security in case her husband dies and she thrown out the house.

The blowout of the dowry system forced the government to take action in the middle of last century, introducing the Anti-Dowry Act in 1961 which outlawed the giving and receiving of dowries.

This in turn leads to peculiar practices like polyandry and an increase in violence against women.

Third, a young couple may use the dowry to set up their own household. Finally, a woman may need to rely upon her dowry for support should her husband die and she has no rights to inheritance.

Large dowries have traditionally been regarded as a way for a girls to secure a husband with a good education and a good job or a member of a prestigious family. The payments of a large salary were seen as a way for the bride’s family to advance socially. In addition to the dowry, there is sometimes a tilka, a payment to the groom for marrying the bride. This is often demanded by the groom if the bride has had some problem or is having difficulty finding a marriage partner.

Loss of self-esteem in women – in a country which has experienced centuries of inferior attitude towards women, it is very hard to maintain a high level of self-regard if you are a woman.

After its introduction, the act received little support and was not strongly enforced, leading to a rampant and thriving illegal market for dowries.

These are by no means universal functions. They are contingent on the ways that people conceive of the dowry and, especially, on whether the wife controls all or part of it.

Some of the dowries demanded are quite oppressive, amounting to several years' salary in cash as well as items such as motorcycles, air conditioners, and fancy cars. Among some lower-status groups, large dowries are currently replacing traditional bride-price payments. Even among Muslims, previously not given to demanding large dowries, reports of exorbitant dowries are increasing. [Source: Library of Congress]

Dowry often has a marked political dimension. In medieval Europe, noble families down on their fortunes often sought to marry their sons to women from rich families whose dowries would thus enhance their own financial situations

Naturally, women themselves are bound in the shackles of an idea that they are incapable of any contributions to the society.

It wasn’t until later in the twentieth century, when women’s rights groups were campaigning strongly against dowries and former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi organized the marriage of her son without accepting a dowry from the bride’s parents, that the public really took notice, leading to an amendment of the Anti-Dowry Act in 1989 and public enforcement of the law.

The dowry is becoming an increasingly onerous burden for the bride's family. Antidowry laws exist but are largely ignored, and a bride's treatment in her marital home is often affected by the value of her dowry. Fears of impoverishing their parents have led some urban middle-class young women, married and unmarried, to commit suicide. However, through the giving of large dowries, the newly wealthy are often able to marry their treasured daughters up the status hierarchy so reified in Indian society.*

Among other initiatives, the government established an all-female police taskforce in 1992, set up with the sole purpose of investigating dowry dispute-related abuse or deaths. There are now more than 300 of these police taskforces across the country.

Their sense of self-worth hits rock bottom and they are increasingly subjugated to injustice.

By the same token, a newly wealthy family could improve its social standing by using rich dowries to form marital alliances with those of a higher class. In northern India, marrying daughters upwards, using the enticement of dowries, has long provided one of the chief means for families to raise their status (by very small increments) within the rigidly hierarchical caste system, a process technically known as hypergamy.

There was one story about a man who wanted to sell his organs to earn a dowry for his sisters so he committed suicide. The body was cremated before the organs could be salvaged.