Last week, Sheetal Wayal, A 21-year-old girl, committed suicide because her father, an indebted farmer couldn’t bear dowry expenses.
This is the second incident from that same village in which a girl had committed suicide over dowry. Mohini Bhise ended her life about a year ago in a similar fashion. She had left a suicide note, asking, “Why the father of a girl should bow down every time?”
Dowry isn’t a new issue for our society. But it is a new tragic trend where girls are committing suicide solely due to the fear of dowry and the great economic burden it might create on their families.
Despite rapid globalization and liberalization, it is a bitter truth that the social evil called ‘dowry’ is still present in today’s society.
Maharashtra is known for its purogami culture (reformist or forward culture).But these incidences along with a 12th class sociology book { approved by The State Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board which stated that “If a girl is ugly, then it becomes very difficult for her to get married and hence her parents have to pay more dowry” } are enough to raise question about its ‘purogami’ status.
Well, this issue is not constrained to any individual state, it’s problem that almost every family in India is very familiar with.
Though the practice of dowry is publicly condemned and legally banned, it still not only persists but also has taken magnified proportion and has emerged as contemptible social evil.
The custom of dowry has degraded the sacred institution of marriage to a business transaction. It is the main reason why a young maiden is treated like a saleable commodity.
Demanding dowry is akin to discrediting womanhood. Young men who demand dowry should be excommunicated. Parents of girls should cease to be dazzled by English degrees and should not hesitate to travel outside their little castes and provinces to secure true, gallant young men for their daughters
– Mahatma Gandhi
Gandhi’s advice of socially boycotting the people who make dowry a pre-condition for marriage might be a good solution for this. But it is very very very difficult to implement in Indian society where we consider “Samaj kya kahega” factor in every decision we make.
But we have to abolish dowry system as it is also the root of many more problems.
Many parents choose corruption as a medium to collect money for paying dowry.
Many parents also hesitate to give higher education to their daughter as they have to search for a highly educated boy for marriage and better-educated boy will demand more dowry. In this Great Indian Shaadi market, not only girls are treated like saleable liabilities but there is also a rate card for bachelor men. 2 lakhs for a factory worker, 5 lacks for Police or Army member and 4th-grade government employee, 10 lakhs for horticulture farmer, lawyers take 5 to 10 lakhs, PI, PSI 15 to 20 lakhs, IAS 50 lakhs to 1 crore. And this is really shameful to know that such well-educated people also get involved in such practices.
And also dowry is one of the major reason why many poor families kill their daughter at the stage of fetuses in their mother’s womb.
Problem is that our society treats dowry as a symbol of the reputation of the bridegroom’s parents. We all must have seen many people proudly speaking about how much dowry they have taken/given. Dowry will be closed on the day when people will be ashamed to say such things.
No such paradox has been abolished in a single day, there should be constant efforts to stop dowry system by governmental laws, education and most importantly by the community itself, by degrading the “social prestige” of this evil custom.
Awesomengers 
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