Dowry System

             India is the only country in the world where the pernicious dowry system exists. It is the most vicious system that is eating into the vitals of the nation and hampers the growth and development of the Indian womanhood on the right lines.

             The evil of the dowry system. with the ever-increasing demands by greedy parents of well-to-do young boys from the parents of the hapless young girls, has assumed such menacing proportions that the Government has taken a very serious view of the whole matter and has made dowry-giving and dowry- taking a cognizable offence punishable with imprisonment. Still, day in and day out, we are horrified by the news of bride-burning. Young brides are burnt alive by mothers-in-law in connivance with other members of the family sisters-in-law, brothers-in-law, even husbands — for not bringing adequate dowry. These human sharks deserve the severest punishment, even extermination from society.

             The evil of dowry system and bridge-burning is a blot upon the Indian civilization and deserves the severest condemnation. Foreigners ridicule our callousness and inhuman cruelty towards women and fail to understand how we can call ourselves civilized when such an atrocious practice prevails in the Indian society.

             How can the menace of dowry system be effectively checked? Social boycott and wide publicity of the offenders will go a long way in reducing the menace of dowry. Women’s organizations staging demonstrations against the guilty people should be made more effective. Lastly every dowry death must be properly probed and the offenders should be awarded exemplary punishment within six months of the occurrence of the death.