Any social evil in society arises from a defect. In my opinion, when it comes to India, a myriad of causes stemming from poverty are the primary reasons behind many social evils. Let’s not discuss reasons that transcend the boundaries of general agreeableness and force us into a world of chaos. Sticking to our basal origins or the root of these variegated problems (for these are different hues of the main colour), illiteracy constructed by poverty is the genesis of the social monster that I am going to cover in this article. It is devouring reason, judgement, and the ability to raise one’s voice due to a lack of self-esteem. This particular social evil often denies a woman the right to her life.
As someone who has read ‘Hans Christian Anderson’ in childhood, a part of me has faith in ‘happy endings’. Those stories were not necessarily utopian but the characters’ ceaseless struggles and constant will to disentangle from chaos and move towards a clearer, more optimistic life always rendered them perfect.
Reality is harsh and piercing enough to wake the sleeping conscience of a man and enlighten him with the scrupulously degenerating structure of our society. I’ll abstain from drawing a long list of social evils present in Indian society and instead pull the issue I want to discuss today to the forefront and let it speak for itself.
Marriage is often referred to as the coming together of two souls, but, I find that the people who marry to satiate their monetary desires or those who see it as a venture to demand monetary gains from women seldom consider the meaning or purpose of marriage. For the same reason, they are often driven by the ideas below:
- A newlywed bride can be burned in a rural corner of India without any ramifications.
- Women can be threatened that the divine bond of marriage will be broken if their families are not able to meet the demands made.
- The snobbery of the in-laws can be everlasting.
I won’t squander much time listing more troubling ideas, as in a case like this, an infinite list can be drawn. The best image I can think of to describe the social evil I am addressing is a large weighing scale with copper seats dangling from the air on either side; where the bride sits on one side and on the other the bride’s family fills the seat with worthy, material possessions until that seat is loaded and touches the floor. (Don’t worry, the seats are large and commodious enough.)
Have you figured out which social evil I am referring to? I am talking about dowry, which I see as technically being a trade. However, the profits in this trade are quite unilateral. A single party is the receiver of both the benefits: a person, and, goods. The giver has little to gain but he is still satisfied, as his daughter has been married off, never mind the harsh reality that made it possible.
The social pressure of dowry often leads poor fathers to insist that their daughters trade education for work in order to start earning a living as early as possible. It could also be said that a father’s illiteracy serves as a burden to the family and especially a daughter’s future. This raises the question, is dowry purely driven by poverty or poverty invoked illiteracy? The truth is that there is an inherent impulse to save and store money for a daughter’s marriage instead of investing in her education.
Strikingly, there is a tendency even among the well-off to compensate perceived shortcomings or inadequacies in a daughter by offering a larger dowry. Does dowry often serve as a hangman’s knot for the poorer sections of society who imitate the rich? Because the harsh reality is that the poor will often squander away their life savings in an attempt to provide their daughter’s new in-laws with an adequate dowry.
Nothing much can be said about the richer sections of society that demand dowry. By following the path of giving and receiving a dowry, they set bad examples that get followed by the lower strata of society. This evil has multifaceted consequences that lead to other defects in our society. A female child, especially in a rural area, suffers infanticide, because the parent’s don’t want to take on the ‘burden’ of a daughter. Giving birth to a girl child is believed to be less lucrative as the future of the family is sealed by the pressure of giving dowry at the time of her marriage.
I can’t state solutions. But let’s not put all the responsibility on the incumbent government. I think the people of the nation as responsible citizens can work to clear off the obscurity that has clouded society’s reason with regard to dowry. The rich can marry without a penny thus serving a better example to the poor.
Let the air of trumpeting, flattery or sycophancy not sow the seeds. And let us not water the weeds of this social evil.