Why Dowry is popular in India

Why Dowry is popular in India

Around eight thousand dowry related deaths are reported in India every year and the real number could be even higher as many cases are not reported at all.

Practice of dowry may bring severe consequences including violence, sex-selective abortion and female infanticide. Research shows that in 1980s when international gold prices inflated mortality of females also increased in India. Often the financial decisions of households depend upon dowry as research has shown that the estimated value of dowry is equal to the annual income of the family. This leads to families with daughters saving up their resources for dowry which otherwise could have been invested elsewhere.

But the idea and practice of dowry is not limited only in India. This practice was common in Europe in the medieval period. The current financial capital of India, then known as Bombay was gifted to the British Crown by the Portuguese as a part of dowry of Queen Catherine of Braganza in 1661.

The practice of dowry decreased in Europe along with the economic development but on the contrary it hiked up in India. Data shows that almost 40 per cent of marriages were reported with dowry in 1940 which increased to 90 per cent by the year 2000.

There are several theories about the origin of dowry. One of such theory says daughters were given away to the in-laws along with money as women didn’t had any legal rights on their family’s property. Hence dowry served as a compensation given to the woman. But with time the concept evolved and the current practice of dowry can be equated to the practice of groom price where the value of dowry is determined by the market value of the groom. This so-called value of groom is determined by factors like education, job type, salary, caste etc. This concept of groom price is contrary to the bride price practice which was common in parts of south India and is still existent in northeast India where the groom’s family pays a certain amount to the bride’s family as a compensation for her work. Research shows that the practice of bride price hasn’t changed much over the years but dowry has seen a significant increase inspite of many activists like Satya Rani Chadha protesting against this malpractice since years.

There are several theories explaining the increase in the dowry practice. The most significant of them are the theory of Sanskritisation proposed by famous sociologist M. N. Srinivas which says that dowry was prevalent only in upper castes but as several lower castes started to adopt practices of upper castes in order to increase their status, dowry became a common practice. Another such theory by Siwan Anderson indicates economic development leading to cross-caste competetion as the main reason of increase in dowry. Theory by Gaurav Chiplunkar says relative groom quality has increased over the years as mostly men got educated and pursued better jobs hence families are forced to give dowry. And the cycle can break when potential brides are educated and financially independent.

Considering the developments in India over the recent years women are still a small proportion of workforce despite women outperforming men in many cases during education. NSS report of 2014 shows that about 60 per cent of women said they had to do all the domestic work(unpaid) due to the reason ‘no other member to carry out the domestic duties’.

Such problems often require creative solutions. There have been laws against dowry since decades and little did they affect the practice in reality. Women need to be educated and provided with economic opportunities to counter the relative hike in groom quality. Surveys have shown that promoting rural manufacturing and improving transport infrastructure tend to increase women’s participation in the workforce in rural parts of the country. Punishments to all families practicing dowry isn’t the perfect solution, change in the mindset of the society is the real way to do away with this age old malpractice.