Mahatma Gandhi once said,
“Any young man, who makes a dowry a condition to marriage, discredits his
education and dishonors womanhood.” According to the dictionary dowry means
the money, goods, or estate that a woman brings to her husband or his family in
marriage. Dowry or Dahej (in Arabic) is one of the deep-rooted social evils which
is blooming in our society at an extraordinary rate. The ritual of dowry is so
old that starting of it is still unknown. It was in the pre-historic period,
there was a tradition in the rich and royal family of giving gifts to son in
law at the time of marriage. Moreover, as the gift were given voluntarily, out
of love, affection towards their daughter that she is going to start a new
life, it can hardly be termed as dowry. However, an offshoot of the same grew
in the evil practice of dowry. As the time progressed, it became common
practice for families to exploit the dowry system mostly in the South-Asian
countries like India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh etc. Hence, the system which
was meant for gift and promise of security from one partner to another soon
became a system for financial demand and resulted in broken engagements or
divorce, violence and even death for unpaid doweries. According to ancient Hindu
law, giving of dowry in the marriage of a daughter is an age-old practice in
India, reason being she had no right to inherit parental property which is now
a legal right in India.
The greed for acquiring
more and more property in the form of dowry has reached a state where married
women are subjected to physical and mental torture by husband or in-laws for
non-fulfilment of demand of dowry by girl’s family. Many a time this torture
leads to unnatural death of the married women or might possible she is being
compelled by circumstances to commit suicide. National Crime Bureau of India
states the shocking report which says that around 20 women die every day as a
result of harassment over a dowry, either murdered or compelled to commit
suicide in India. Even after stringent dowry laws the number of crimes related
to dowry are increasing at astonishing rate which points out there are certain
loophole within the laws of the dowry. Let me shed some light on the laws laid
down for the prevention of dowry also known as Dowry Prohibition Act 1961.
Uncertain Legislation:
In the year 1961, the
legislature enacted The Dowry Prohibition Act, moreover, this act failed to
curb the evil practice and it continued to be practiced throughout the country
in the name of customs and for the sake of showcasing one’s social prestige and
rank in the society.
Many law scholars have
criticized the act and state that it contains many loopholes as it excludes the
presents in the form of clothes, ornaments etc., provided the value does not
exceed two thousand Indian rupees, with a view being necessary to make law
workable. The only plus point of the act which says that the act prohibits not
only giving and taking dowry but also raising a demand for the same also
violates the law, but at the same time punishment prescribed for demanding,
taking and giving dowry were very low. Therefore, the punishment being low, it
couldn’t stop the dowry system in Indian society and it keeps on increasing day
by day with tremendous increase in dowry deaths.
“Having regard to the
difficulty in establishing cause of death beyond doubt, the Legislature passed
the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1983 to resolve the problem of growing
incidents of crime against women, particularly bride burning or dowry deaths.
Hence, a new Section 498-A making cruelty against women an offence was added to
the Indian Penal Code,1860 and consequential changes were made in section 174
and 176 of Criminal Procedure Code and a new Section 198A was added to it.”
In the case of Gurdeep v.
State of Punjab, the Supreme Court of India observed dowry death as the offence
and was introduced in the IPC 304B by criminal law amendment act 1986. The
loophole in this section is stated by court itself which stated that the most
of the time dowry deaths are committed within the safe precincts of a
residential house and thus it is very difficult for successful prosecution of
the offender. Furthermore, in the essentials of Section 304B the court also
stated that death of the married women should be within the seven years of
marriage, but question arises what if it is after the seven years of marriage?
(loophole).
Earlier, in the article
we clearly stated that under Dowry Prohibition Act any cash, property, clothes,
ornaments etc. of value not more than two thousand Indian rupees will be deemed
as dowry but later when the Section 304B of IPC came into existence it stated
that for removal of doubts, it is hereby declared that any gifts made at the
time of marriage to either party to a marriage in forms of cash, clothes,
ornaments etc., shall not be deemed to dowry within the meaning of this
section, unless they are made as consideration for the marriage of the said parties.
As the time moves government enforced stringent laws with punishment and people are getting educated and females are also working custom of dowry seems to be questioned and most of the times it is not followed which is a positive sign. Nevertheless, too much stringent laws in favour of women resulted in misuse of the act. Hence, in the year 2017, the Supreme Court of India stated a concern regarding anti-dowry harassment laws being misused by disgruntled wives as weapons rather than as shield. It stated that the stereotype women exaggerate and fabricate stories of violence in order to seek vengeance against their husband and matrimonial families. Furthermore, in light of these incidents The Supreme Court of India ordered that there shall be no direct and immediate arrest be made under anti-dowry harassment act. After this order there arises another loophole where suffering is real is that in this scenario the burden of proof lies with who?
As this evil custom with
uncertain legislation follows there are other crimes which are budding on it.
For example, killing of their female by their own parents so they don’t have to
pay dowry in the future, fraud and cruelty on women etc. Domestic violence for
demand of cash and items are all the criminal cases which are growing with this
ritual. It does not only affect the women but their families as well, some
parents must incur heavy debts for following this ritual and they remain in
debt for the whole life, this is one of the important reasons that the birth of
a daughter is looked upon as a bolt from blue.
To overcome this custom
its been observed that only legislation will not be sufficient as there are few
loopholes mentioned earlier in the article. Some NGO’s and voluntary agencies
should start the movement against the institution of dowry. People must understand
the true meaning of gift and should not be greedy about it. Marriage is not a
business and it will never be a business. The people should feel the essence of
marriage and respect women equally. Even Hindu Succession act has also given
equal property rights to women. Therefore, the bride’s family should also not
worry about giving gifts to her to make it equal. In an Indian society there is
a need of strict preventive measure which can create a new ideology which
includes a value system which can guarantee a place of honor to women and
their parents. Till now, it has ruined several families and has been destroying
the lives of thousands of women every year. The loopholes under the dowry prohibition
acts should be covered. There was the time when only some people followed it
and now is the time, it is so widely spread that even the poorest of the family
have to struggle with the custom of dowry. It is very difficult to imagine
about a poor father with one or more daughters living in the society which is
influenced by the custom of dowry.
People should realize
humanity and stop considering people as commodity. At the end, I on my behalf
would like to say ‘Real men will accept a girl for her virtue and not for
the money she can bring.’
