Although India has outlawed dowry payments a long time ago, the tradition of asking for a very substantial sum to marry a female in India persists perniciously.
The statistics are horrifying. Every hour a woman dies because of the dowry payments. Instead of alleviating the demands for such traditional payments, the current economic boom has made things even worse.
8,233 women were killed in India in 2012. The killings occurred after disputes broke out between the parents of the betrothed, with the grooms's parents demanding and the bride's family resisting or contesting the ever swelling demands of the dowry sum.
As with everything else, prosecution of dowry crimes are very low, with the Indian judiciary overburdened and notoriously slow. Only 32% of all crimes ever reach conviction.
What makes dowry payments so onerous, is that sometimes the payment continues for years after the wedding. If the dowry is perceived as insufficient, usually in relation to the groom's social status and wealth, the bride is usually doused with gasoline and set afire, ending the unsatisfactory (in the groom's parents' view) dowry contract.
With the economic boom, greed is becoming endemic. There is a noticeable shift towards materialistic values, which pins the amount of dowry payments toward one's own perceived value in society.
Marriages have always had a nature of convenience, of an exchange of sorts. And the problem is that the groom's family feels that the dowry must match their own wealth if not surpass it, in order not to feel as if they have had to accept someone beneath their station.
What is worse, even more educated Indians are sticking to dowry traditions.
Source : WashPost/ 9.3.13
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