Business Environment & Society Presentation

1. Business I Environment I Society - Rajesh K Satpathy

2. Social Issue
# 4
Dowry System in India

3. Dowry System in India
Since marriages in India are a time for big celebrations in each
family, they tend to be very lavish. Accordingly, Indian weddings
usually involve considerable expenditure and accompanying
wedding presents from relatives in both sides of the family. This is
normal expenditure which is done willingly and varies from one
family to another depending on the wealth and status.
The Tanishq Ad where the girl exclaimed that the necklace worth
Rs.3 lakhs was cheap! It just got me thinking, how much does a
wedding cost, not the fancy destination weddings or those held in
five star hotels !!!

4. Dowry System in India
In North India weddings see an average middle class wedding costs
around 15-20 lakhs these days, which is downright atrocious for a
working-class family the richer the more. And spending Rs. 3 lakhs
on an elaborate necklace is the silliest thing in the world because
it's only worn once or twice in a lifetime, the same goes for the
wedding dress between lakhs, which happens to be ridiculously
very expensive as well.
“ The grand twin wedding of Sahara chief Subrata Roy's sons,
Sushanto with Richa and Seemanto with Chandini took place in
Lucknow in 2004. Its cost was around 552 crore approximately. ”

5. Types of dowry crimes:
In recently times married women can be a target for dowry related
violence because she is tied economically and socially to her new
husband.In some cases, dowry is used as a threat or hostage type
situation, in order to extract more property from the bride’s family.
This can be seen in new brides, who are most vulnerable in the
situation.Dowry crimes can occur with the threat or occurrence of
violence, so that the bride’s family is left with no choice but to give
more dowry to protect their daughter. The northern and eastern
states of India show higher rates of dowry-related violence.

6. Types of dowry crimes:
Dowry is considered a major contributor towards observed
violence against women in India. Some of these offences include
physical violence, emotional abuses, and even murder of brides
and young girls prior to marriage.
The predominant types of dowry crimes relate to cruelty (which
includes torture and harassment), domestic violence (including
physical, emotional and sexual assault), abetment to suicide and
dowry death (including, issues of bride burning and murder).

7. Types of dowry crimes:
India, with its large population, reports the highest number of
dowry related deaths in the world according to Indian National
Crime Record Bureau. In 2012, 8,233 dowry death cases were
reported across India, while in 2013, 8,083 dowry deaths were
reported.This means a dowry-related crime causes the death of a
woman every 90 minutes, or 1.4 deaths per year per 100,000
women in India.
Source: Wiki

8. Laws against dowry in India :
The first all-India legislative enactment relating to dowry to be put
on the statute book was the “The Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961” and
this legislation came into force from July 1, 1961.It marked the
beginning of a new legal framework of dowry harassment laws
effectively prohibiting the demanding, giving and taking of dowry.
Although providing dowry is illegal, it is still common in many parts
of India for a husband to seek a dowry from the wife's family and in
some cases, this results in a form of extortion and violence against
the wife.

9. Laws against dowry in India :
To further strengthen the anti-dowry law and to stop offences of
cruelty by the husband or his relatives against the wife, new
provisions were added to the Indian criminal law - section 498A to
Indian Penal Code and section 198A to the Criminal Procedure
Code in 1983.
In 2005, the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act was
passed, which added an additional layer of protection from dowry
harassment.

10. International conventions against dowry :
India is a party to several international human rights instruments
which provide theoretical remedies to the dowry problems. These
international conventions include the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights ("UDHR"), International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights ("ICCPR"), the International Covenant on Economic,
Social, and Cultural Rights ("ICESCR"), the Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women
("CEDAW"), and the Convention on the Rights of the Child ("CRC").
CEDAW codifies the rights most relevant to the discussion of
dowry-related violence: the rights of women.
However, there are issues of non-intervention and cultural
relativism which impede the use of international law to combat
dowry deaths.

11. Ways to Combat the Dowry Causes: Solutions…
One of the many things that need to be understood is that many
cultures exist in India and each culture operates with a different
patriarchy. What may be applicable to one culture may not be so to
another, what solves problems in one culture may even aggravate
the problem in another.
Hence, it is important that we do not take a one size fits all
approach to the issue. However, I believe that some broader
guideline should be definitely influence these decisions.

12. Ways to Combat the Dowry Causes:
Empowerment: Now this may sound like a cliché or formula, but
the fact that it is repeated so often does also emphasize on the
importance of it. When we talk of empowerment, we so often
mean economic empowerment and tend to forget that social
empowerment is a much more important aspect of life.

13. Ways to Combat the Dowry Causes:
Family: As soon as a woman is married, she is expected to move
into her husband's house and her husband's family is considered as
her real family. Her own parents suddenly are supposed to be
secondary in importance. Further any woman spending too much
time in her paternal home is frowned upon.
This ensures that she is removed from strong support structures
and fundamentally dependent on her husband. She is expected to
follow her husband wherever he goes, even if it means her putting
her own career and job at jeopardy.

14. Ways to Combat the Dowry Causes:
Caste: This one is at the root of a lot of social evils in India. By
creating artificial restrictions against the choice of partners
available to women, who do want to marry. The casteist and sexist
nature of these restrictions are evident from the fact that a woman
is allowed to marry anyone from an upper caste, with relative easy,
while a woman marrying a person from a lower caste is seen as an
insult to the upper caste.

15. Ways to Combat the Dowry Causes:
Fear of law: People openly demand dowry in spite of it being
considered as a crime. This is mainly because there is no fear of
law. The existing laws are not implemented strictly and the cases
filed take a long time for the verdict. There have been incidents
where the police were being insensitive.

16. Thank You!