This article has been written for Techkriti Blog for a Cause Contest. The topic was: “The hand that rocks the cradle rules the World.” Write about a particular issue concerning the position of women in today’s society. For more information visit: http://www.socialscribblers.in/techkriti-blog-cause/

1. Topic: “The hand that rocks the cradle rules the World.”
Scene 1: Two families from Rajasthan, who are known to each other,
set up an arranged meet for their respective daughter and son. After
exchanging formal talks, they both give their consents for marriage
alliance.
Scene 2: After a formal ceremony called ‘Roka’, both leaves for
different cities to resume their respective jobs.
Scene 3: Everything looks picture perfect until one month.
Thereafter, the girl senses from boy’s talks that there is some ulterior
motive behind this marriage alliance. However, she is yet to find a
concrete evidence to confirm the same.
Scene 4: After two months, she decides to return to home to spend
quality time with her family. Before she leaves, the boy meets her.
They both plan to shop. The boy asks girl to handover him, the
money that she is carrying. Boy shamelessly shops from her money
until it’s over.
Scene 5: On reaching home, the girl reveals this incident to her
parents. Her mother not just takes it lightly but asks her to ignore
this incident.

2. Scene 6: Girl begins to ignore his phone calls as boy keeps on
indicating things like that he would love to be gifted a brand new
phone on his upcoming birthday, etc.
Scene 7: Her patience finally gives up. In a public function, she
conveys indirectly from her behavior to his and own family that she
is not keen in this alliance.
Scene 8: Message successfully gets conveyed to boy’s family,
ultimately leading to break-off.
Well, these are not scenes from any skit. It is a ‘true’ story and
the girl in the story is none other than ‘I’. I do possess ‘rebellious
attitude’ that helped me to stand up for my dignity by raising voice
against ‘Dowry’, but what about other women? Raising voice against

3. this social evil is indeed more challenging due to the
involvement of girl’s own family. This incident failed to shatter my
strength but it did shatter my illusion of so called ‘INCREDIBLE INDIA’.
It is impossible to gather the real statistical data as to:
 How many women are compelled to commit suicide as they are
being tortured up to unimaginable extent on the name of
dowry?
 How many are burnt alive due to never-ending greed of dowryseekers?
 How many are beaten to their brutal deaths?
 How many are thrown out of their matrimonial houses?
How can we brag about an
‘Incredible India’ despite of acknowledging diverse ongoing tortures
on the name of dowry? However, when it came to me, I could not
imagine the plight of those girls, who would fail to muster courage to
leave the house due to being illiterate and dependent. That is
where; the importance of education comes in picture. I humbly
request to all women that please don’t ignore education it as it

4. proves to be the mightiest weapon at the end, when you are
confronted with adversity on one pretext or the other. Ultimately,
after experiencing difficulties for few years, now I am married to a
man who mainly fell for my will-power to face such situation,
positive attitude and overall value-system.
I strongly urge to all Indian women to learn to raise voice and stand
up for own dignity. Always learn to take responsibility of your own
life because once you will be thrown into the so-called sacrificial fire
of saving parents reputation, it won’t be easy to undo your decision.
After wedding, they might not even come to lend you support when
you will be in actual need for the same. In fact, they will ask you to
adjust in your matrimonial home just on the name of sham
reputation. Gradually your life will go onto become more miserable.
India cannot become a dowry-free nation until every girl takes a vow
to refuse marrying a dowry-seeker. Now, it is really a high time for
the parents of female children to wake up and not to indulge in such
disgraceful crime. If you all won’t wake up and continue to throw
your beloved daughters in the fire of dowry, God is not going to
forgive you ever.
However, I don’t merely believe in lamenting upon existing social
evils, including dowry as neither it is going to make any difference
nor it is going to serve any purpose. I believe on a quote that says

5. ‘Don’t change but be a change’. Thus, here I propose few
reformations for defying ‘Devil of Dowry’ so that it does not dare to
dwell in India.
 Spreading awareness regarding the importance of education
by portraying it as a strongest weapon for women to fight not
just against dowry but many more social evils.
 Supporting and establishing more and more women-oriented
NGOs that are dedicated to the cause of eradicating dowry,
empowering women, etc.
 Empowerment of women entrepreneurship through launching
special schemes by Government to help them to be financially
independent.
 Creating awareness against dowry through all possible
communication channels.
 Encouraging men to pledge against accepting dowry in any
form.
 Discouraging extravagant expenditures on wedding.
 Passing strong laws regarding dowry and assuring speedy
justice to the victim of dowry-harassment.

6. I had to raise voice for my own sake as there was no one to support
me. But, I do not want other women to suffer. So, I have associated
myself with a noble cause to spread education amongst women.
Now, I wish to urge to all women of this nation: Wake up for your
rights and dignity. Now time has come to unleash your hidden
strength and raise your voice against all evils embedded in our socalled society. Especially, the dowry practice, that has gone to the
roots of our system and has been prevalent from time immemorial.
Let’s join hands together and show to the entire world, the power of
women across the nation by initiating a change in our society for
creating an ‘INCREDIBLE INDIA’ in true sense. After all, ‘THE HAND
THAT ROCKS THE CRADLE RULES THE WORLD’!!