500+ Words Essay on Dowry System
The dowry system is perhaps the gravest social malady of India today. While other social evils like untouchability and the caste system are on the wane, the evil of the dowry system is assuming an alarming dimension. Even the enactment of the Dowry Prevention Act by the Central Government has failed to check the shameful practice.
Dowry reduces the sacred affair of marriage to a business deal. It turns brides into a saleable commodity like cattle in the marriage market. Love, freedom, and dignity are ridiculed in the bargain of business, though we know fully well that offering dowry and accepting it are both punishable and insulting to our womenfolk. Occasionally, some educated girls decline to marry if there is a demand for cash or dowry. But these are exceptions.
Generally, the parents of the brides are often subjected to inhuman pressure for a handsome dowry. Sometimes they have to sell all their properties to get their daughters married and become paupers. In many cases, young brides are treated with inhuman torture or pushed to suicide or homicide by the husbands and the in-laws so that the groom can marry again and endanger the life of another innocent girl. Maltreatment or bride-burning are gruesome cases that frequently appear in the daily newspapers. Sometimes severe punishment is inflicted on the offenders. But only a few of the events come to light in the law courts. Nowadays, some grooms prefer career girls. This is also a form of dowry as they are forced to forego their salary for their father-in-law’s family. Thus, thousands of young women are sacrificed at the altar of the dowry system every year. And that is why girls are regarded as a liability in our society and the birth of a daughter is looked upon as an unwelcome evil by poor parents.
List of 500+ Essay Writing Topics and Ideas
To eradicate this social evil, a total change in the outlook of society is a must. Women have to be recognized as equal partners of men. Legal prohibition of dowry is not enough. How can the law cure greed and lust for money? Strong social disapproval of dowry is the only guarantee against this evil. So long as women remain backward and economically dependent on men, the curse of the dowry system cannot be uprooted. Education and employment for women alone can bring about the right remedy. Strong legal measures should be taken against the offenders. But what is more effective is that our youth should lead the movement to generate public opinion against this shameful custom as it is an insult to human dignity. The press, the radio, and TV should make a concerted campaign against it. Right-thinking people in our society should also come forward to raise their voices against this social crime.
Finally, women themselves can vow not to marry with dowry. Women’s organizations should also be organized to create mass awareness against such evil practices.