The Dowry system in India - Research Paper Example

Kautilya believed that there is absolutely no guilt for a wife to project such property regimes of hers in maintaining her son or even her daughter-in-law. One should not forget her own role in essence as well (Nazzari 1991). The dowry was a security that the girl would take with her into her new life in case of any adversity that may come. It was also a practice that would take place only among the wealthy families, but today it has seeped down to all levels in the Indian Society. The dowry system might have started as a sign of Good Blessings from the bride side, but today it has become a social evil which have taken the lives of many women all across India.

The concept of dowry, somehow, evolved in to a practice in which the giving of dowry has become a compulsory act, which if not completed could mean that the girl is either not accepted or she is tortured after the wedding by her in-laws (Luthra 1999). The fear of “No Dowry, No Marriage” is too far spread in India. It was this social evil that resulted in the killing of Infant girls as soon as they were born, or having a low status as compared to the male siblings in the family. The birth of a girl became synonymous with the burden and cost of the dowry that she would be worth when her time for marriage would come.

The concept of marriage however by the twenty first century became so commercialized that the grooms worth actually started to be determined by not only class and caste, but also by his qualifications and the prospect that he may have in the employment market. The highly prospect the groom is, higher is the expectation of the dowry. According to Leela Mullatti “the custom of dowry has taken the form of a market transition in all classes and castes irrespective of the level if education” (Shurmer-Smith 2000).

The practice almost seems like that the bride’s family are suppose to keep the grooms family entice with the supply of the goods in the form of dowry and then