Dowry and India

Behind the entire media cacophony over Pooja Chauhan is a real story and a real person. The story is a familiar one. Of women, thousands of them, who are harassed over dowry or over the gender of the child they birth, particularly if she turns out to be a girl,

Given the lack of any news about dowry deaths, dowry violence or dowry demands, one would have thought that the problem had disappeared. Far from it. In fact, it has become far more entrenched and taken new forms. Dowry is a symptom of a deeper disease that relates to how our society values women
The present day dowry system symbolizes the disinheritance of women and the resulting desperation of parents to push their daughters out of their homes after marrying them off

I point to inherent flaws in the anti-dowry legislation, and argues that equal inheritance is the way forward.
It seems logical that if there are fewer potential brides, dowries should tend to become lower, women's status should improve. However, the 'importation' of brides from poorer states - and sometimes even from Bangladesh - keeps dowry rates in Haryana high, despite alarming levels of female infanticide.

Alliances may be primed in heaven or in the matrimonial columns, but the great Indian dowry custom continues to rule society regardless of reforms and regulations. A strong awareness that marriage is not a retail system will be a step in the right direction

Even if the media does not write about dowry deaths anymore as it did in the latter part of the 1970s and early 1980s, we must not fool ourselves into believing that the problem has disappeared, but lets stop doing this to ourselves
When will it all end ?