Socio-economic factors affecting problem of dowry

Pages: 21-24
Vinod Kumari and Subhash Chander (Department of Sociology, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, Haryana)

Human rights represent the right of all human beings of sexes, men and women. Women represent about half of total population and gender inequality and biasness are main features of rural society. Marriage is an auspicious ceremony which unites two bodies and soul into one. It is lifelong bonding of male and female. The demand of dowry or dowry system is a deep rooted problem in our society. The dowry system is a cultural system in India in which parents of bride pay a huge sum of money, jewellery, gift and other household items to the parents of groom before marriage, during and after marriage. The issue of dowry problem becomes a matter of great concern for whole country as well as for Haryana where male-female ratio is at the lowest level. There is an urgent need to study the dowry problem among rural women of Haryana. The present study was undertaken with the following specific objectives: To assess the nature and extent of dowry problem and to delineate the socio-economic and cultural factors affecting the problem of dowry. It was found that maximum numbers of the respondents (40.0%) were facing medium level of problems of dowry followed by low (35.0%) and high (25.0%). Factors like age, education and socio-economic status of the respondents were found significantly associated with dowry problem. Maximum number of women hailed from young age group, middle-senior secondary, medium to high socio-economic status were facing the problem related to dowry. Majority of women who had problem of dowry were harassed by mother-in-law and husband for dowry. It was concluded that main social cause for increasing the problem of dowry was greediness and dowry system which is deep rooted in our tradition.