Socio-economic factors affecting the problem of dowry among rural women of Haryana

Pages: 789-792
Subhash Chander, Jatesh Kathpalia and Vinod Kumari (Department of Sociology, Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, Haryana)

The dowry system is a cultural system in India in which the parents of the bride pay a large sum of money, expensive jewellery and other gifts such as car or other household items to the parents of the groom during marriage. The social and cultural efforts of the dowry system are devastating to the society as a whole. Dowry is the result of long standing power in balance between men and women and thus seriously compromises the well being, productivity and contribution of one half the populations. Therefore it was important to bring to light the issues affecting women in this reason. Two hundred women were randomly selected from Karnal Districts of Haryana and out of those of 21, who were affected the problem related to dowry in both reasons. Significant association was found between family type, education, size of land holding of family, mass media exposure, social participation and socio-economic status with problem of dowry faced by respondents. Concerted efforts are required to curb violence against women regarding dowry in Haryana.