Dowry In India: The Sociocultural Face of Exploitation

According to Rastogi & Therly (2006), the dowry system is a social practice that perpetuates the oppression, torture and murder of women. In India, in spite of laws prohibiting the practice, not much has changed over the last thirty years. The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) of India, recorded a total of 2, 276 female suicides due to dowry disputes in 2006, and the Asian Women's Human Rights Council (2009) estimates that the practice of dowry is implicated in 25,000 deaths and maiming of women between the ages of 15-34 years in India every year. A “dowry” is defined as, “any property or valuable security given or agreed to be given directly or indirectly by one party to a marriage to the other party, or by the parents of either party to a marriage.” (The Dowry Prohibition Act of India, 1961). The purpose of this study was to examine the anthropological, legal, and social literature on the subject and trace the trends regarding the practice over the past thirty years. Approximately forty peer-reviewed articles were obtained through searches in a variety of databases and a review of literature was conducted. The paper explores the reasons for the lack of change in the Indian culture regarding the dowry system. The researchers theorize that the practice continues due to its deep-rooted, complex cultural history.