“We are absolutely ready to accept and welcome your daughter into our family with our open hearts, but what about the gifts? Well, we need at least a car! Our extraordinary son deserves this to the minimum.” All of us have heard these lines at least once. We might have heard it from our friends or relatives or in the worst case, we might have had to face it ourselves.
Recently we celebrated the 75th independence day of our country. Not the first, not the second, but the 75th! One might think that 75 years are very long, in fact, it is the average life expectancy of any human being on this planet. But how many years do you think it will need us to realize that our daughters are not a materialistic object that comes with a price tag.
Marriage is considered to be one of the most important aspects of anybody’s social life. Each and every girl dreams of finding that one right partner, and that one family with whom she can lead the rest of her marital life in peace and with respect. But let us ask ourselves, how many of us actually end up living up to these expectations?
The statistics show that every year the number of dowry deaths is actually increasing. In 2017, there were 7000 deaths recorded due to dowry in the country. With the Dowry Prohibition Act implemented in 1961, dowry is considered to be absolutely illegal in our nation and yet our daughters and sisters have been facing its wrath. And these are just the registered cases. Imagine how many women are actually subjected to constant humiliation and taunting just because they could not fulfil the demands of the groom.
Asking for dowry is not only a crime but an insult to our country whom we designate as “Bharat Mata”. And the people around us who are supporting this vicious tradition are actually offending the sanctity of marriage itself. So let us take a pledge today that for the sake of our genuine development we shall not support or tolerate this horrifying culture and do our best to put a full stop to this forever.