DOWRY: A GIRL'S CURSE

You know how surprising it is that how our society has always made women feel that she's not worthy enough. It is the mindset that by default we're meant to believe that a woman can't be self-reliant, that they'll always need a man in their life to depend on. She's convinced that a man is supposed to be there for her in all the phases of her life, be it her father, brother, husband, or son. This thinking is fitted in people's minds by default due to the sort of society we are part of. If we look closely into the matter, we will realize how inferior we make the women of our society feel. One great example of this inferior and derogatory mindset is the Dowry system. So dowry is a term used for the money, property or any sort of expensive gifts that the bride brings to her husband on their marriage. Now any sane person will be against this sort of system because why should only the bride's family go through all the burden of buying expensive gifts, or money that they're not gifting out of mere joy for their daughter but out of societal pressure. Most of the time it's more of a compulsion from the groom's family and the bride's side is forced to fulfill their crappy and shoddy demands because they are scared that the wedding might be canceled and their daughter will remain unmarried for the rest of her life. 

This might sound a little too escalated but in a country like India, this is not even 10% of what the actual reality is. Here, there are endless cases of murder and suicides committed because the bride's family couldn't fulfill the groom's demands. We live in a country where parents do not save up for their daughter's education but for their her dowry first. They might not care if her studies are going well or not but their whole attention is focused on removing the burden they consider their daughter to be and the only way their shoulders can be lightened is by marrying the burden away to some guy and giving them their entire life's savings. 

The condition might have been a little better from what it used to be 10 years before but it's still there, not very evident but always there. The only difference is that now it has been renamed to gifts, people don't call it dowry now it is referred to as gifts. The sad part is that many of us don't even realize that it is not the right thing. Girls who are getting married don't realize that this should not be supported, their family prepares for it as a custom or tradition that is a necessity and it's some sort of disrespect of their honor if they don't give dowry in their daughter's wedding. It is being normalized and we're not realizing it. 

It's high time we start saying no to dowry, as a daughter we learn to be self-reliant enough that we don't need to have a man or anyone for that matter in our life. As parents, make sure to provide the best education to your children, and make them strong and independent so that they can get out of this congested mindset, make an impact on society, and stand up against the wrong things. Lastly, as a society, we should not normalize extremely problematic things such as dowry, this change should be made in our homes', stop making jokes on such a regressive topic and if anything, shady or ambiguous happening in the surroundings then take a stand, never forget WE MAKE A SOCIETY AND, A SOCIETY MAKES A COUNTRY.