Are people in india ready for marriage?
Are The Women of India Ready for Marriage? We have all heard of absurd things happening in the past concerning spousal abuse and beatings; however, here in the United States we are not familiar with such violent abuse as which is present in India. For decades now, women in India have been being killed over their dowry payments at marriage. Men and their families have become overly greedy and in turn make it so that women have no way of meeting the standards that the husband's family has at marriage. In the past decade, despite India's economic gains, which often bring an increased appetite for more money, the practice of wife killing has grown dramatically worse (Women's International Network News 1996). "It is perhaps the world's most horrific example of how women can be fatally caught in collision of modern consumerism and cultural traditions" (Women's International Network News 1996). A dowry is the property that a woman brings to her husband at the time of the marriage. The dowry apparently originated in the giving of a marriage gift by the family of the bridegroom to the bride and the bestowal of money upon the bride by her parents. One purpose of the dowry was to provide support for the wife on the husband's death,
Therefore, in India, it is much better for a family to give birth to boys because they are considered assets upon whom parents can rely on in their old age (Women's International Network News 1996). Some bridegroom families get so overly greedy that they demand more from the bride's family knowing that the demand cannot be met, giving them an excuse to kill her and remarry, thus giving them a chance at more wealth from another families dowry payment (Zaramati-Ast 1994). In many cases, when a family has a baby girl their first reaction is that they will have problems with the future dowry at their marriage. The feuding over dowries can become a town-wide controversy. Among India's middle and upper-class families, the dowry demands have heightened to things such as: TVs, VCRs, furniture, refrigerators, and even cars (Women's International Network News 1991). They could be planning long ahead for what kinds of things they would want for the marriage to take place. Studies show that dowry deaths usually occur within the first three years of marriage (Women's International Network News 1996). "You can't talk about marriage without talking of dowry;" it is as if you know what you are getting into and marriage to some is more of a fear than something to look forward to (Zaramati- Ast 1994). Knowing that marriage is part of most people's lives, the people of India are well aware of the consequences that come with marrying off their children. Worse still, as Ananthaswamy stated, is that many of these guilty people go unpunished (Ananthaswamy 2002). Many families have fought over the dowry demands. There are many cases when the men and their families have no consequences for what they have done, in the great majority of these killings that are actually reported, the murderous relatives escape punishment by paying bribes and manipulating the officials during the legal processes (Women's International Network News 1996). Though the government enacted special laws a decade ago after a large number of bride burnings were reported, police statistics show that India's deaths having to do with dowry demands have increased nearly fifteen fold, from 400 a year in the mid 1980s to more than 5, 800 a year (Women's International Network News 1996). To many of the bridegroom's families, the dowry in just a means of providing fulfillment of their material expectations (Women's International Network News 1996) The fatalities that occur due to the lack of dowry payment are astonishing. The greed does not slow down and dissipate when the ceremony is completed however.
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Acceptance Essays
