Anti-Dowry
According to Indian culture and tradition, the bride’s family gives her Streedhan, in the form of gifts and money on her wedding day to the family she is marrying into. This wealth is meant for the bride, to give her a certain financial independence so that she would not have to depend on her husband after the marriage.
Over the years, this tradition turned into the practice of giving dowry which is considered by the family of the groom as their right. Men are groomed to demand large amounts from their potential partners. Unfortunately, the families of the women cannot meet these demands which often leads to harassment, abuse, and in most cases, death.
Shaadi.org believes that a marriage should be built on trust, mutual respect and love, definitely not on the amount of money that a woman can bring into a marriage.
Our initiatives that take a stand against dowry are as follows:
28,811 registered complaints of dowry-related crimes against women received in 2023 because of Dowry
More than
Jharkhand tops the list of registered dowry cases in India
Uttar Pradesh accounts for nearly
More than 6000 reported dowry deaths in 2022
Uttar Pradesh accounts for nearly 50% of the dowry deaths in India
Highest Number of Dowry Deaths were reported in Uttar Pradesh
State-wise number of
Dowry Deaths
Source
National Commission of Women
NCRB
#NotForSale
In 2016, Shaadi Cares released a digital campaign called #NotForSale to take a stand against Dowry. The campaign is based upon Shaadi.com’s study on dowry and the disparity faced by women. The survey undertaken highlighted that over 80% Indian women feel dowry is the most severe form of gender disparity, and 71.2% single men are more sensitive towards it as compared to married men. To address this, Shaadi.org released a video depicts Indian men of marriageable age who are, today, standing up against this social evil and urging others to do so as well. The anti-dowry monologue in the video moots the idea, ‘The end of dowry begins with you’.
Dowry Calculator
For a practice that has been made punishable since 1961, Dowry has still managed to stay relevant in rural India and even some of the metropolitan cities. The Dowry Calculator was Shaadi.org’s initiative to spread awareness about Dowry deaths in India. It started with a simple form where you have to fill in your education, salary, profession, and residence and click on the calculate button to know how much your dowry is worth.
After clicking the calculator reveals the harsh truth of the number of Dowry deaths in India and asks the pointed question before calculating your worth, ask yourself what is her life worth?
Angry Brides
Shaadi.com launched a one of its kind social game ‘Angry Brides’ in January 2012 which effectively helped generate awareness on the evils of dowry. Through this campaign, Shaadi.com received overwhelming support from over 600,000 people & leading media across 35 countries.
To play the game and take a stand against Dowry, users were required to be logged into their Facebook accounts. Gameplay involved grooms with a heavy dowry price tag. The players had to strike the dodging grooms with a weapon of their choice. Each hit decreased the price of the groom & added the money saved to the player’s Anti-Dowry fund.
