A step that comforted the people and reduced violence against women
Political tales... A village in Kashmir exempts brides' families from paying dowries
Women are the biggest victims of dowry requirements in India.
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The mosque document changed the inherited traditions.
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On a sunny morning, the Kashmiri bride, Altaf, started her business by spreading laundry outside the concrete house, where she lives with her husband. The windows of the house, framed in white, look out onto the lush green rice fields, and a line of tall green trees. Altaf married her husband, Ishraq Ahmed Shah, last July. The two live in the same village, in Indian-ruled Kashmir, after their families agreed to their marriage. But unlike most marriages in India, the bride's family did not pay any money or goods to the groom and his family. Instead, he gave a modest sum to Altaf. This Papuayl Village has eliminated the dowries that the girls' families pay.
Across India, dowry costs and disputes over payments have long fueled harassment of women. Violence associated with the giving or receiving of dowry is blamed for the death of a woman almost every hour, according to a 2019 report from India's National Crime Bureau. While dowry began as a Hindu custom, in which parents compensate the husband and his family for taking their daughter to the groom's home, dowry It became a mainstay of Muslim marriages in South Asia, including Kashmir, the only Muslim-majority state in India.
Big and lavish weddings are a sign of status in India, as are gold dowries, cars and houses.
But the cost of weddings and dowries can be prohibitive for many, leading women to delay marriage.
This was the case in Babuyel, a Muslim village of about 1,000 people;
Until community leaders began questioning the practice in 1980. They asked the villagers to pledge not to give or receive dowry, and they stuck a document on the mosque's wall.
One copy of the document went to the village mayor, and the other to the county commissioner.
The Dowry Prohibition Document was revised in 2004 and 2021.
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The document forbids any gifts from the bride's family and sets a limit of 53,000 rupees ($720) for payments by the groom, including the cost of the bride's wedding attire.
The punishment for families who break the rules of society is exclusion from prayer in the mosque, and exclusion from burial in the cemetery.
Villagers say these rules are followed by all families, rich and poor, and that the result has been an absence of dowry-related disputes and violence.
Altaf's wedding took only eight days to prepare, and she says her family is well off - her father is the mayor of the village - but she preferred a simple marriage.
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The 23-year-old, who studied business administration at the University of Kashmir in Srinagar and currently runs a clothing company, says, “A wedding is an unforgettable event and becomes an eternal part of human life, and thank God, my wedding will remain an unforgettable memory.” Altaf received the equivalent of $30 as a dowry, a direct payment from the groom's family. This is well below the current maximum payments, which have been adjusted over the years to reflect inflation. She did not receive any silver or gold adornment, which is common in Indian weddings. She says: "The document that was drafted in 2004 stipulated the provision of gold earrings to the bride, but in the last document this condition was eliminated, too, due to inflation and the rise in gold prices."
Dowry payments are illegal in India under the 1961 Act, and are punishable by fines and imprisonment.
But this ban is widely ignored by families and is rarely enforced by force of law, making the community-led efforts in Papuayel a notable exception.
early campaign
“I was twenty-five years old when the elders of this village started this campaign,” said Ghulam Al-Nabi Shah, a retired officer in the forestry department. in promoting its message.
The people of Papuayel belong to the class of the Shah, and their roots go back several centuries.
Almost all marriages occur between members of this class.
Muhammad Ashraf Shah, a resident of Babweel who has two daughters, says he is not worried about how to cover their wedding expenses. “I saved nothing for their wedding;
I spend on their education and other matters related to studies, because I don't feel any pressure about the dowry.”
Even in Kashmir, most people are not aware of the steps the Babuyel village has taken against dowries.
This frustrates rights activists such as Rob Reka Verma, a retired academic, who has suggested that the Indian government support a national campaign, along the same lines.
"If we see the rate of dowry crimes against women, this village is doing something revolutionary," Verma said.
The message of this village is very beautiful, and we must all follow it.”
A daunting task
The struggle across India to end dowry payments suggests that this will be an uphill task.
University of Kashmir Social Welfare Professor Javed Rashid says expensive weddings impose a financial and psychological burden on families in Kashmir.
He praised the community-led Baboyel Village approach as one that should be highlighted, so that other communities can benefit from it.
Rashid says: "No law or legislation will change any social structure until people are ready for change, and this village and its people are a role model for them."
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Eight dowry-related deaths were reported in 2019. Due to financial constraints caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, women in Kashmir have been hardest hit.
Press reports stated that the brides were tortured and burned by the in-laws, and that these cases had increased dramatically, as their families were unable to meet the expectations and demands of the groom's family.
In 2004, the elders of the village of Babweel redrafted a document signed by the imam and three other people, to make the rule official.
The document is kept safely in the home of the current imam.
There has not been a single case of domestic violence since 1985, according to a villager named Bashir Ahmad Shah, who asserts that “there has not been a single case of domestic violence, suicide, or quarrels between in-laws since the introduction of the Dowry Prevention Law.”
"I've always dreamed of a simple wedding," said Javid Shah, a resident of the village.
I have not received anything from my wife's family.
If it wasn't, things would be ugly."
And all rituals are performed in a very simple way.
The bride and groom's family together bear the wedding expenses.
The groom's family may provide an amount not exceeding 50,000 rupees to the bride, and 20,000 rupees for the dowry, 20,000 rupees for clothing, and 10,000 rupees for other additional expenses are kept.
Many young people from the village attend prestigious colleges and universities across the country, with a knowledge rate of over 70%.
The villagers attribute the success of the dowry control system to the equal importance given to the education of both boys and girls.
The male population is being made aware by community leaders of the need to eradicate the dowry system from the community.
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Preventing the payment of the dowry had a profound impact on the lives of the people of Badgir.
Villagers say that no dowry-related domestic violence has been reported in this village.
Fathers of girls are also relieved of the burden of spending on their daughters' marriage.
"Giving gifts to a daughter who gets married is a habit that has become ugly over a period of time," said Isabir Ali, a prominent activist in Srinagar.
Ali runs a non-profit organization called Ehsas, which works for the economic development of women in Jammu and Kashmir.
The activist noted that offering the bride's family the dowry has become a "social evil and a dangerous trend."
In general, Ali says, women do not speak publicly about the demands their in-laws make of them.
There were several cases in which the woman succumbed to pressure and tried to commit suicide or end the marriage project.
Girls face physical and psychological problems as a result of the dowry.
"Badghar village is an inspiration to others," Ali said.
Dowry is often associated with domestic violence.
According to the National Family Health Survey (2019-2020), conducted by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, 9.6% of women in the 18-49 age group have experienced domestic violence in Jammu and Kashmir.
The survey also reported that domestic violence and sexual harassment were more prevalent in rural areas of the Federation territory as compared to urban areas.
$720 is the maximum payment by the groom, and the document forbids any gifts from the bride's family.
$30 is Mrs. Altaf's dowry, which is well below the current maximum payment.
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