The Panchayat found that Nilambur had 60 weddings every month, where Rs. 3-4 lakh was spent on dowry. Those who couldn't pay dowry couldn't marry off their daughters. Those who got their daughters married went bankrupt . A lot of families were broken after paying their daughters' dowry so they demanded it while marrying off their sons.
So, "in 2009, we took a pledge to make Nilambur a dowry-free village in a year,” said Shoukath. The heart of this mission were sensitization programmes and workshops that warned Nilambur it was going broke due to dowry.
The mission had a great response - local men and women joined in large numbers, and took part in public meetings, door-to-door campaigns, street plays and motivation classes.
‘Dump dowry’ association informers gave tip-offs about dowry cases. Expensive marriage were replaced by mass community marriages.
Volunteer K Shabeer Ali explained how this new mindset was formed. “We fashioned it in a way that dowry is the biggest crime in one’s life and it did wonders.”
Spreading the word - There's also an upcoming matrimonial website that the Panchayat and NGO Mahila Samakhya Society set up (www.dowryfreemarriage.com) with an obvious dowry-free twist. The site will also talk about dowry, marriage customs, gender justice and matrimonial property rights.
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