Say No To Dowry, Bring Innovation in Relationships!

“Woman commits suicide with 2 children over dowry”

“Woman ends her life for not bringing enough dowry”

“Woman burnt for not asking dowry from her parents”

These are just few of many headlines from newspapers that popped up when I entered the word “Dowry” on Google. Needless, to say many of such cases go unreported because a bride’s parents are too ‘poor’ or ‘powerless’ to even get justice.

If you belong to the South Asian region, you must be well aware of the word “Dowry” or “Jahez”. The practice of dowry is not only common in lower and middle class; upper class in the region is also a victim of this orthodox tradition. The history of Jahez cannot be traced back to Islam nor does anyone exactly know where this culture started from. However, unfortunately, everyone is just blindly following it for the sake of their reputation, especially the bride’s parents who see it as a surety of a happy life if their daughter. I would not blame them either because that is what the society does. So, it is a cycle of unfair system that we all are a victim of.

Amidst all this unjust, comes a brand, Orient, with a new TVC where they have shown a soon-to-be-groom paying up for the electronic appliances that were supposed to be part of the bride’s dowry. Yes, you read it right. The ad shows that the guy refuses his soon to be father in law’s offer to pay for the appliances and tells him that he wants to buy all this for ‘his’ home.

Though this is too much to digest for our society right now, majority of people have appreciated the new thought. The ad has promotion a message of ‘Rishton main Innovation where it seems to break the unnecessary stereotypes that are destroying us in one way or another. Indeed a beautiful idea since thousands of rupees is spent in buying dowry for girl, which is really difficult for most of the people. Many end up taking loans just to buy these items leading to unnecessary ‘demands’ by a groom’s family sometimes.

To sum it up, I would say that we need more of such campaigns that can help change these useless traditions that are sabotaging  and eating up our society like a mite. For more information, follow the hashtag #RishtonMainInnovation of visit Orient’s page on Facebook page