The Rising Price of Dowry: Understanding The Causes 

The word “Dowry” has become synonymous with marriage. Often considered to be a norm in today’s day and age, this practice can be dubbed as “Groom Price”- the cost of marrying a man.

Dowry is considered to be a customary obligation that involves the transfer of a large sum of money to the groom, which must be borne by the bride’s family. Even though the act is legally under a lot of scrutiny, the practice of dowry remains popular in India. It was initially considered to be  customary among upper caste Indian families, but now spans the geographical and caste hierarchy of the country. 

The origin of dowry however does not bear any resemblance to what the tradition has evolved into. Dowry was initially a form of “Kanyadaan” or “Streedhan”. Both of these terms have a very different connotation than the present day meaning of the word. Streedhan  is a woman’s claim to her father’s property or wealth which is often given to her during the time of her wedding, Kanyadaan is a practice of offering gifts to a girl at the time of her marriage. Both of these acts are voluntary which starkly contrasts to the mandate that dowry has now become. 

As a practice, dowry is predominantly found in most of the South Asian countries such as India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Considering the Indian context, the country has taken steps to legally criminalise the act of dowry. The Dowry Prohibition Act 1961 stands as the most crucial legislative framework for dowry. According to the act, anyone who demands dowry at the time of marriage is subject to imprisonment for a period of 5 years.  Despite having this framework, dowry is still largely practised across the country. A study analysing 40,00 Indian marriages between 1960 – 2008 in 17 major states found that dowry payments have been stable despite some inflation before 1975 and after 2000. It is also interesting to note that Muslim marriages have dowry payments that are slightly lesser than Hindu marriages, but dowry among Christian and Sikh marriages has actually increased over the period of study. Dowry is still correlated with the caste system in India with the Upper Caste having the highest dowry levels. Dowry deaths have also reduced to around 7000 during 2017-2021

In recent times, the concept of Dowry Inflation has enjoyed the centre stage in academia. Commonly interpreted as an increase in dowry payments, there have been several studies that have tried to explain this phenomenon. It was Rao (1993) who first introduced the topic of Marriage Squeeze to justify the inflationary trend in dowry. He analyses 40 households per village, across 6 different villages in 3 districts of South  Central India. His study revealed that an exogenous population growth led to an increase in the number of women, which led to an upward pressure in dowry. One of the key assumptions of the Marriage Squeeze argument is that women marry younger than men. This implies that an increase in population would affect women first, leading to an excess supply of women in the marriage market and a shortage of men. As a result, dowry payments are pressed upwards. 

The study conducted by Rao was however challenged by Anderson (2000) who claims that the marriage squeeze argument is structured around the main idea of a static marriage market, meaning that women do not delay marriage for a later period. However, upon assuming that some women delay their marriage prospects (a dynamic market) a deflationary trend in dowry is visible. Women who decide to marry later bear certain costs such as posing a financial burden, lower number of reproductive years etc. These costs thereby reduce the benefit that comes from postponing marriage. Brides also compete in the marriage market to set the dowry at a level where they are indifferent between marrying immediately or in the future. This indifference however suggests that the utility received by women marrying immediately or later is the same. This is only possible if dowry payments are reduced when women marry later. Hence, a dynamic marriage market leads to dowry deflation.

But, does this concept of marriage squeeze still apply to India? What has been talked about in both the above analysis is a situation in which women outnumber men. However, gender based violence such as female infanticide and foeticide have tipped the sex ratio in favour of men.  This would mean that the number of grooms would soon outnumber the brides. Vishwakarma, Shekhar and Yadav used the Indian census data (2011) and found that India is facing a male marriage squeeze- a situation in which the number of men in the marriage market outnumber the brides. This male marriage squeeze is however varied across states and religion. However, the implications of this are unknown. 

While India may be transitioning away from its historical marriage squeeze, it’s crucial to acknowledge that high dowry demands are deeply rooted in both economic and cultural contexts. The educational and occupational status of the groom significantly influences dowry expectations, with higher-achieving grooms commanding larger dowries. India’s tradition of hypergamous marriages, where women marry into families of higher social standing, further exacerbates dowry inflation. Additionally, dowry is often perceived as a financial transaction benefiting the bride, as it’s assumed she will benefit from the groom’s future earnings. Pinpointing the precise cause of dowry inflation remains challenging amidst these complex dynamics.

CITATIONS- 

1. Rao, Vijayendra. “The Rising Price of Husbands: A Hedonic Analysis of Dowry Increases in Rural India.” Journal of Political Economy, vol. 101, no. 4, 1993, pp. 666–77. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/2138743. Accessed 20 Apr. 2024.

2. Anderson, Siwan, Why the Marriage Squeeze Cannot Cause Dowry Inflation (September 2000). CentER Working Paper No. 2000-86, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=248724 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.248724

3. Vishwakarma, Minakshi, et al. “Variations in Marriage Squeeze by Region, Religion, and Caste in India.” Journal of Comparative Family Studies, vol. 50, no. 4, 2019, pp. 313–30. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/26899749. Accessed 20 Apr. 2024.

4. M.N. Srinivas, Some Reflections on Dowry, Oxford University Press (1984)