Negative Effects of Arranged Marriage

According to the 2010 Census of India, there are 236,772,617 females married. 40 percent of these women are in ages between 25 and 29. And, 85 percent of these marriages are arranged. In arranged marriage there is no dating, premarital sex, living together, or even physical interaction. Sheela, J. an expert for the United Nations writes that “according to the Hindu Dharma sutras, the father should give away his daughter while she still nagnika (naked)”.” This means that as soon as the parents of the eligible man is ready to get marry, his parents look for a family of the same religion, caste, social status and class with a daughter that could fit the requirements of the family. Sheela also explains the significance of the dowry in Indian culture, “The term “dowry” alludes to gifts in cash or kind giving to the husband and his relatives by the wife and her relatives in connection of marriage.” In 1961, the Dowry Prohibition Act was created to prevent the abuse and injustice in women cause by dowry disputes between families. In this act, the definition of dowry is clearly defined to include property or valuable security given in connection of marriage. This law however does not exclude voluntary gifts given to the couple in connection to marriage, i.e. present given voluntary to the couple. Abigail, Lavin reports in her article for The Weekly Standard that “the India’s National Crime Record Bureau reports one dowry death every 77 minutes”. These dowry deaths, also called “kitchen accidents” are disputes over dowry, dowry transactions, and dowry insufficient. This means that even if the Indian constitution states that the practice of dowry is illegal, society still practice it. However, the recently enacted Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act (PWDVA) was brought into force in 2006. This act derived from the United Nations and is considered a civil law to prevent violence against women and to protect them by making their human rights count and