Setting An Example For Others, This Kashmir Village Has Said ¡®No To Dowry And Lavish Weddings¡¯

Surrounded by mountains, fields and lush green trees is the Baba Wayil village located in central Kashmir¡¯s Ganderbal district some 30-kilometers from city centre Srinagar, which is also known as ¡®Dowry Free Village¡¯ of Kashmir.

The picturesque mesmerizing village has a population over 1000 people and around 200 households. The people in the village are usually involved in farming walnuts, importing and exporting Pashmina shawls. The road leading to the village is in a dilapidated condition and it too has no proper public transport system.

This village has rejected the notion of lavish weddings and put a ban on dowries, in a bid to return to a simpler time while following the Islamic norms.

Baba Wayil village

Dowry is the property or money brought by a bride to her husband on their marriage.

Since dowry is strictly prohibited in this village, all the villagers have signed a stamp paper promising neither to take nor not to give dowry. The papers have been signed by the local Imam, elder villagers and prominent people of the village.

What Do Documents Read?

As per the signed document, it says, ¡°No person has the right to demand jewelry, television, refrigerator, clothes, etc. from the bride's family.¡±

¡°Anyone who violates the rule will be boycotted socially, and is denied an entry to the mosque for the rest of his life; also the person/family won¡¯t be allowed to bury their dead in the local graveyard,¡± the document states.

Idrees Bukhtiyar/Representational image

The document also stipulated that the groom¡¯s family should not demand anything from the bride¡¯s side. Instead, the boy side has to give at least Rs 15,000 in Mahr and Rs 20,000 to shop for her wedding.

Villagers Say

The 67-year-old Imam of the village Bashir Ahmad Shah told Indiatimes that they shunned dowry since 1985 but decided to formalise it with a written document in 2004. ¡°The aim of taking this decision was to put an end to this marriage custom that has ruined the lives of our daughters,¡± he said.

¡°After witnessing the rise in dowry cases in the entire valley and due to which the children were suffering, we decided to make an official stamp document in which we mentioned do¡¯s and don¡¯ts for the weddings,¡± he said, adding that villagers are following the norms strictly.

Mohd Altaf Shah, sarpanch of the village said, ¡°Dowry is an evil and we all have to stop it. It has made the life of a woman miserable and we all have to play a pivotal role to save the lives of our sisters.¡±

Idrees Bukhtiyar/Representational image

Raj Shah, 24, a local, said that he is getting married soon and is glad about the anti-dowry rules implemented in the village. ¡°This has also given a freedom to the young people to marry in a simple way because lavish marriage may not be possible for everyone,¡± he said.

Nine Cases Of Dowry Death in 2020

Jammu and Kashmir recorded a 15% increase in cognizable crimes in 2020 compared to 2019, the latest report by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) revealed.

The report said that Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh registered 29,314 (including 403 cases in Ladakh) crime cases under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) or under the Special and Local Laws (SLL) in the year 2020.

This was a 15% increase from 2019 when 25,408 crime incidents were registered, which was 6% less than 2018, when 27,276 cases were registered. The report has maintained a separate section for Ladakh from the year 2020 only.

Idrees Bukhtiyar/Representational image

The statistics show that in 2020 there were nine cases of dowry deaths, 243 rape cases, 349 cases of cruelty against women by their husbands or relatives, 1,639 cases of assault on women and 1,744 cases of assault on women with intention to outrage their modesty.

Six decades after the Dowry Prohibition Act of 1961, the continuing prevalence of dowry remains India¡¯s national shame. The 2019 National Crime Records Bureau data tells us that a woman is subject to cruelty by her husband and in-laws every four minutes. Every 73 minutes, there is a dowry death- 23 bodies a day.

According to a BBC report, researchers looked at 40,000 marriages that took place in rural India between 1960 and 2008. They found that dowry was paid in 95% of the marriages even though it's been illegal in India since 1961.

The practice, often described as a social evil, continues to thrive and leaves women vulnerable to domestic violence and even death.

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