idontwantdowry.com, a website started by Satya Naresh, is to celebrate its two years in existence by holding a swayamvaram here next Sunday to bring together families that don’t want to give or take dowry.
The website launched in April last year attracted instant attention. Today, it has about 5,000 profiles of men and women who are looking for a dowry-less marriage.
Satya Naresh, MD of NKG Online that started the website told Deccan Herald here on Tuesday that out of the 5,000 registered users of the website, 4,000 are Telugus of whom 60 per cent are based outside the state, mostly abroad. Unmarried himself, Naresh (34) said the toughest part after starting the website was the disbelief and doubt that he encountered from parents of prospective brides. “They can’t believe that there are young men who don’t want dowry. It is tough to convince them that the mindset of Indian young men is changing,” he said.
 The idea of a no-dowry marriage website came to Naresh when he visited marriage websites and saw that they specified caste, subcaste and region but dowry was always under wraps. “I wanted to fight this practice. I thought of using the Internet to fight  dowry,” he said.
Interestingly, his assumption that those not well grounded educationally and financially would respond more to the idea of no-dowry marriage was proved wrong. Also his belief that more prospective brides than grooms would respond to this website too turned out to be wrong.
The better off, more educated and men are predominant registered users of his website. The registration fee is Rs 500 for six months.
As Naresh says, his “social entrepreneurship” is his contribution to fighting dowry menace.