Haryana village starts 'selfie against dowry' campaign

After the success of its popular ‘selfie with daughter’ campaign, Haryana’s Bibipur village panchayat has now launched another selfie campaign — this time to root out the practice of dowry. It is being promoted as a ‘selfie against dowry’ campaign by this avant garde village panchayat in the gender-skewed Haryana.

Talking to Deccan Herald, Bibipur Sarpanch Sunil Jaglan said they have invited pictures of spouses who did not take dowry during their marriage. Wannabe couples who have pledged against dowry, too, are invited to post their pictures. “This campaign is to publicly portray a resolve against the evil practice of dowry. In the last one day, we have been flooded with over 180 pictures of couples,” Jaglan said.

The panchayat is extensively using social media to generate a resolve against dowry through this campaign. “There are couples even from Australia who have posted their pictures saying they did not take dowry. Photos are also pouring in from New Delhi, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh,” he said.  Jaglan said a significant part of the campaign is to see the participation of bureaucrats, police officers and politicians. “It would be worthwhile if the lawmakers and the ones executing acts against dowry practice come out in open and proudly say that they did not take dowry. It doesn’t matter if they got married years ago,” he said. In fact, the village has taken another leap to manifest the pride it takes in its daughters.