Kerala aims at dowry-free state in five years

With dowry deaths and cruelty towards women in the name of dowry still prevailing, the Kerala government is launching massive awareness against dowry with the aim of declaring the state dowry free in five years.

Young actor Tovino Thomas has been made the goodwill ambassador of the initiative. Massive awareness among the youth against demand and acceptance of dowry is being planned. Already campaigns through social media memes and trolls have been initiated by the Women and Child Development department. November 26 would be observed as an anti-dowry day in the state.

Kerala Health Minister KK Shailaja, who holds the Women and Child Development portfolio, said that even as demand and acceptance of bribe was made illegal through the law, the practice was still prevalent among all sections of the society. It was leading to social issues like dowry deaths, cruelty against women, increase in divorces and women from a weak family unable to get suitable alliances.

On an average around 3,000 instances of cruelty against women by husbands and relatives were being reported in Kerala annually. This year till September 2,190 cases were reported to the police, a major chunk of which pertained to harassment over wealth. The average number of dowry deaths over the last few years is also around 15, while many were remaining unreported. This year till September only four dowry deaths were reported in Kerala, while it was 16, 12, and 25 in the previous three years respectively.

As part of the anti-dowry day observation on November 26, awareness programmes would be organised across the state. A competition of social media memes and trolls creating awareness against dowry would be also conducted.