India's 'bride buying' country

[sugarimp]

By Renu Agal, BBC News, Mewat, Haryana
Anwari Khatoon came visiting a relative in the northern Indian state of Haryana eight months ago, but ended up getting married against her will to a local man with six children from a previous marriage.A man from her village in eastern Jharkhand state had accompanied the 22-year-old woman on her journey to

Comments

[ibid]

This is awful, but logical. Infanticide is largely a consequence of the dowry system as most parents simply cannot afford to marry off their daughters. I wonder if there will be a skew towards a bridewealth system in the future (not that it's much better than dowry).

[sugarimp]

Maybe. But more likely women will be seen as commodity more so than they already are. This also means an increase in violence against women by frustrated men.

interesting.

[bluemamie]

what is a bridewealth system? i've never heard of that.

Re: interesting.

[sugarimp]

It's when the dowry is paid to the bride or her family instead (whereas in India, the bride pays to the groom's family).

Re: interesting.

[ibid]

Bridewealth is where the bride takers give payment of some kind to the bride givers as a compensation for losing a daughter