Although it is frowned upon, it is a common practice to pay a dowry to the groom’s family. But would you like to know how much you should pay?
Who wouldn’t? But that is not the opinion of Maneka Gandhi.
Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had received a letter from Union Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi, requesting him to block a a website that claims to calculate the dowry amount for prospective grooms. The website in question is www.dowrycalculator.com and Gandhi has sought action against its developers.
“I request you to have this site blocked immediately and initiate action against the owners/developers of the website and the agency which is hosting this website,” the minister wrote.
Gandhi has pointed out in the letter that the website is shameful, and also illegal as it promotes dowry.
The minister said she had also put in a request with the Secretary, WCD, to initiate proceedings under the Dowry Prohibition Act in this matter.
Dowry is a punishable offence in India under The Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961.
However, the website is a satirical one.
WHAT IS THE DOWRY CALCULATOR?
A description on the Dowry Calculator website’s landing page says it is “dedicated to all the matchmaking aunties of India”. The single-page website greets the visitors with a pro forma asking them to fill out categories like age, caste, profession, monthly income, skin colour etc of the prospective groom.
Once all the details are submitted, the website calculates the amount of dowry the potential groom can expect to receive. The amount is then displayed with a message, satirical in nature, suggesting the prospective groom to better his social standing or congratulating him for his “achievements”.
READ ALSO: Woman marries twice as man; dowry case registered
One of them read like this:
Here is another example:
Matrimonial website shaadi.com too has a dowry calculator on its portal. Millions of users have taken its quiz so far, expecting to find the dowry amount they can charge. But instead of the amount, the quiz result displays the number of dowry death figures of India.
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Although both sites have been present for many years, this garnered Maneka’s attention because of a Congress leader’s tweet.
Jyotiraditya Scindia. The MP from Madhya Pradesh tweeted to the Prime Minister’s Office and the WCD Ministry on Monday reporting the Dowry Calculator portal urging them to take action.
Scindia posted:
Scindia’s tweet is not available on Twitter now.
Tanul Thakur, who claims to have made the Dowry Calculator website, had posted a screenshot of Scindia’s tweet and said:
Calm down, it’s a satire. (But thanks for directing traffic to the website.) pic.twitter.com/AfAAzl4je6
— Tanul Thakur (@Plebeian42) May 29, 2018
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