Online survey says 72 percent men would stand up to parents against dowry

An online survey by a matrimonial website Shaadi.com indicates that more and more men are willing to stand up to parents who demand dowry from the bride and her family. A report in Times of India, which quotes the survey, says  72.1 percent of men survey said “they would stand up against their parents if they demanded dowry, while 14.3 percent said they were unsure.” But only 4.9 percent said they would bring the issue to the attention of the police, adds the survey. In addition, the report states 87.3 percent of women said they won’t give dowry, even as 44 percent women said they would “report their in-laws to the police if they sought dowry”. However, 53.3 percent said that they simply will not accept the proposal where a demand for dowry is made. It should be noted the survey is an online one with a sample size of only 5,800 responses, and that this is in no way a comprehensive way to determine what most Indian men or women might feel about dowry. [caption id=“attachment_1547985” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Image used for representational purpose only. Reuters[/caption] The dowry survey however stands out in stark contrast to a more recent one done by the Yuva Nagarik Meter , which suveyed over a 10,500 people and  showed widespread acceptance of gender biased attitudes and negative stereotypes in the youth of urban India. The survey also showed how India’s  youth  has shown fascist tendencies, with beliefs in the virtue of having just one political party and in military rule in the country (53 percent agreed that military should rule India). According to the survey, 39 percent of girls and 43 percent of boys, agreed that women have no choice but to accept a certain degree of violence. More worryingly 52 percent girls and 57 percent boys surveyed said that women often dressed and behaved in a way to provoke violent reactions from men and thus women were responsible for any sexual or violent assault they might face. On dowry, 36 percent girls and 44 percent boys felt that women should accept the practice. Also, over 65 percent of the boys and girls surveyed said that there should be prohibition on girls and boys of different religions from meeting in public. The Shaadi.com survey says that nearly 72 of men said that they will not stand for dowry, which sounds like a very encouraging metric. However as an earlier Yuva meter shows, 44 percent of boys still see nothing wrong with dowry, which shows that perhaps the views on dowry views are not as simple as Shaadi.com would like us to believe.