‘Advantages of Dowry’ leaves college red-faced

BENGALURU:Sociology lessons rarely make headlines. But, on Friday, a lesson on dowry from a reference book at a city college was going viral for its embarrassingly misogynistic content. Few hours of trolling later, the college has decided to pull out the reference book from its library.

Comments on social-media websites expressed shock and disbelief at the study material, and some even used unkind words to describe the standard of education in the country.
The lesson had detailed why certain people condone the practice, and among the reasons were that it helps “ugly girls” get husbands, young couples start “afresh”, draw “handsome boys”, “meritorious boys of poorer classes” fund their higher education, families “raise their status” by getting the daughter an entry into “high status groups” and maintain “harmony and unity in the family” by keeping daughters from asking their share in ancestral property.

At St Joseph’s College, the reference book for sociology students with a section titled ‘Advantages of Dowry’ in the lesson Dowry Menace went unnoticed till someone decided to share it online.
The Public Relations Officer at the college, Professor Kiran Jeevan said that this book was not a textbook and that the lesson was not part of the syllabus. “We only have a small section on dowry death,” he said, “and this lesson was in a reference book kept in the library”.

The lesson explains why dowry “though accepted as an evil practice” has its supporters. “According to them,” it says, “it has some advantages” and it goes on to list them.The first reads: “The marriage of ugly girls, who otherwise would have gone without a partner, is made possible by offering heavy amount of dowry”. Second: “It is a useful and effective method of attracting good, handsome and sometimes unwilling boys for marriage”.After listing seven such points, the page ends with the line: “The merits listed above does not mean that dowry is recommendable”.