Down with dowry

India has forums for women popping up everywhere. Yet few of them are able to do anything about dowry.

The law says dowry is a crime. And yet it goes on unabated. And society suffers in silence.

We're paying a price for the silence. We are, in truth, sanctioning this practice by our silence. We need to raise our voices against it - loud and clear. And go gunning after the criminals.

So, why do most of the Indians continue to practise this crime even when it has resulted in divorces or even bride burning? We tend to accept the unacceptable - when in reality we should be shunning it.

Isn't it time we did away with retrograde culture once and for all? After all, it is like a menacing mafia.

Dowry, these days, has yet another form. Besides cash, jewellery and consumer goods, the demand for opulent weddings is now on the increase.

One would think that education and liberal thinking would do away with this ugly practice. "Far from it," say the women's forums. "It's getting worse and spreading its tentacles everywhere."

The only way to counter this menace is to stop giving in to such atrocities. Because, when we do so, we become partners in crime.

The law needs to crack down hard on those who demand dowry. And dowry deaths need to be looked into more intensely by the police.

We Indians need to come together as a country to get rid of such practices. Because it is the 'untouchable' in India.