Even though we are in the twenty first century, we are forced to follow certain traditions which we know are not good. Dowry system is one example.

I am a girl who is very aware of this practice. In our culture, the practice is still prevalent. This is sad that a girl’s worth is measured in terms of money. This is a social evil in which a girl’s parents are supposed to cough up “more money” to the boy’s family so as to ensure she is married to a “more educated boy”. For example, if a boy is an engineer by profession, the chances of the family of the bride ending up paying around Rs 25-Rs 50 lakhs to the boy’s family are high.

I wonder why the boys never raise their voice against the dowry system. Marriage has become a business and girls are treated as commodity. At times, the demand for dowry keeps on rising, which creates a huge problem.

On almost all occasions, the families of girls suffer, as the dowry system continuously weighs on their minds. They have to compromise on so many things in their lives just because they “have to manage money” to marry off their daughters or sisters. Middle-class families suffer the most. This is because of the prevalent dowry system that parents often do not realise the need of giving good education to girls.

A friend of mine recently told me about a girl who was “rejected” by families of several boys because her parents could not fulfil the dowry demand. I was told all the families her parents approached had demanded an exorbitantly high amount of money for them to accept the girl as daughter in-law.

She is about to finish her college and her father is a government service holder. For her father, who is the only breadwinner for his family of six, fulfilling such a high demand to marry the daughter off has become an uphill task.

This is just a case in point. We can find such cases in huge numbers.

I think movement against dowry system is yet to get stronger in Nepal. We should raise the issue strongly so as to eliminate this social scourge. Young girls must stand up against this social evil.

Every girl has her own identity and she is free to choose the way she wants to live her life. And this applies when it comes to marriage as well. It is high time we brought to an end this ill-practice of treating girls as objects and commodities with “price tags”.