When Safik Ansari decided to marry off his daughter, he told the village chief that his paltry income from pulling a rickshaw meant he was unable to pay the groom an appropriate dowry.

Although India banned dowry payments in 1961, the custom remains widespread and Ansari was preparing to go door-to-door seeking money from wealthier villagers. To his surprise, however, the chief said he would not have to pay one. The local Dahez Roko Abhiyan (DRA), or stop dowry campaign, would help him with the wedding arrangements, explained the chief.

The DRA is an initiative to tackle the dowry problem in Muslim areas, but its creators hope it will spread to the Hindu community and other religious groups.

Ansari explained the benefits to him. “Members of the DRA put me in contact with a boy in a nearby village and, as they directed, I sent a marriage proposal to his family,” he said. “They accepted the proposal and the family has not demanded any dowry. And next week my daughter is going to get married to that boy.

“The boy earns well. It’s a very big relief that I don’t have to pay any dowry,” said Ansari, who lives in Neura village, in the Palamu district of Jharkhand state.

Ansari earns less than £3 a day, and in many areas of India it is common for a groom to demand a dowry of 100,000 to 150,000 rupees (£1,550-£2,320).

“Families from his income group often go begging in order to give marriageable daughters a dowry,” said Haji Mumtaz Ali, who heads the DRA campaign. “Other parents sell their farmland to come up with a dowry. And some parents take out high-interest loans from money lenders and get trapped with huge debts.

“The plight of many families with daughters in our region made us decide to take a stand against paying dowries.”

The practice elicits extreme responses. Some women have committed suicide after being harassed over paying a dowry. Others have been murdered by their husbands or in-laws for not meeting the demands of a groom’s family. India’s National Crime Records Bureau counts as many as 8,000 dowry deaths annually.

Last year Ali, a businessman from the Latehar district, convened a meeting of Muslim community leaders, imams and qazis, or Muslim marriage registrars, to discuss the problem. The participants, who came from the Latehar, Palamu and Garhwa districts, called for a region-wide anti-dowry campaign. The DRA was born.

“We travelled to different Muslim areas and held seminars and meetings and explained to people how the practice of dowry goes against the teachings of Islam. We have involved imams, qazis and community leaders in all Muslim villages in the three districts,” Ali said.

He has been amazed by the support for the campaign.

Thousands of volunteers across the district have been recruited to tell a DRA member when they hear about a dowry. DRA teams contact the families of the bride and groom to counsel them against giving or demanding a dowry. In most cases, they are successful.

“Before we started this campaign, the prevalence of dowry among Muslims in our region was as high as 95%. Now it has come down to around 5%,” said DRA member Shamim Rizwi. “It’s a matter of time, but we are sure we will one day succeed to make Muslim marriages in this region completely free from dowry.”

Qazis in the three districts have pledged not to solemnise a marriage if the bridegroom has taken a dowry.

Members of the DRA meet Safik Ansari and his family in Neura village, Jharkhand state. Photograph: Shaikh Azizur Rahman

About 800 families from the three Jharkhand districts have collectively returned more than 60 million rupees to brides’ families in the past year. In one case, a family returned 7,000 rupees they had taken when a son had marriage 19 years earlier.

The campaign has won praise from local officials.



Ameet Kumar, deputy commissioner of Palamu district, said that, inspired by the DRA campaign, Hindu leaders in at least one area have launched a similar initiative.

“I think in the coming days we will see the rise of such anti-dowry campaigns across more Hindu villages in the region,” said Kumar. “I have asked our social welfare officers and other community leaders to help spread the DRA campaign.”

Researchers have blamed the practice of giving dowries for the abortion of girls.

“Female foeticide is rare among Muslims, but, it is rampant in Hindu society, especially in urban areas,” said journalist and activist Santosh Prasad. “If a powerful DRA-like campaign became widespread, I am sure the rate of foeticide will drop.”

Ali explained that he launched his DRA hoping it would spread across all religions. “Our DRA came up as an experiment among Muslims. The campaign has met with massive success. Now, we will be happier if we see it spread among Hindus as well,” he said. “We know parents of girls in Hindu society also suffer because of the pressure of dowry. How happy they would be if the practice were abolished.”