Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1697634105009.pdf (Australia)
Submission to the Senate Enquiry into Dowry Abuse in Australia.

To Whom it may concern, I am writing my submission to address the issue of dowry and its impact on wider community in Australia and importance to make laws against this evil.

       Dowry is a traditional practice, which is followed by many countries across the globe from many centuries on the name of culture and tradition.
My submission is based on the facts and experiences I have observed as an individual or as a community worker within the local Indian community in Australia in past 10 years of my stay.

Dowry has a very strong influence on large Indian community settling in Australia.

With a high influx of migration in past 15years, many international students, skill migrant workers got married or accompanied by their family members to settle down here.
This migration has brought a lot of good and bad cultural influences.

Practice of dowry has been strongly followed by families as a part of cultural norm.

Dowry has never been accepted as a good practice but it still exists in Indian culture due to its lucrative side of earning money in an easy way.

Where you just need to be a parent of a male child.
This practice has given birth to other gender inequalities in society, which brings a wave of fear, frustration, and disappointment at the time of birth of a girl child.

Dowry has disempowered women in Indian society thus making her plight vulnerable throughout her life journey.

Dowry impacts gender imbalance straightaway by nurturing male patriarchy and belittles girl’s existence in whole social strata.
This issue has penetrated so much in culture that women herself doesn’t understand this imbalance and support this issue if she represents from a male side (AS A GROOM MOTHER).

Dowry plays a very crucial role in deciding fate of many marriages and encouraging family violence.

Till date I have observed around 33 family violence cases in local community in Australia and majority of them has mentioned DOWRY as a big factor leading to family violence.
Majority of victims has mentioned that dowry was decided prior to their wedding as a gesture of gift and respect, which turned into regular act of abuse straight after the wedding day.

Victims have mentioned that groom and his family decides the value of dowry on the basis of boy’s status in Australia.

If the boy is citizen /PR, families demand for an expensive wedding of upto $80,000 or more in India, which was normally accepted as a cultural norm and turned into a horrifying act of abuse at later stage.
The practice of dowry and the incidence of dowry abuse in AustraliaSubmission 49    Victims have mentioned that dowry plays an important role in their settlement journey in Australia.

Many girls has mentioned that while on their temporary visas, they were abused at high frequency due to their unstable, quite vulnerable visa conditions.

Women were often blackmailed to pay groom and his family for the expenses they have made till her settlement in Australia.
Dowry starts as a social practice of celebration and gift sharing which eventually turns out into a regular burden, reason of abuse for many girls.

Process for dowry abuse generally starts as: -  A marriage is fix on the basis of good alliance (which is generally identified as a person of same caste, religion, culture, family status.)

 Dowry is being discussed as a GESTURE OF RESPECT initially where groom family inform, brides family for offerings on various ceremonies.
 Once the wedding takes place, groom family starts with regular ask for material, money or other support.

 Incase of denial by bride or her family, it leads to family violence.

 So dowry is directly related to family violence where a cultural norm strongly certifies male patriarchy and manipulates basic human rights.
 Incase the couple is based in Australia, it gets worst as till the time bride is on spouse visa, or temporary visa, she suffers high level of vulnerability where girl’s family often has found paying a high amount to groom’s family so that groom can take bride with him overseas.

 Families have seen paying even monthly bills of spouse from overseas to maintain peace among the couple.

 Many girls has mentioned high level of abuse and harassment if their family fails to pay nominated dowry money.
Often they were left hungry, wouldn’t let to be out, kept home bound, not allowed to have any phone connections, not allowed to see anyone outside and even not allowed to buy groceries or other basic amenities.

 In few of the cases, victims have mentioned high level of physical abuse, verbal abuse leading to sever trauma, depression, panic attack, anxiety and suicidal thoughts.
 Few of the girls have mentioned about the MARITAL RAPE as a part of harassment, if the families failed to pay dowry money  Few of the working girls have been seen paying off groom’s family with their income as a part of dowry commitment.

 Generally girls remain vulnerable for a long time in situation of dowry abuse as they loose confidence, trust, faith and hope.
 Many girls often talk about committing suicide as they feel sick off asking dowry from the families and inability to cope up with stress The practice of dowry and the incidence of dowry abuse in AustraliaSubmission 49  Being in Australia has added lot of complications for few victims in their initial stage as due to the lack of communication, transportation, funds and not enough awareness they generally being victimized at a high frequency as all these factors works in the favor of perpetrator.
Whereas, once a girl gets separates or take intervention, a victim finds hope, strength and trust in Australian legal, social and support system and shows low level of interest in being back to India to avoid social shame, family’s disappointment, fear to get abuse by the groom’s family, fear to be judged by everyone around.

So it has been seen, victims prefer to live at Australia to enjoy respectful life.
I would like to request the government to make strict laws against dowry as I have seen dowry as a very strong trigger to effect communities in a negative way.

Laws on dowry will not safeguard hundreds of women but will also address the need to disobey this useless traditional practice, which allows human rights violation at large and strongly contributes to gender inequality.

Laws against dowry will empower our emerging communities to understand and adopt right cultural practices.
Laws will improve gender equality as in India there is a high level of female feticide and families deliberately abort girl child to avoid dowry at the time of her wedding.

This has caused a high level of imbalance in society leading to other concerns like gender inequality, male patriarchy, missing women.

Laws will strongly help to control family violence, as practice of dowry is a prime reason of family violence specifically in families of Indian origin.
     In my 10 years of experience as a community member in Australia, I have seen dowry as a major concern among Indian families.

I have worked with many vulnerable women who would have tried many times to commit suicide because of the pressure of dowry on their lives and relationships.

Laws to stop dowry is important, as it’s a wrong practice, which is defaming a culture and demeaning women under it.
I would request government to make strict rules to stop dowry practices in Australia by making some firm changes in spouse visa /marriage act.

I would also like to appreciate Labor government initiative for a senate enquiry into this matter as this is a cross-cultural concern which if not be irradiated at this stage would going to effect our future generations.

Therefore, I would request government to make stringent laws to STOP DOWRY IMMEDIATELY!!
The practice of dowry and the incidence of dowry abuse in AustraliaSubmission 49 Kind Regards Nayana Bhandari Founder/Secretary Oorja Foundation Inc.

The practice of dowry and the incidence of dowry abuse in AustraliaSubmission 49