Context: Recently, a study was published on the dowry demand in India by using the data from India's Rural Economic and Demographic Survey.

Key highlights of the report

• The economic growth has perpetuated and increased the practice of dowry, especially from the 1940s to the 1980s.

• As education and job opportunities for men in India have improved over the decades, the prevalence of dowry has increased.

• The "net dowry" is the difference between the value of cash and gifts given by the bride's family to the groom’s family and those given by the groom's family to the bride's family.

• Most Indian marriages are still arranged where nearly all women marry in their late twenties.

• The impact of increasing average female education by one year is smaller as compared to increasing average male education in the same duration.

• Reason: women were less likely to work and thus get economic returns from their education in the labour market.

The condition of dowry

• Paying and accepting dowry is a centuries-old tradition in South Asia where the bride's parents gift cash, clothes and jewellery to the groom's family.

• The practice has been illegal in India since 1961, it is still practiced leaving women vulnerable to domestic violence and even death.

Marriage in India

• Nearly all marriages in India are monogamous with less than 1% ending in divorce.

• Parents play an important role in choosing the bride/groom in more than 90% of marriages happening between 1960 and 2005.

• Over 90% of couples live with the husband's family after marriage.

• More than 85% of women marry someone from outside their own village.

• 78.3% of marriages happens within the same district.

Reasons for increase in dowry practice

• The grooms that are well-educated and have better quality jobs commands higher dowries.

• As the number of educated grooms in a marriage market increases, there's a decrease in the "dowry premium" that more educated grooms receive.

• Strong economic factors perpetuate dowry.

• If the bride families refuse to pay dowry for their daughters, they are left with 'lower quality' grooms.

• Grooms have a strong economic incentive to accept dowry, in case if their family has to pay dowry for its own female children or wants to recover investments in groom's education.

• Increases in wealth in caste-based societies like India also led to increases in dowry payments.

What happens to dowry payments as more women get educated?

• Increase in female education may lead to decrease in demand of dowry.

• The "size of dowry payment decreases" as more women got educated in an area.