When I was younger I used to be super enthusiastic about new textbooks. As a voracious reader, I’d usually pull out my English textbooks and go through all the stories and poems. A lot of who I was as a kid and I am now is because of these textbooks that I grew up reading. However, a lot of Indian schools and educational institutions don’t really focus on teaching progressive but rather regressive ideas. One such is a Sociology textbook whose page is going viral as it talks about the “merits” of dowry.
Every time I believe that India can’t do anything to surprise me, I’m sadly mistaken. And this time, the picture of a page from a notebook I saw on Twitter made me feel this way. The page is from the Textbook of Sociology for Nurses by T K Indrani which has a section called “merits of dowry”, now considering that dowry is a social evil, this is already not very promising. The cover of the book says that it is written according to the Indian Nursing Council syllabus.
While many criticised the textbook for the regressive ideologies, Rajya Sabha MP and Shiv Sena leader Priyanka Chaturvedi have appealed to Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Twitter to stop such regressive textbooks from circulation. Her tweet said, “I request Shri @dpradhanbjp ji to remove such books from circulation. That a textbook elaborating the merits of dowry can actually exist in our curriculum is a shame for the nation and its constitution.”
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I request Shri @dpradhanbjp ji to remove such books from circulation. That a textbook elaborating the merits of dowry can actually exist in our curriculum is a shame for the nation and its constitution. https://t.co/qQVE1FaOEw
— Priyanka Chaturvedi🇮🇳 (@priyankac19) April 3, 2022
Also Read: Groom Thrashed By Bride’s Family As He Demands 10 Lakhs In Dowry. Take A Look At The Video
The section first talks about the fact that dowry helps in setting up a new household after marriage. It then says that the girl being able to get their part in their parents’ property is a “merit” of the social evil. Moreover, they also pointed out that dowry is good because parents have started educating their daughters so that they have to pay less for dowry. And this isn’t even the worse part, they further reiterated that dowry is good because it helps in getting “ugly looking girls”.
It is ironic that they have mentioned the “merits” of the dowry when so many women are abused and even killed for dowry. The tone-deafness of this entire textbook section is appalling to me. I can’t believe that people are being taught this in an actual educational institute.
