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Nilambur
(Kerala):
A year back, residents of a Kerala village in Malappuram district
took a pledge that they would neither ask for dowry in marriage nor
give any. The villagers are now launching two websites on dowry-free
marriages.
These websites have been created by Nilambur village which has a
population of 50,000, of which 40 percent are Muslims. The rest are
Hindus and Christians.
Heading the campaign is Nilambur village council president Aryadan
Shoukat (son of veteran Congress legislator Aryadan Mohammed), who
told IANS that the new websites would be launched by Chief Minister
V.S. Achuthanandan in state capital Thiruvananthapuram next Monday.
The
two websites are
www.dowryfreevillage.com
and
www.dowryfreemarriage.com.
"According to a survey, there are more than 4,698 unmarried men and
women in the village in the age group of 18 to 40. Of these, some
2,000 have registered with the websites so far. The registration is
free," said Shoukat, who is also an award winning filmmaker.
Last
year, in January, the village took a pledge in the presence of
Congress leader Sachin Pilot that they will not give nor ask for
dowry.
"Consequent to the pledge, the dowry taken and given which was close
to 85 percent came down to 40 percent. Through these websites we
expect to further bring down the percentage and eradicate this
social evil," added Shoukat.
The
idea started almost two years back when the council was conducting a
survey to find out the number of people who had no house of their
own.
They
were surprised to find that 25 percent of those belonging to the
lower strata of the society had no house of their own because they
had to sell it to marry off their daughters.
This
village became the first in the country almost two years back when
the entire population successfully completed Class 4 education under
the Kerala State Literacy Mission programme called Jyothirgamaya,
aimed at spreading non-formal education in the state.
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