BANGALORE: In the quest for revenge, no bird will ever survive the battle of treachery and despair. While an armada of adorable avians seek revenge from a bunch of snickering piglets who stole their eggs; echoes of destruction may bring forth violence and grief. And, as these cute feathered creatures are hurled across the screen in an attempt at destroying structures housing the porcine enemies, one can’t help but cheer for them. If you haven’t guessed by now, we are in fact talking about one of the most addictive games of the twenty first century — Angry Birds.
Taking inspiration from this legendary game, Shaadi.com has now launched a Facebook game called Angry Brides in order to spread awareness on the consequences of dowry harassment and highlight its prevalence in several South Asian countries today. Armed with sauce pans, red stilettos and tomatoes among a variety of weapons, the angry bride attacks three prospective grooms — an engineer, a doctor and a pilot with vengeance. On hitting the target, the players can score points which will be added to the anti-dowry fund. To move to the subsequent levels, a minimum amount needs to be collected. With the hope of shedding some light on the issue of dowry, the online game, that has attracted 2,75, 000 likes, has gone viral on the Internet.
“Although, the game isn’t that impressive, the whole issue of dowry requires immediate attention. Demanding money from the bride’s family is wrong and unethical. Basically, a price is put up by the groom and his family to accept another person’s daughter. There have been several cases of both physical and mental torture inflicted on women for a few bucks. This is nothing but a morally deprived act,” said Natwar Chaurasia, a Bangalore-based IT professional who plays the game.
Shockingly, according to National Crime Records Bureau’s (NCRB) 2007 statistics, India witnesses one death in every four hours. Thereby creating a massive imbalance in the girl to boy ratio. Though the payment of dowry was prohibited in our country under the Indian Civil Law in 1961, educated people today are seen indulging in such derogatory acts.
“The notion that education may help eradicate dowry has been disproved time and again. The very fact that a person or his family wants to or agrees to spend a life time with a woman only if they get the money they demand is an act deprived of love. Such marriages shouldn’t proceed. It means that men and their families agree to bear with a woman only if they can successfully extort money from the bride’s family, else they torture them. In a culture where dowries are a common place occurrence there is only one kind of love. Love for money,” said Gibin Thomas, a city-based IT professional.
Dowry Prohibition Act
Introduced by the then Indian law minister Ashok Kumar Sen, this Act prohibits the request, payment or acceptance of a dowry, as consideration for the marriage where dowry is defined as a gift demanded or given as a precondition for a marriage. Gifts given without a precondition are not considered dowry, and are legal. Asking or giving of dowry can be punished by an imprisonment of up to six months, or a fine of up to Rs 15,000 or the amount of dowry whichever is higher and imprisonment up to five years. It replaced several pieces of anti-dowry legislation that had been enacted by various Indian states.
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