Kerala 2005 - of Planning Commission

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Box 7.8: Purchasing ‘Status’: Marriage Expenses and Dowry
Marriage is a priority item of spending of remittances from the Gulf. 13 Kurien (1994) found that dowry was a major
head of expenditure in two of three villages studied in the context of migration-induced spending. In a Muslim village,
where migrants were from the lower income groups, she finds that “the value placed on the purity and seclusion
of women manifested itself in several ways in the expenditure patterns of this area”. This had led to a tremendous
increase in dowry rates as well as the use of taxis considered the more appropriate mode of travel for women. In the
second, an Ezhava dominated village, while dowry is not mentioned, the major heads of expenditure were life cycle
rituals and festivals. “Marriages were the biggest of such celebrations and migrants spent a good proportion of their
Gulf money on the weddings of their sisters, daughters and close relatives”. In a relatively affluent Christian village,
the largest heads of expenditure were education (donations to professional colleges) and dowries. “Status in this
community accrued from having a large bank balance, professionally educated family members (the large dowries
were often ways of securing such sons in law)…”.
The almost excessive emphasis on marriage, its translation into a consumer practice that raises expectations of social
mobility, has different implications for men and women. One of our respondents indicated the dimensions that
‘masculinity’ could take in this context. She was considered old at the time of her second marriage at 23 years to a
Gulf migrant, who already had a wife and three children. The marriage was arranged at his behest, because he thought
he could ‘afford’ it. He told her that, “earlier, I never had money to buy even a beedi. But now I am in the Gulf and
have got money. I can take care of two families” (Eapen and Kodoth, 2003).
Table 7.13: Moving Average of Crime Against Women per Lakh of Population
Rape Kidnapping &
Abduction
Dowry Deaths Cruelty by Husband
and Relatives
Kerala
Molestation
Sexual
Harassment
1996 1.33 0.47 0.10 3.73 3.77 0.10
1997 1.67 0.47 0.10 5.13 4.77 0.20
1998 1.70 0.43 0.10 6.60 5.23 0.23
1999 1.63 0.37 0.10 7.33 5.30 0.23
2000 1.60 0.33 0.10 7.77 5.47 0.23
All India
1996 1.57 1.57 0.60 3.67 3.13 0.57
1997 1.57 1.63 0.63 3.97 3.17 0.67
1998 1.57 1.63 0.67 4.17 3.23 0.77
1999 1.57 1.60 0.70 4.43 3.27 0.93
2000 1.60 1.50 0.70 4.60 3.30 0.97
Source: NCRB: Crime in India, various issues.
rank is particularly strong when we consider Kerala, given
the high literacy levels and gender parity in the conventional
sense. We have attempted to work through this obvious
constraint. One, reporting of crime is likely to be mediated
by gender codes, which stigmatise women who have been
raped or molested, but also by other factors, prominently
the rigidity of the legal system and the intensity of crime.
Two, unequal gender codes are not necessarily transformed
in more equitous directions by literacy or greater access to
education, as already seen in the context of employment
and property rights. Primary studies in a comparative frame
shed crucial insight for our understanding of the data.
Between 1995-2000, the rates of cruelty at home,
molestation and sexual harassment rose sharply in Kerala
(Table 7.13). The increase in rate of sexual harassment
13 Two studies have been particularly insightful on this issue. Osella and Osella (1999) have focused on the Ezhavas, a backward
caste, and their data is based on study of a village in the Kuttanad area of south Kerala. Kurien (1996) has studied three villages,
a predominantly Muslim village in north Kerala, Christian in central Kerala and Ezhava in south Kerala.