NCW asks Union education minister to take action over BSc book listing 'merits' of dowry

NEW DELHI: The National Commission for Women (NCW) on Tuesday asked Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan to take remedial action over a book for nursing students listing the "merits and advantages" of the dowry system.

The 'Textbook of Sociology for Nurses' by T K Indrani, according to its cover, is written according to the Indian Nursing Council syllabus. The suggestion that getting a share of parental property in dowry is one of the "merits" of the regressive practice is under the heading "The Merits of Dowry".

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The NCW, in a statement, said the matter is of serious concern and the commission has taken cognisance of it. "It sends a very wrong message to students about the prevailing menace of 'dowry'. (NCW) Chairperson Rekha Sharma has written to Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan to intervene and to take remedial action in the matter," it mentioned. The chairperson has also written to Rajesh Bhushan, the Union health secretary, for initiating action in the matter to inform the NCW about it within a week.

In a related news, Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MP Priyanka Chaturvedi on Monday wrote to Pradhan seeking action on the contents of the book for second-year BSc students. In her letter, Chaturvedi said 'Textbook of Sociology for Nurses', authored by TK Indrani, lays down “merits and advantages” of the dowry system. She said one of the so-called advantages of the dowry system, as written in the book, states, "Because of the burden of dowry, many parents have started educating their girls. When the girls are educated or even employed, the demand for dowry will be less. This is an indirect advantage."

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As per the book, "ugly girls can be married off with attractive dowry with well or ugly looking boys". "It is appalling how such derogatory and problematic texts remain in circulation. That a textbook elaborating the merits of dowry can actually exist in our curriculum is a shame for the nation and its Constitution,” she said in the letter.

She said the circulation of such "regressive textbooks" should be immediately stopped and taken off the curriculum, and strict measures must be taken to ensure such anti-women content is neither taught or promoted in the future.