Did you know about dowry calculator options that are available online for public usage? For those unversed and wondering whether such portals actually exist when the demand and acceptance of dowry is illegal and strictly prohibited, let us tell you that these pages load online and are accessible to any person using the internet.
Dowry calculator available online
Of the many dowry calculators, which serve the same purpose, the one developed and available on Shaadi.com has caught the attention of people, once again since it surfaced nearly a decade ago. The page opens up on search engines such as Google.com as "Dowry Calculator."
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How much dowry are you worth?
Ever tried it before? In case you were planning to get married and searching for a mate online, you might have come across this page of the matrimonial platform which suggests you try calculating the dowry your profile attracts. At start, the dowry calculator drops a simple question to excite viewers: "How much Dowry are you worth?" The site then seeks your details such as age, profession, income, and so on.
Does dowry calculator work?
What happens after filling all the required details on the dowry calculator? Does it tell you how much dowry you can attract from your match? Here comes the catch. Spilling the beans out, the dowry calculator just misleads people and ends on a note of awareness. Yes, it doesn't calculate and suggest the sum of money you are worth for a dowry, but rather informs you with the number of dowry death cases reported in India. "Let's make India a Dowry-Free Society," it reads.
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Netizens react
"Initially was shocked to see Dowry calculator...in surprise, instead of showing their dowry worth, the ‘calculator’ shows the visitor stats about dowry deaths in India," said an X user while discussing about the dowry calculator. "This clever twist is a powerful awareness campaign," added another. Undoubtedly, netizens were impressed by the dowry calculator and how it pranked people for the better.
More about dowry calculator
In 2011, popular matrimonial site Shaadi.com rolled out its thoughtful campaign to stop dowry and launched a page falsely claiming to calculate dowry a person is worth of. The "Dowry Calculator" tricked people who ended up opening it to soothe their greed. It's clickbait nature was used to raise awareness in the society.
An official of Shaadi.com then told the media that the campaign introduced a new way of an old problem (dowry) which demanded attention. The initiative was reportedly partnered with NGO Stree Mukti Sanghatana. It aimed at destroying the social evil such of dowry from the institution of marriage.
The dowry calculator on Shaadi.com was blocked by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology for being misleading and "unacceptable" in 2018. Years later, in 2023, the Delhi High Court termed the website "quite creative" in response to a plea.
While considering that the quirky calculator mocked dowry and condemned the social evil, the court noted in its hearing "The government's stand is that it will defame India in the eyes of the world."
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