Stop the bridal gold rush
The excessively gold-bedecked Kerala bride is a well-known cliché. Jewellery shops promote it, social media memes satirize it, reformers condemn it, and many families strain their finances to achieve it. It is absurd that in a progressive state like Kerala, most families feel compelled to perpetuate this gross gender discrimination. A middle class family aims at accumulating 100 sovereigns (800 grams) of gold for a daughter’s marriage. At current gold prices and making charges, that’s a whopping Rs 40 lakhs a family has to budget for just gold jewellery. Call it what you will — dowry, security, keeping up appearances, or whatever — this is the penalty parents take on themselves for having a girl child. And it is so unnecessary. Kerala is in many ways a gender equal opportunity society and women role models abound across the socio-economic spectrum. Why then does society condone this gold handicap for girls? Often it is because parents and family want to find “suitable” grooms. This con