Step 1: Introduction: Open with a brief note on how dowry harms families and society, despite legal prohibition.
Step 2: Body — Measures: Focus this version on different levers: government schemes (e.g. incentives for dowry-free marriages), the role of media in changing mindsets, empowering local panchayats to report cases, and involving religious/community leaders to denounce the practice from within.
Step 3: Conclusion: Close by stressing collective responsibility — government, community and family together.
Final Answer: Ending the Dowry Menace
Though dowry is banned by law, it survives because society has not fully rejected it in practice. Real change needs more than legislation. Local panchayats and women's self-help groups should be empowered to report and mediate dowry disputes quickly. The media has a powerful role too — films, serials and news stories that glorify lavish dowry weddings should instead spotlight dowry-free marriages as aspirational. Religious and community leaders, who command respect in many households, must publicly denounce dowry from within their own communities rather than leaving the issue only to courts. Government incentives — such as small grants or recognition for dowry-free weddings — can nudge families in the right direction. Above all, every individual must refuse, in their own family, to give or accept dowry. When law, community pressure and personal conviction move together, the dowry system can finally be eradicated.