by E. Garzilli

Dear Members,

We are pleased to announce the recent publication of another issue of the Journal of South Asia Women Studies. On October 1, 2000 the journal has celebrated its 6th year of life. As it is proper, we celebrate its birthday by publishing a paper on the same topic we started this publication: dowry and bride burning in India.

Dowry is a widespread phenomenon throughout South Asia that has become a serious socio-economic and religious problem. Especially in India, there is a growing number of episodes of assassinations of women whose families have not paid the dowry requested by the bridegroom or his family, or have not paid the full amount in time.

However, Dowry and its Effect on Marital Choices in India by Sonia Dalmia (Dept. of Economics, Grand Valley State University) shows two main important features of the phenomenon: the marriage market can be viewed as an implicit market in bride and groom attributes; most importantly, empirical results indicate that, contrary to popular belief, holding groom characteristics constant, real dowries have decreased over time.

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We remind you that the Fifth International Conference on Dowry, Bride-burning and Son-Preference in India will be held on January 27, 28, 29 and 30, 2001 in New Delhi.
For more info, please write to:

Himendra Thakur, President
ISADABBI
P.O. Box 8766
Salem, MA-01971, USA
Email: hthakur@shore.net

Happy reading!