Thinking about arranged marriage? You may consider listening to this man who is sailing the same boat. Stand-up comedian Abhineet Mishra, with help from a ‘dowry calculator’, knows his exact worth in the market.
In his latest video, Mishra, as an eligible bachelor belonging to the ‘trophy group’, tries to prove his worth to a potential bride (played by Joieta Roy) whom he met through a matrimonial website. Mocking at the criterion on which a potential groom is selected, this satirical piece tries to show a mirror to the society. Check out the video here.
Interestingly, Mishra focuses on the same website, www.dowrycalculator.com, against which Union Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi has sought action. She has pointed out in the letter that the website is shameful, and also illegal as it promotes dowry.
The website, however, claims to be a satire.
The single-page portal has a pro forma that asks visitors to fill out categories like, age, caste, profession, monthly income, skin colour etc of the prospective groom. Once the required fields are filled, the website calculates the amount of dowry that can be claimed by a prospective groom.
Also read: What is Dowry Calculator?
The amount is then displayed with a message, which is satirical in nature, suggesting the prospective groom to better his standing or congratulating him for his “achievements”.
In her letter to Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, Gandhi has urged him to block the website.
Matrimonial website shaadi.com too has a dowry calculator on its portal. A lot of users have taken its quiz since, expecting to find the dowry amount they can charge. But instead of the amount, the quiz result displays the number of dowry death figures of India.