Page 1 of 6
Journal for Studies in Management and Planning
Available at http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/index.php/JSMaP
e-ISSN: 2395-0463
Volume 02 Issue 03
March 2016
Available online:http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/ P a g e | 132
A Statistical Study of Dowry Determinants in Urban and Rural
Areas of Punjab, Pakistan
Muhammad Akbar Ali Shah; Shehla Arshad & Huma Qasim
ABSTRACT
This cross sectional study is undertaken among the rural and urban areas of Southern Punjab, Pakistan.
The main objective of the study is to find out the social factors which affect the dowry. Binary logistic
regression model is used to achieve the objective under study by taking the sample of 1500 respondents
through convenience sampling technique. The findings of the study reveal that the factors i.e., area,
bride’s employment, and dowry support financially are positively associated with dowry, whereas the
factor bride’s education is negatively associated with dowry. The finding of study indicate that area,
bride’s employment, dowry support financially, bride’s education have significant effect on dowry.
Key Words: social factors; dowry; convenience sampling technique; binary logistic regression
INTRODUCTION
In women life, marriage is considered a turning
point because it creates many problems in their
lives and dowry is one among many problems
which is affecting the married life of women all
over the world likewise in Pakistan. A dowry is a
great evil. It is affecting Pakistani society badly.
It is a social curse for the families belonging to
the lower middle class. It is creating greed and
egoism in society. In the present study it is
experienced that dowry is a problem to poor
class of society. It is considered as show off in
the front of others, the people worries that if their
daughter will go without dowry, in laws will
dishearten and demoralize her. Sometimes, due
to excess of groom‟s price (dowry) demands the
“barats” returns without brides, which indicates
that the dowry is affecting and creating greed in
society. Generally, dowry is a custom & its
demand is growing with the passage of time.
There are social and economic factors which
affect the married life of women. Dowry is
associated with women‟s education and age, It is
also a cause of divorce both in urban and rural
areas of Punjab. Social factors including
women‟s education, employment, inter-caste
marriage, bride‟s age are affecting dowry
(Arshad, 2015).
Munshi (2014) said that in arranged marriage due
to incomplete information about the groom,
groom true qualities remain unobservable to the
bride that is why education and dowry contract is
found as the better viewing tool to see the
qualities of groom. He found the positive
relationship between dowry and education level
of groom which is carried by the both
modernization and policies of the government.
Gulzar (2007) conducted a survey by taking a
sample of 102 observers by allocating 53 women
and 49 men through simple random sampling
technique and applied X
2
(chi square) to predict
the impact of dowry on Pakistani civilization
especially Lahore. Dowry positively influence to
women mentally and physically. Dowry makes
differences in women status by increasing greed
and conflicts in society. Many illiterate or
educated people are engaged in dowry system
but some are against this system, because
according to them dowry burden also cause to
lose parents self respect and further women
Page 2 of 6
Journal for Studies in Management and Planning
Available at http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/index.php/JSMaP
e-ISSN: 2395-0463
Volume 02 Issue 03
March 2016
Available online:http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/ P a g e | 133
mentally affected by it. Ambrus et al (2008)
studied the effect of legally adjustments onto the
dowry system and mehr on marriage contracts
from 1956-2004 via a household survey in
Bangladesh. They found that major change in
dowry as compared to gradual change in mehr,
so they concluded that Muslim family law (about
polygamy & divorce) encouraged the enforceable
marriage with efficient result. In developing
countries the amount of dowry take part
important role in the economic improvement
under poor conditions, secure the unfavorable
marital outcome for women and including
investment in children education, health and
fertility. Suran et al (2004) investigated the
bequest theory of dowry in Rural Bangladesh.
Dowry level has reached up to unexpected level
from few years. They found that results were
opposite to the bequest theory of dowry, in a way
that the women who had greater dowry at
marriage may also had higher chance of facing
domestic violence then those who had no dowry
at all. The respondents who paid largest dowries
face low risk of abuse and those who paid low
dowry face high level of physical abuse.
Rao (1993) examined the relation of dowry
observed in real term in Indian rural state. A
survey conducted on marriages by taking a
sample of 240 observations, between 1974
and1984 and which is conducted by the
ICRISAT (International Crops Research Institute
of Semi Arid Tropics). He found that low
marriages are significantly playing role in
increasing “inflation” and also cause to increase
in dowry, i.e., growing dowry size in real value
and further decrease in marriages caused to
reduce in age differences of marriages
METHODOLOGY
The fieldwork for the present study was
conducted at rural and urban areas of Southern
Punjab, Pakistan. The 1500 married women were
the subjects under investigation. They included
working and non working women of rich, poor
and middle class of rural and urban areas.
Convenience sampling technique applied for
collecting the data. Statistical method Binary
logistic regression was applied to identify the
factors which affect the dowry. Statistical
Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS)
technique, version 21 with 5% level of
significance was used for statistical analysis.
The following binary logistic regression model is
suggested as follows
( ) (
)
where „ln‟ is the natural logarithm, „p‟ is the
probability that Y for cases equals 1, p(y=1), „1-
p‟ is the probability that for Y cases equals 0, 1-
p (Y=1). “p/(1-p)” is the odds and ln[p/1-p] is
the log odds. „a‟ is Y intercept, „b‟ is regression
coefficient and „X‟ is predictor variable.
In this study binary logistic regression analysis
was performed dowry outcome variable and area,
groom‟s age, bride‟s age, employment of bride,
groom‟s occupation, father‟s occupation, dowry
support financial, groom‟s education, bride‟s
education were taken as input variables.
To explore the effect of the above explained and
explanatory variables the following binary
logistic regression model is suggested and as
follows
Page 3 of 6
Journal for Studies in Management and Planning
Available at http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/index.php/JSMaP
e-ISSN: 2395-0463
Volume 02 Issue 03
March 2016
Available online:http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/ P a g e | 134
(
)
---------------- (equation 1)
Where “a” is y intercept which represents the
average value of explained variable, when X is
zero and b‟s are slope of regression line.
ln[p/1-p] = The log odds of dowry
X1 = area
X2 = groom‟s age
X3 = bride‟s age
X4 = employment of bride
X5 = groom‟s occupation
X6 = father‟s occupation
X7 = dowry support financially
X8 = groom‟s education
X9 = bride‟s education
Result
Table 1 Dependent Variable Encoding
Original Value Internal Value
No
Yes
0
1
Table 2 Omnibus Tests of Model Coefficients
Chi-square df Sig.
Step 1
Step 65.673 9 .000
Block 65.673 9 .000
Model 65.673 9 .000
Table 3 Model Summary
Step –2 Log
likelihood
Cox &Snell R
Square
Nagelkerke R
Square
1 1369.517a
0.453 0.780
