The publishers of a college sociology textbook, which dwelt on the "boons" of the dowry system, said that they have decided to withdraw the book from the market with immediate effect. The announcement came on Tuesday, April 5, after severe backlash in social media. Rajya Sabha MP Priyanka Chaturvedi had also written to the Union Education Minister, demanding to “immediately stop the circulation of such regressive textbooks and take them off the curriculum”.
Meanwhile, the Indian Nursing Council (INC) condemned the use of its name by a publisher and an author for the sale of the textbooks with derogatory content. The INC, in a statement on Tuesday, said that it has been brought to its notice that the author and the publisher of a textbook of sociology for nurses have placed the council's name on its cover page.
The INC released a notification dated April 4, 2022 on its website which strongly condemned any derogatory content related to social evils in the society like dowry by using its name, a statement said. “Section 16 of the INC Act empowers the council to prescribe the standards and curricula for the training of nurses, midwives and health visitors. As per the policy, the INC only prescribes the syllabus and does not endorse any author or publisher,” it said.
The INC has initiated action against the publisher and the author concerned for misusing its name in the content of the book, the statement said. The INC is also issuing an advisory to all Universities/State Nurses Registration Council (SNRC) to do proper due diligence before prescribing any textbook to nursing colleges, it said.
Indian Nursing Council has initiated necessary action against publisher and author for misusing its name in the content of the book that highlighted one of the merits of dowry system was to get ugly girls married off @NewIndianXpress @MoHFW_INDIA @mansukhmandviya @priyankac19 pic.twitter.com/IUBVAWUq3v
— Kavita Bajeli-Datt (@KavitaDatt) April 5, 2022
Further, spokesperson for the New Delhi-based Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers Private Limited Samina Khan told IANS over email, "We would like to inform that we have taken immediate steps to withdraw the (text)book from the market. We take such matters with utmost seriousness and shall continue to strengthen internal processes to avoid such incidents in future."
Jaypee Brothers are "a responsible publisher" and serving the medical community for more than five decades, she stressed. However, details of how many copies will be withdrawn and how they will be replaced were not provided. The step comes as a huge climbdown as the publishers had earlier told IANS that they would not revise the title, but delete the offensive sections in future editions of the textbook.
The "Textbook of Sociology for Nurses", penned by senior author TK Indrani propounded the theory that the much-abhorred system of dowry was actually good for society and argued that it helps parents of "ugly looking girls" to get them married. Chapter 6, on page number 122, justifies how the main cause of accepting dowry by the groom's parents is that they have to, in turn, give dowry to their daughters and sisters (outgoing). "Naturally, they look to the (incoming) dowry of their sons to meet their obligations in finding husbands for their daughters," it claimed.
The content sparked off a furore in various quarters besides a storm in the social media demanding stringent action against the author and the publishers. Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi shot off a letter to Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan to "immediately stop the circulation" of the textbook, prescribed for second year BSc students in Maharashtra and other states, and take it off the curriculum. "It is appalling how such derogatory and problematic text remains in circulation and that a textbook elaborates the merits of dowry. It actually exists in our curriculum and is a shame for the nation and Constitution," Chaturvedi said.
Academics in Mumbai like retired Professor Mangal Gogte and former lecturer RN Desai had strongly castigated the textbook for "its poisonous ideas" and sought content quality checks plus prompt withdrawal of all copies from the Indian market.
The textbook also refers to how young boys earning high salaries or promising professional careers have become "scarce commodities" and hence, their parents demand huge amounts of money from the girl's parents to accept her as their daughter-in-law. The author lists several "merits and advantages" of the dowry system, which is banned under Indian law, including "ugly-looking girls can be married off with attractive dowry with well or ugly-looking boys".
“Dowry helps (the young couple) in establishing their new household as the custom of giving things like cots, mattresses, television, fan, refrigerator, utensils, clothes and even vehicles are given by the girl to her husband in many parts of India; in the form of dowry, the girl automatically gets her share in the parental property at the time of her marriage. The dowry system helps spread education among girls as due to the burden of dowry, many people have started educating their girls. When the girls are educated or even employed, the demand for dowry will be less. Thus, it is an indirect advantage," says the textbook.
Incidentally, around six years ago, similar claims on the alleged 'goodness of dowry', featuring in Higher Secondary School Certificate (HSC) textbooks of Maharashtra had triggered a huge row.