Paramveer Rathore, a civil services aspirant, got married to Nikita Bhati at a small village named Karaliya on February 14. The bride’s family gave Mr Rathore a plate decorated with a red cloth and filled with cash worth Rs 5,51,000. He returned the money soon after the ceremony, earning widespread praise among relatives and villagers in Rajasthan’s Jaisalmer. \”I was sad to see that such (dowry) practices continue to exist in society. I could not immediately reject it, so I had to carry on with the rituals,\” he said. \”We must stop this practice of dowry,\” his father, Ishwar Singh, said. ‘It will not happen all of a sudden but we have to start somewhere,’ he added. ‘The baraat that came from Pali has set an example,’ a relative of the bride said of the groom’s gesture. ‘We have sent across a message to society that we must stop such feudal practices,’ said the bride’s father, Bhawani Singh.
