Dowry Calculator
Add up what is being asked for. Then read what it costs — in law, and in compounding.
This is a leveraged buyout of one mediocre employee, priced at a premium, settled in cash, with the seller keeping the asset. Somebody has confused a son with an IPO — and it is an IPO whose only disclosed strength is that he was born.
This demand is 7.1 years of his entire salary — not his savings, his salary, every rupee of it, spent on nothing else. He is asking to be paid for before he has finished paying for himself.
Left invested at 12%, that money throws off ₹51.00K a month without touching the capital — a second income for your daughter that arrives whether or not the marriage does.
The 200g of gold alone is ₹20.00L. In a locker it compounds at exactly nothing, and it is insured by a family that is currently negotiating with you.
- Scheme name
- The Groom Fund — Regular Plan — Growth
- Fund manager
- His mother, since inception. No succession plan.
- Assets under management
- Nil. Everything is in his father's name.
- Expense ratio
- 100% of her salary, her weekends and her surname.
- Exit load
- Nil in law. His family will quote you a different figure.
- Lock-in
- Lifetime. There is no three-year ELSS equivalent.
- Benchmark
- Any man who did not have to be paid for.
- Risk-o-meter
- Very High — and unlike a fund's, it is not reviewed monthly.
- Past performance
- Lived with his parents until 29. Has never located the washing machine filter.
- Minimum investment
- Whatever was asked for above, revised upward at every festival.
- SEBI registration
- None. This is not a regulated product. It is an offence.
- Recommendation
- Redeem. Reinvest in literally anything with a NAV.
- Paid as a lumpsum into an equity fund today
- ₹4.92Cr
- Of which is growth, not the original amount
- ₹4.41Cr
- Or drip-fed as a SIP of ₹21.25K/month across the same 20 years
- ₹2.12Cr
- Handed over instead
- ₹0, forever
The lumpsum wins because it is in the market from day one while the SIP averages half the horizon — the same money, later. Either column is a house deposit in her own name, in her own words, with her name on the registration, which is the only wedding gift on this page that appreciates.
- Invested in an equity fund
- Handed over, then kept in a locker
Under section 3 of the Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961, giving or taking dowry carries imprisonment of not less than 5 years and a fine of not less than ₹15,000 or the value of the dowry, whichever is higher — which is why the fine above tracks whatever you typed in. Merely demanding it is an offence on its own under section 4: six months to two years, plus a fine of up to ₹10,000. Cruelty by a husband or his relatives, the provision most dowry harassment is prosecuted under, is section 85 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (section 498A of the former IPC).
Complaints go to the Dowry Prohibition Officer appointed for your state, or to the police. The national Women Helpline is 181. If you are reading this page because someone has put a number on your daughter, the number that matters is that one — not any of the ones above.
Projections assume one constant annual return, which no real fund delivers; they show the shape of what compounding does to a large sum over a long horizon, not a forecast. Gold is valued at the rate you enter. Nothing here is legal or investment advice, and no figure on this page should be read as a going rate for anything — the going rate is zero, and the penalty for a different answer is printed above.
Embed this calculator on your site
Paste this where you want it. Keep the credit line under the frame — that is the part that links back.
Independent · No commissions · No fund-house data — how the numbers are computed
How it works
Dowry is illegal in India. The Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961 makes giving or taking it an offence under section 3, punishable with imprisonment of not less than five years and a fine of not less than ₹15,000 or the value of the dowry, whichever is higher; merely demanding it is a separate offence under section 4, carrying six months to two years and a fine of up to ₹10,000. This calculator exists because those sections are quoted far less often than a list of demands is, and because the arithmetic makes the same argument the statute does.
It totals a demand the way anyone asking for one would — cash, gold by the gram at a rate you set, a vehicle, the wedding the bride's family is expected to host, and the furniture and appliances that get described as gifts. Then it does three things with that total. It compounds it at an assumed equity return over a horizon you choose, so the sum has a second number attached to it. It converts the same total into the monthly income it would throw off untouched, and sets that against the groom's claimed salary. And it applies section 3's fine, which scales with the value of the dowry rather than sitting at a flat figure.
Every projection here uses one constant annual return, the same simplification as the SIP and lumpsum calculators on this site, and real funds do not deliver a constant return. The point of the comparison is not the precision of the corpus but the size of the gap: a demand is a one-time transfer of capital that stops compounding the moment it changes hands, and nothing on the list being handed over — a car, a fridge, a television — appreciates at all.
Frequently asked questions
Is dowry illegal in India?
Yes. The Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961 criminalises both sides of the transaction. Section 3 covers giving or taking dowry and prescribes imprisonment of not less than five years together with a fine of not less than ₹15,000 or the value of the dowry, whichever is higher. Section 4 makes the demand itself an offence, punishable with six months to two years and a fine of up to ₹10,000. Cruelty by a husband or his relatives, the provision under which most dowry harassment is prosecuted, is section 85 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, which replaced section 498A of the Indian Penal Code.
What counts as dowry, as opposed to a gift?
The Act defines dowry as property or valuable security given or agreed to be given in connection with a marriage, by either party or their relatives. The distinguishing feature is the connection to the marriage and, in practice, the demand: voluntary presents given to the bride at the time of marriage are excluded by the Act's own proviso where they are entered in a list, are of a value not excessive given the giver's means, and are not the result of a demand. A wedding the bride's family is required to fund, or an item specified by the groom's side as a condition, is not a gift by that test.
Why does this calculator show a mutual fund projection?
Because a dowry is a transfer of capital, and capital that is handed over stops compounding for the family that handed it over. The projection shows what the same total would become at an assumed annual return over the chosen horizon, as a lumpsum and as a monthly SIP of the same money spread across the same years. The lumpsum figure is larger because it is invested from day one while the SIP averages roughly half the horizon. Neither is a forecast; both assume a constant return that real funds do not deliver.
What does the monthly income figure on this page mean?
It is the demand multiplied by the assumed annual return and divided by twelve — what the sum would generate each month without the capital being touched. It is shown next to the groom's claimed monthly salary because the comparison is the clearest statement of what a large demand actually is: at a 12% assumption, a demand of ₹1 crore produces ₹1 lakh a month on its own, which is more than most of the salaries the demand is made in the name of.
Where can a dowry demand be reported?
Complaints can be made to the Dowry Prohibition Officer appointed by the state government under section 8B of the Act, or directly to the police. The national Women Helpline number is 181. An offence under section 4 is complete at the demand — nothing has to have been paid for it to be reportable.
Go further
The same projection without the demand attached to it.
Build the same corpus monthly instead of in one transfer.
What a daughter's education actually costs, funded rather than traded.
Why the horizon matters more than the amount.
Transferring capital in a form that keeps growing.