He also termed as “evil” the portrayal of a child bride in a TV serial.

Speaking at a seminar on dowry here, Chidambaram said in India, majority of marriages are arranged. “As the failure of arranged and not-arranged marriages in India was the same, we accept arranged marriages. But dowry is a fact in arranged marriages,” he said.

“We accept arranged marriage but we reject dowry, but dowry is a concomitant part of arranged marriage,” the Home Minister stated.

Agreeing that there were no easy solutions to this, he said, “Unless you state the problem clearly and then try to find an answer this problem will continue for ages to come”.

“I have no easy answers, but educated people in the country should take a lead in solving this problem,” he said adding, that ultimately it was the choice of an individual. If more and more people join the campaign then the evil will die down”.

He said that it was a myth that dowry was present only in certain sections of society. “It is prevalent in very section of society,” he said.

“I am told that there is even a serial which shows a child bride. This is an evil,” he added.

Speaking at the seminar, Minister of State for Women and Child Development Krishna Tirath said, “We have to look towards stopping violence against women in any form”.

“We want the school children to realise that this is a social evil. Daughters have to say when we get married we will not give dowry,” she added.

Tirath observed that despite the enactment of tough anti-dowry acts, deaths due to the scourge continued.