Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, in his fresh push for the eradication of the dowry system, has said that taking dowry for marriage is a “useless thing” and that children will be born only if a man gets married to a woman.

“Taking dowry for marriage is a useless thing. Children will be born only if you will get married. What will happen to childbirth if a man gets married to another man?”

The Chief Minister made the remarks at the inauguration of a newly-constructed girls’ hostel in Patna on Monday.

Earlier in February, Kumar had termed dowry “a social evil” and said that it is the responsibility of everyone to put an end to it for the fruits of development to reach all.

“The dowry system is one of the vilest practices in today’s society. It is the responsibility of all of us to put an end to it. People must come forward to stop this, and then only society can be reformed,” Kumar said.

The Chief Minister also said that he attends only those wedding ceremonies in which ‘no to dowry’ is prominently mentioned on invitation cards

In 2017, Kumar had launched a state-wide campaign to abolish the “wrong practices” of dowry and child marriage.

He had also said as per the Government of India’s crime data, Bihar ranked second in the country after neighbouring Uttar Pradesh in terms of dowry-related cases. The Chief Minister had pointed out that this was the situation, despite there being laws – the Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961.