The Federation of Ethnic Communities of Australia says there has been an increase in the number of married women in Australia who are being subjected to aggressive demands to provide dowry.
It's prompted immigration lawyer and the Chair of FECCA's Women's Advisory Committee Pallavi Sinha to start collecting data to try and establish how big the problem is.
"It's very important to gather the information to gather the figures about how many people are affected and which communities and religious groups are affected,” she told SBS Radio.
Dowry involves the payment in assets or in cash by the bride's family to the bridegroom's family and is practiced in some ethnic communities in Australia.
There is currently no legislation on a state of federal level banning the practice and advocates are calling for legal changes to protect women subjected to dowry.
Ms Sinha said the dowry system was originally meant to provide financial independence for the bride, but this is no longer the case.
"The sort of cases I'm hearing about are where the brides are being asked to provide a certain amount of money, or provide this amount of jewellery or all sorts of household items and goods, and they're very excessive and placing a lot of pressure on the brides and their families," she said.
"This [pressure] can then end up leading to mental, physical and financial abuse."
Mr Sinha is working with the NSW Office for Communities and Citizenship about the issue, and hopes that joint action will eventually be taken to introduce legislation on a federal and national level banning the practice.
"If there's any traditional or religious custom that's being misused or exploited it's definitely something the government should then consider banning," said Ms Sinha.
FECCA's comments follow a recent call by the former Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu who called for the Victorian Government to bring in legislation banning the practice.
