Honour killing continues unabated in Haryana

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Honour killing continues unabated in Haryana

Monday, 27 August 2018 | Nishu Mahajan | Chandigarh

DESPITE EFFORTS BY SOCIO-POlITICAl ORGANISATIONS AND SPREAD OF AWARENESS, CASTE RIGIDITY REMAINS STRONG IN HARYANA AND SO DOES HONOUR KIllINGS. NISHU MAHAJAN lOOKS INTO THE RECENT HONOUR KIllING OF A GIRl IN ROHTAK AND ANAlYSES THE REASONS WHY SUCH INCIDENTS KEEP SHAMING THE STATE ON A FRIGHTENING REGUlARITY

There is no ‘honour’ in honour killing”. The dictum seems accurate in a modern and rational society but not in the 21st century Haryana, where girls are still suffering brutal violence based solely on the archaic and misplaced notion of “honour”.

Mamta, an 18-year old upper caste girl became the latest victim of “honour killing” in Haryana, which is known for its rigid patriarchal order.

She was shot dead on August 8 outside Rohtak’s district court, for marrying a dalit boy against the wishes of her parents.  Her murder was planned and ordered by her family members who had hired shooters to commit the heinous crime.

However, Mamta’s punishment for eloping with a dalit boy did not end with her death… Such is the severity of misogyny and caste perversity in Haryana that her parents had refused to perform her last rites. With Mamta’s husband in prison for allegedly forging her age proof to marry and her dalit in-laws fearful of coming out of their house, she was cremated by strangers.

Sadly, Mamta’s story is not a lone case of bizarre murder in the name of so-called honour.

Haryana’s infamous Manoj-Babli honour killing case, which had shocked the entire nation in 2007, is still fresh in people’s mind.

Manoj (23) and Babli (19) from Karora village in Kaithal district, who had tied the knot in the same gotra, against the wishes of their parents were brutally murdered by Babli’s relatives. Furious with the marriage, Babli’s family had even asked for intervention from the Khap panchayat which had annulled the marriage and also announced a social boycott on Manoj’s family.

The guilty in the case were given death sentence by the lower court but it was commuted to life imprisonment later.

But, the verdict in the Manoj-Babli honour killing case has not changed anything… Years after their horrid killing, Haryana continues to witness honour killings for similar reasons of intra-clan (gotra) or inter-caste marriages.

Sample this. A 20-year-old girl was murdered and quietly cremated by her family in Jhajjar in a suspected case of honour killing in February. In another similar case, a man in Haryana’s Jind district allegedly killed his minor daughter in March. In June, a 24-year-old resident of Rohtak registered a case alleging that his wife has been killed by her parents and cousins in a case of honour killing.

Such gruesome incidents reported widely across all sections of media, tell the sad reality of repressive social system in Haryana.

The practice of honour killing, defined as a murder of a relative, especially a girl or women, who is accused of “bringing shame” upon their family, goes across all cultures and all religions since decades despite rapid social transition.

In today’s modern world, it seems hard to image that murders of girls are planned and ordered by their family members, only because she fell in love with a man they deemed unsuitable. More shockingly, mothers of victim girls have either killed them or served as co-conspirator in killings of their daughters.

“The brutal killings in the name of honor have been going on since decades due to feudal mindset and patriarchal social set-up. On one side, Haryana is grappling with skewed sex-ratio while on the other side, young girls are being killed in the name of honour. All this implies how the communities are still untouched to the process of social, psychological and legal political modernization and still pursue honour killings as an accepted and even prestigious socio-cultural tendency,” says Prof Satnam Singh Doel, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science Department at Guru Nanak Dev University in Amritsar, who had conducted a study on honour killings in Haryana.

According to Prof Satnam’s 2014 study,  74 per cent of the honour killings transpired only in the Jat dominated region including the districts of Sirsa, Fatehabad, Hisar, Bhiwani, Jind, Rohtak, Sonipat, Karnal, Panipat and Kaithal. There was occurrence of 23 percent incidents in the Yadav dominated region, while only 3 percent incidents of honour killings took place in the region with mixed population.

The analysis of 100 sample cases of honour killings occurred in the state of Haryana from 2005 to 2013 during his study had revealed that 40 percent of the girls murdered for honour were adolescents belonging to the age group of 14 to 19 years and the rest 60 percent comprised the age group of 20 to 25 years. Further, huge majority of males killed for honour, belonged to the age group of 20-25 years, however, there were approximately 20 percent of deceased males who comprising the teenage group of 17-19 years

Prof Satnam, while talking to The Pioneer says, “In almost all the cases studied, there was direct involvement of the fathers or brothers of the girls in such killings.”

In the cases analyzed, 37 percent honour killings were committed by the girls’ families after the elopement of their daughter and in other 37 percent cases, the girl or the couple had been murdered after they get married to each other without the consent of girls’ families. In 26 percent cases, the couple was murdered on the spot when they were caught in compromising condition by girl’s family member, the study stated.

“Implementation of rigorous laws and rigid punishments is required to change the mindset of the bigoted patriarchal societies to become tolerant to matrimonial choices of their daughters especially towards inter-caste, intra-clan and inter-religious marriages,” Prof Satnam says.

Terming the crime of honour killings as a barbaric "slur" on the nation, the Supreme Court had in 2011 stated that death penalty should be given to those found guilty of such crimes.

Earlier this year also, the Apex Court had held that right of adult individuals to choose their life partners was above class honour and that it was “illegal” for Khap panchayats to summon and punish couples for this.

The Supreme Court had also called upon Parliament to come up with a suitable legislation and directed the State Governments to create special cells to receive petitions or complaints of harassment of and threat to couples of inter-caste marriage.

Nonetheless, many love stories in Haryana and even in other parts of the country have tragic endings due to largely patriarchal culture and intolerance towards inter-caste, intra-gotra and inter-religion marriages.

“As far as the magnitude of cases of honour killings are concerned, there is no accurate data available. While such cases are reported every now and then from various parts of the country, most of such killings go unreported,” says Jagmati Sangwan, a social activist and general secretary, All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA).

Sangwan, also an activist against honour killings says, “Over the years, things have changed as protection homes have been created for protection of couple in Haryana after Court’s directions. But, the willpower of the government to stop cases of honour killings is not evident.”

“We have been demanding enactment of a separate law to deal with the killings and crimes in the name of ‘honour’. A draft of Bill in this regard was also submitted by AIDWA to the Union law Ministry few years back but nothing has been done in this regard,” she tells.

Sangwan further says, “In the past, several cases have been witnessed where an entire village panchayat, Khap panchayat or even police personnel have colluded in such killings. It has also been observed that political leaders and Khap panchayats do not condemn honour crimes."

“While a stringent law is required to put an end to such crimes, it seems a ‘distant reality’ as no ruling government wants to stoke caste tension or upset any upper caste community with such rules,” the social activist adds.

Despite the extensive media coverage and awareness campaigns, the dreaded phenomenon of honour killings still prevails in the educated yet orthodox, conservative and socially backward society. And, the underreporting of such killings, lack of empathy towards the issue on the part of government, collusion of family, panchayat and police to commit such crimes, lack of sense of guilt in the culprits and lacuna in the law are among the challenges cited by experts to fight this social evil.

“Societal pressure remains a major reason for the problem of this cruel practice. Such extreme steps are usually taken under the influence and pressure from relatives, village panchayat and Khap panchayats. The influence of panchayats in such killings are so much so that even police is not allowed to enter the villages to intervene in such crimes,” says Kulwant Singh Nehra, Assistant Professor, RBI chair at Chandigarh-based Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development  (CRRID)

On the role of society in such crimes, Nehra says, “Some parents do accept their children’s wishes but many submits to undue pressure of orthodox society. Most of the times, the civil and police administration resist meddling in such crimes and perceive it as personal matters. Also, these killings are reported and shown as suicides in several cases and culprits go scot free. Respect for human rights and general awareness at ground level is a must to change the mindset towards honour killings, which is still considered as culturally acceptable.”

"Also, it is highly regrettable that even today, honour killings are justified in the name of culture, tradition and even religion," he adds.

Baljit Malik, chief of Malik Gathwala Khap, one of the largest and most influential in Haryana, says, “We have been demanding amendment in the Hindu Marriage Act to prohibit marriage in the same gotra (clan), within the same village and also, the neighboring village. Such amendments are required to prevent disputes related to marriages in the society,”

On the issue of honour killings in Haryana, Baljit Malik says, “The Khap condemns such acts. We are not against inter-caste marriages. But, we do advice the parents to keep an eye on their children and teach them about tradition so that marriage related clashes between various communities could be prevented.”

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