Honour killings: An issue India must fight strongly 

A strong step is required to be taken by the Indian government to let the women enjoy the right to freedom
and hence the right to live.
CJ: Shivani Prakash 

  
Fri, Jul 23, 2010 12:50:42 IST
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Honour Killing News : 
Who will stop honour killings?
IN CASE you are not familiar with the term ‘ honour killings’, it may be described
as a cold blooded murder done in the name of family pride and status in the
society.
 
Though, India leads in such horrifying incidents of honour killings, such incidents
are being reported even in other countries. During an international meet in
London, some Indian jurists suggested that there are over 1000 killings
every year in the name of honour. And out of these, 900 incidents are
reported from three states namely Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh alone.

According to a recent report by Human Rights Commission nearly 700 women

were killed in the year 2009, in the name of honour in Pakistan.

As per the reports provided by Turkey’s Human Rights Directorate, there are well

nigh 1000 killings over five years span in Istanbul alone.

Around 200 women are sacrificed to death in the same line in Morocco.
Countries like Bangladesh, The Gaza Strip and The West Bank, Syria, Iraq
and many Middle East and South Asian countries support this inhuman act
of honour killings.

Talking of India, which is leading in this umbrage, the main reason for it to
be present here could be low literacy level, orthodox views, diverse religion,
poor status of women and dominance of man in the society. And offences of
a girl may vary from failing to serve meal on time, disobeying husband,
marital infidelity, flirting, pre-marital or extra marital sex, to marrying
without the consent of family, or marrying outside caste which leads to the
killing of women in the name of honour of the family. Honour killings are
dissimilar from the dowry deaths which is another evil prevalent in the
Indian society.  Women are sacrificed here when she is unable to get enough
material rewards for the boy’s family.

The recent murder of Kuldeep, Monica and Shobha in Ashok Vihar, Delhi
created sensation on almost all news media. The elderly extremist of the
family were supporting the murder in candid manner and justifying it. And
followed by many such cases, this horrendous crime just did not stop
implying that there is not enough will to keep it under control.
 
There is an urgent need to protect women from these killings and that can
be done by making strict laws and also raising awareness amongst people. A
strong step is required to be taken by the Indian government to let the women
enjoy the right to freedom and hence the right to live. The politics should
rise above just thinking of vote bank insurance and amend the existing,
ineffective laws. The perpetrators should be prosecuted immediately and
should be awarded a severe punishment so as to slow down the rate of this
heinous crime and finally decimate it completely. The need of the hour is to
take a quick action against this menace.

Nirupama Pathak – a name that has, of late, hit headlines in the national as well as
international media. She was a 22-year-old journalist, reportedly three-month pregnant, who
was found dead in the last week of April at her family home in Jharkhand. Nirupama’s family
claims that she committed suicide, but the post-mortem report tells a different story altogether. 

“The parents were frequently changing their statements. First, her mother said she died due to
electrocution. Later, the family members produced a suicide note and said she killed herself by
hanging from the ceiling fan. The post-mortem report says she was murdered by smothering. It
also revealed that she was 10-12 weeks pregnant,” Koderma police superintendent Kranti Singh
said. 

Nirupama’s fault: she fell in love with a boy from another caste. The girl hails from the family of
Brahmins, while her boyfriend, Priyabhanshu Ranjan, comes from different caste. “There are
indications that family pride was the prime motive behind the murder,” a police spokesman told
reporters. The case once again highlights how common `honour killings` are in India. However,
there are no official figures for the number of caste-related murders, because most of these
cases go unreported, the perpetrators unpunished, but occupy the columns and slots of print
and broadcast media quite often. 

Nirupama’s mother, Sudha Devi, has been arrested. And if the charge is proved against her, it
will be a rare case in which an educated middle-class woman will face trial for killing her own
daughter. 

There are many Nirupamas not only in India, but in many societies, who are burnt alive,
strangulated, shot, tortured, all in the name of preserving honour of the family. What reputation
does the family deserve after committing such a monstrous offence? 
What is the reason behind honour killings? According to Marsha Freemen, director of
International Women's Rights Action Watch at the Hubert Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at
the University of Minnesota, such killings occur in countries where the concept of women as a
vessel of the family reputation predominates. 

In the Indian society, women are regarded as personal property. In fact, violence against family
members is perceived as a family and not a judicial issue. "Females in the family -- mothers,
mothers-in-law, sisters, and cousins -- frequently support the attacks. It's a community
mentality," said Zaynab Nawaz, a program assistant for women's human rights at Amnesty
International. 

Besides India, honour killings have been reported in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Brazil, Ecuador,
Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Pakistan, Morocco, Sweden, Turkey, and Uganda. 

Notably, there is no law to deal with honour killings in India. Last year, Home Minister P
Chidambaram ruled out making another law to deal with such a heinous crime, but observed
“we should hang our heads in shame when such incidents take place in India in the 21st
century”. Honour killings “would have to be dealt with as murder”, he said. 

First of all, there should be a uniform definition of honour killing so that there is no room left for
ambiguity as to what constitutes that crime. Furthermore, action should be taken against caste
panchayats, which often give verdicts on inter-caste and inter-community marriages. 

"At a time when the democratic sections of the society are demanding strict action against
perpetrators of 'honour killings' and 'khap' panchayats, these panchayats are busy demanding
amendments in the Hindu Marriages Act, which would essentially legalise the draconian,
casteist diktats of the khap panchayats. Therefore, there is an urgent need for a strong and
effective legislation against the khap panchayats' attempt to curb the freedom on love
marriages," said National Commission for Women chairperson Girija Vyas. 

Killing in the name of preserving honour only brings dishonour to the family and, largely, the
country.