Honour Killing Final.docx

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Honour Killing

Submitted To-

Submitted By-

Mrs. Alka Mehta

Tithi Verma B.A.LLB(Hons) Semester-1 Roll No.-181

English Project 20th August 2015 HIDAYATULLAH NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY, RAIPUR, C.G.

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DECLARATION

I hereby declare that the project work entitled “HONOUR

KILLING”submitted to HNLU, Raipur, is record of an original work done by me under the able guidance ofMRS.ALKA MEHTA, Faculty Member, HNLU, Raipur.

Tithi Verma Semester-1 Roll no.- 181

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I feel highly elated to work on the topic HONOUR KILLING. I express my deepest regard and gratitude for our Faculty of English. Their consistent supervision, constant inspiration and valuable guidance have been of immense help in understanding and carrying out the importance of the project report. I would like to thank my family and friends without whose support and encouragement, this project would not have been a reality. I take this opportunity to also thank the University and the Vice Chancellor for providing extensive database resources in the Library and through Internet

Tithi Verma B.A.LLB(Hons) Semester-1 Roll No.-181

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ABSTRACT Even after so many years of independence in the newly liberalized India ,which is proud of herdemocracy, most marriages tend to be arranged by families, either through a marriage broker, a newspaper classified advertisement, a web-based marriage portal or the long-established oral tradition: word-of-mouth. But where it does not work, marriage can be forced to save the honour and women can be murdered for rejecting a forced marriage and marrying a partner of their own choice, who is not acceptable for the family of the girl. Honour killings - the illegal decrees by caste/clan/community Panchayats to annul or prohibit marriages, social boycotts and even murder of couples -- have finally drawn the attention of the State, killing inthe name of honour amounts –to utter rejection of “Egalitarianism”-a corner stone of India’stestifies how the values of “feudalism” and “patriarchy” are rooted in our social systems. Khaps seems to be in no way different‘.. from feudal

lords of

Afghanistan who have their own way to deliver justice or maoists Kangaroo Courts.The message is flashed all over the world that we still live in dark ages in spite of our super computer knowledge. There is no use of basking in the glory of discovery of water at moon by our Chandrayan and to pride over our technological advancements.

Contents Acknowledgement Abstract Introduction Research methodology…………………………………………………………………. Objectives of study……………………………………………………………

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INTRODUCTION On achieving independence, it was believed that India will usher into a Modern National State wherein there will be no place for any kind of exploitation and suppression either in the name of caste, religion, sex or language, wherein feudal practices and values of the past will be substituted by values of egalitarianism. The Founding Fathers, thus, gave India a Constitution committing it to values of Equality, Liability and Fraternity assuring Human dignity. Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of the person. Men and women of full age without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry or to have a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage and its dissolution. Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the attending spouses. The family is the natural and fundamental group, unit of society and is entitled to be protected by society and state. However, disturbing news are coming from several, parts of the country that young men and women who undergo inter-caste/inter-religion marriage are threatened with violence. This violence grows to such an extent that it leads to loss of life of people. Honour killing is the homicide of a member of a family by other members, due to the perpetrators belief that the victim has brought shame or dishonor upon the family, or has violated the principles of a community or a religion. If the parents of the boy or girl do not approve of such inter-caste or inter-religions marriage the maximum they can do is that they can cut-off social relation with the son or the daughter, but they cannot give threats or instigate acts of violence. Women who marry a man of their choice moreover take recourse to law, placing themselves outside the traditional scheme; by the public nature of their action, they shame their guardians leading them to resort to violence to restore their honour. Marriage arrangements are delicate and seen to involve serious balancing acts; Any disturbance of this balance by a woman refusing a father's choice are considered to affect the father's standing in society.

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OBJECTIVES OF STUDY



While considering the magnitude of honour killings in India, focus is on examining the regional as well as community/caste specific variables.



The thrust of the study is to observe various causes of honour killings in India.

Hypothesis: The patriarchal patterns of Indian society along with the manifest hierarchy and established endogamy of caste severely prohibit the females to select their spouses, particularly in the inferior castes.

Research Methodology This report is based on Doctrinal Research Methodology. Secondary and Electronic resources have been largely used to gather information and data about the topic. Books and other reference as guided by Faculty have been primarily helpful in giving this project a firm structure. Websites, dictionaries and articles have also been referred.

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HONOUR KILLING Honour crimes are acts of violence, usually murder, 'committed by male family members against female family members either or, who are held to have brought dishonor upon the family. The use of word honour for such a dishonourable act and there is nothing honourable in such killings, and in fact they' are nothing but barbaric and shameful acts of murder committed by brutal, feudal minded persons.An honour killing is the homicide of a member of a family by other members, due to the perpetrators belief that the victim has brought shame or dishonor upon the family, or has violated the principles of a community or a religion, usually for reasons such as refusing to enter an arranged marriage, being in a relationship that is disapproved by their family, having sex outside marriage, becoming the victim of rape, dressing in ways which are deemed inappropriate, or engaging in homosexual relations.. Although rarely, men can also be the victims of honor killings by members of the family of a woman with whom they are perceived to have an inappropriate relationship. The loose term "honor killing" applies to killing of both men and women in cultures that practice it. In broader sense, an honour killing is the murder of a family (woman) or clan member by one or more fellow family members, where the murders (potentially the wider community, who are more or less related with victims) believe that the victim has brought dishonor upon the family, clan or community. Thus honour killing is the murder of womenfolk by family members, generally male, who are compelled to remove stains on their family's honour. Some women who bridge social divides, publicly engage other communities, or adopt some of the customs or the religion of an outside group may be attacked. In countries that receive immigrants, some otherwise low-status immigrant men and boys have asserted their dominant1 patriarchal status by inflicting honor killings on female family members who have participated in public life, for example, in feminist and integration politics.2

Honour killing is a global phenomenon1 and has been widely reported in countries such VERMA |4

as Iran, Turkey, Afghanistan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Palestine, Jordan, Bangladesh, Algeria, Brazil, Ecuador , Morocco, Israel, Ethiopia, Somalia, Uganda, the Balkans, Sweden, Holland, Germany, Italy, Yemen, India and many more countries2. It is estimated by the United Nations Population Fund that as many as 5,000 women and girls are killed by the members of their families and/or relatives each year for the sake of honor around the world3. But Robert Kiener in the study “Can Murders of Women and Girls be stopped” claims that the number of 5,000 is thought to be gross under count and the figure is closer to 20,000 per year worldwide4. Honour Killings are considered as brutal crimes of homicide under the IPC (Indian Penal Code). Section 299 and 301 of the IPC, deals with culpable homicide not amounting to murder while Section 300, deals with murder. Honour killing amounts to homicide and murder because the acts are done with the intention of murdering the victims as they have purportedly brought dishonour upon the family. The perpetrators can be punished as per Section 302 of the IPC. The members of the family as well as community can also be prosecuted under Section 302 of IPC for instigating suicide those who transgress the so called norms of the community.

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HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUES ON HONOUR KILLING

Killing in the name of honour amounts to utter rejection of ‘egalitarianism’-corner stone of India’s Constitution and testifies how the values of ‘feudalism’ and ‘patriarchy’ are rooted in our social systems and structures. Honour killings are rooted in anachronistic, antiquated attitudes and false promises. Articles 3 and 16 of Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948 suggests that “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security”.4 ‘Men and women’of full age without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion should have of choice to marry or to have family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage and dissolution. Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the attending spouses. The family is the natural and fundamental group, unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and State.5 In the same vein, right to love and live with a person of one’s choice is enshrined as a fundamental right in the Constitution.Honour killings, thus, constitute gravest disregard of universal human rights and massive violation of fundamental rights guaranteed in the Constitution. A report United Nations Population Fund (2000) estimated as many as five thousand women and girls being killed each year by relatives for dishonouring their family. Many of the cases involve the "dishonor" of having been raped.

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CONTRIBUTARY FACTORS ON HONOUR KILLINGS

A woman can cause that stain on the family due to several reasons, including— 

refusing to enter an arranged marriage or choosing to marry by own choice



engaging in certain sexual acts;



marrying within same gotra.



seeking divorce from an abusive husband etc.



dressing in a manner unacceptable to the family or community,



wanting to terminate or prevent an arranged marriage or desiring to marry by own choice,



engaging in heterosexual sexual acts outside marriage, or even due to a non-sexual relationship perceived as inappropriate, and



engaging in homosexual acts. Women and girls are killed at a much higher rate than men

Sometimes women in the family do support the honour killing of one of their own, when they agree that family is the -property and asset of only male members. Even the mother of the victim (women) may support an honour killing. In order to preserve the Honour of other female family members since many men in these societies will refuse to marry the sister of a "shamed" female whom the family has not chosen to punish, thereby "purifying" the family name by murdering the suspected female.6 There main factors contribute against women in the name of honour, women's comodification and conceptions of honour. Women are considered as the 'property of the males in

their family, irrespective of their class, ethnic or religious groups. The owner of the property has

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the right to decide its fate. Such conceptions of women deeply inform many societies and cultures even in today's era, for example, honour killings, in countries like Syria and Pakistan are very much prevalent. Secondly, the perception of what defines honour appears to be deeply immersed in patriarchic values and have been so widely interpreted to include male control which extends not only to the body of a woman, but all her behavior including her movements, language and actions. In any of these areas, defiance by women translates into undermining male honour and ultimately damaging the family and community honour.3

Thirdly the sociologists are opined that the reason for increasing in honour killing is the fear of losing their caste status through which they gain many benefits which makes them commit this heinous crime.

The other reason is because the mentality of people has not changed and they just cannot accept that marriages can take place' in the same‟gotra‟or outside one's caste. The root of the cause for the increase in the number of honour killings is because formal governance has not been able to reach the rural areas and as a result, this practice continues though it should have been removed by now. Also the other reason is the short-coming of official judicial system.

The resource to tribal justice and the implicit acknowledgement that rural populations fare best under this system, is widely and increasingly seen to be inefficient, expensive and inaccessible to the general public. Further one of the reasons is the increasing amongst women awareness. More women are now aware of their rights. This credit largely goes not only to the awareness raising work by women's rights groups but also to the media and mobility of women. Women's refusal to comply with the decision or traditions to violate their newly discovered rights has led to backlash 3

Supra Note 1. Divya Sharma at 47.

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from men apprehending loss of control, involving violence, killings and other such treats.4

Khap panchayat Most of the honour killings are decided and ordered by the so-called "caste Panchayats" or “Khap Panchayats” or “Katta Panchayats ”comprising members of a particular caste. Very often, these Panchayats encourage honour killings or other atrocities in an institutionalized way on boys and girls of different castes and religion, who wish to get married or have been married or interfere with the personal lives of people. These Panchayats are organized through clans and ‘gotras‟ by which they uphold social norms in the community. Such assemblies gathered on caste lines assume to themselves the power and authority to declare on and deal with objectionable matrimonies and exhibit least regard for life and liberty and are not deferred by the processes of administration of justice. The Pernicious practice of Khap Panchayat and the like taking law into their own hands and pronouncing on the invalidity and impropriety of “Sagotra‟ and inter-caste marriages and handing over punishment to the couple and pressurizing the family members to execute their verdict by any means amounts to flagrant violation of rule of law and invasion of personal liberty of the persons affected. There are reports that drastic action including wrongful confinement, persistent harassment, mental torture, infliction of severe bodily harm, even like death is resorted to either by close relations or some third parties against the so-called erring couple. Social boycotts and other illegal sanctions affecting the young couple, the families and even a section, of local inhabitants are quite often faced with such depicted practices of KhapPanchayats. Khap elements zealously guard age old marital restrictions. They are fostered a culture of intolerance, making a family pariah in village' society, if its member happens to violate Khap marital norms. The family is subjected to repeated taunts, making its existence unbearable. This drives some of its members to commit murder to restore family honour. It is this social milieu spawned by Khap elements which leads to honour crimes.1

4

Supra Note 2 at 11.

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Honour Killings in India In India, honour based violenceand particularly the practice of honour killings is an olden phenomenon prevalent since centuries5. There are reports of cases in almost all parts of India but the states of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Western Uttar Pradesh are the regions where these incidents occur more frequently21. As far as the magnitude of the incidents has been concerned, there is no accurate data available with any of the governmental or non-governmental agency. But the studies conducted by various civil society organisations reveal that India stands into the category of worst affected nations. It is estimated that approximately 1000 people (both females and males) are killed every year in India owing to alleged honour killings22. In India, due to its complex socio-cultural patterns, there are variant causes which result into the honour killings. Various experts divulge the intolerance of Indian upper castes to inter-caste matrimonial/pre-marital relationship of females as the prime causes of honour killings23. Even marriages into same gotra (lineage, clan) have emerged as the causes of honour killings in the northern parts of India particularly the state of Haryana 24. Besides these Inter-caste or Intra-caste factors, inter-religious marriages have also ascertained as reason behind people killing their daughters for allegedly restoring their lost honour25. It is an evident fact that honour based violence including honour killings own socio-cultural acceptance in all those communities where these are frequently practiced. In India, honour killings majorly occur in strongly patriarchal societies often referred to as ‘honour-based’ societies i.e. jatsikhs of Punjab, Jats of Haryana and Rajputs of Rajasthan. Intraditional patriarchal societies inheritance is patrilineal. Moreover, the family or kin group, and not the individual, is the basic social, economic and political unit. Therefore, in all such types of societies, the role of community members, community elders and particularly the community councils (such as Khap Panchayats in Haryana) can be observed as patronising the honour killings and protecting the killers. These traditional patriarchal societies surprisingly denounce the role of state and the law to prevent honour killings by considering it as an unacceptable interference into their socio-cultural values and familial 5

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Besides the socio-cultural patronage, the practice of honour killings has established largely in India due to legal clemency also19. The incidents of honour killings were acknowledged more as crime of passions resulting from sudden unavoidable provocation under exception I of the section 300 of the Penal Code 1860. During 1835 -1837, while drafting the penal law for India, the members of the first law commission, constituted by the British Government, had also dwelt upon the issue of honour killings. They considered the issue carefully and favourably under the provision of the grave and sudden provocation. Without going much into the details and definitions of honour, they sympathised with the men whose honour was violated if someone had sex with his wife or sister. Therefore, they suggested that if a man finds someone having sexual intercourse with his wife, daughter or sister and kill the man, or women or both, such killing should not be termed as murder, but should be reduced to manslaughter only. The framers of the Indian Penal Code did not thoroughly observe the issue of honour killing in India’s socio-cultural milieu and they surprisingly ignored the socio-religious implications as well. They were not able to observe the complex attributes of honourkillings which differ with the variations of communities and the geographical regions. They rather adopted a baggy approach while defining honour killings as a universally practiced phenomenon wherein men kill the men who commit adultery with their wives or daughters19.

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CASE STUDY-MANOJ AND BABLI CASE Background Manoj's and Babli's families lived in Karoran Village, Kaithal. Manoj's mother, ChanderpatiBerwal, had four children, of which Manoj was the eldest. Chanderpati was widowed at the age of 37, when Manoj was only 9. Manoj owned an electronics repair shop at Kaithal and was the only member of his family receiving income. Manoj's cousin, Narender, lived with the family and worked in Panchkula. Babli's mother, Ompati, also had four children, including eldest son, Suresh, and Babli. Like Manoj, Suresh was the only earning member of the family. Babli was still studying in school. Ompati is a widow.

CASE STUDY The Manoj-Bablihonour killing case was the honour killing of Indian newlyweds ManojBanwala and Babli in June 2007 and the successive court case which historically convicted defendants for an honour killing. The killing was ordered by a khap panchayat (khap), a religious caste-based council among Jatts, in their Karora village in Kaithal district, Haryana. The khap passed a decree prohibiting marriage against societal norms. Such caste-based councils are common in the inner regions of several Indian states, including Haryana,Punjab, western Uttar Pradesh, and parts of Rajasthan, and have been operating with government approval for years.[1] In any event, the state government expressed no concern about the ruling of the khap panchayat.[2] The Khappanchayat's ruling was based on the assumption that Manoj and Babli belonged to the Banwala gotra, a Jat community, and were therefore considered to be siblings despite not being directly related and any union between them would be invalid and incestuous. Nevertheless, the couple went ahead with their marriage, following which they were abducted and killed by Babli's relatives.

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JUDGEMENT In March 2010 a Karnal district court sentenced the five perpetrators to be executed, the first time an Indian court had done so in an honour killing case. The khap head who ordered but did not take part in the killings received a life sentence, and the driver involved in the abduction a seven-year prison term. According to Home Minister P. Chidambaram, the UPA-led central government was to propose an amendment to the Indian Penal Code (IPC) in response to the deaths of Manoj and Babli, making honour killings a "distinct offense".

JUDGEMENT(THE HINDU) The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Friday commuted the death sentence awarded to four convicts in the Manoj-Bablihonour killing case to life imprisonment. Ganga Raj, said to be the prime conspirator, and another convict Satish were acquitted.Manoj and Babli from Karora village in Kaithal district were brutally murdered by Babli's relatives in June 2007, on the diktats of a khappanchayat for marrying in the same gotra.In March 2010, a Karnal district court awarded death sentence to five of Babli's family members — her brother Suresh, uncles Rajender and Baru Ram and cousins Satish and Gurdev — for killing the couple.The leader of Banawalakhap, Ganga Raj, who is a prominent Congress leader of the area was awarded life sentence for hatching the conspiracy. The seventh accused, Mandeep Singh, the driver of the vehicle used in the crime, was sentenced to seven years' jail for kidnapping and conspiracy.The path-breaking sentence had brought hope to Chandrapati, Manoj's mother, who was ostracised by her village and society, but the recent verdict has shattered her faith.“She is devastated by the verdict and the fact that Ganga Raj will be released from jail adds to her worry,” said Jagmati Sangwan, the president of the All India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA) Haryana unit.Lal Bahadur Khowal, who represented Ms. Chandrapati at the sessions court in Karnal and the High Court said they would appeal against the verdict in the Supreme Court.“Apart from the fact that two innocent children were killed mercilessly and brutally, it was a crime against society and hence was ‘rarest of rare' in nature. Unfortunately

very few cases of honour killings com e to light and even fewer reach a courtroom. But if justice is curbed like this; the message is very clear — khap panchayats are above law,” said Dr. Sangwan.

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CONCLUSION It is the State's and the Society's responsibility to protect the human rights of its young citizens, to avoid honour killings, to create possibilities and opportunities for the people concerned to break free and to find protection, support and aid. Therefore, it is to be suggested that honour killing like social evil cannot be just eliminated through law alone rather almost every substitution social, economic, political and cultural will have to be sensitized against this crime; no doubt law could only be one of the important tools to fight this heinous practice. The usual remedies against to fight such social onslaught is to require immediate sensitization; police officials/ law enforcement agencies, setting up women police stations in the Khap belt, counseling women victims and civil administrations. Such a barbaric deeply entrenched social evil cannot brushed aside by way of more sensitization, rather the urgent requirement is active policing and penal sanction which can only antidote to this most dishonourable practice. For this it to be suggested: 1. It gives a wrong message that khap Panchayats have their own law and they adjudicate not according to laid down any procedure but summarily which they deem fit. They have scant regard to judicial institutions and courts. The steps shall be taken who so ever is involved in the crime and how so great he may be should immediately be brought under the law. 2. Special clause should be added to .section 300 of the Penal Code to deal with the cases like honour killing. 3. The

onus

should

put

on

the

accused

persons

(members

of

such

groups/

organization/panchayats) thereby making them responsible to prove their innocence. 4. The Special Marriage Act, 1954 needs to be amended for the removal of 30 days waiting period for registering a marriage provided there is a mutual consent and both are above the legally permissible age. From the above analysis, it is crystal clear that we are still living in dark ages in spite of our having super computer knowledge and basking the glory of

discovery of water at moon by our Chandrayan. We curse everyday Taliban for their misrule but we are not able to tackle caste hierarchy, patriarchy and barbarity in the name of honour killings from Indian Society. V E R M A | 14

Webliography  www.isca.in, www.isca.me  www.ijhssi.org Volume 2 Issue 6 ǁ June. 2013ǁ PP.24-29  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honor_killing  http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/de/article1529740.ece

An honor killing or honour killing (also called a customary killing) is the murder of a member of a family or social group by other members, due to the belief of the perpetrators (and potentially the wider community) that the victim has brought dishonour upon the family or community. Honour killings are directed mostly against women and girls. The perceived dishonor is normally the result of one of the following behaviors, or the suspicion of such behaviors:    

dressing in a manner unacceptable to the family or community, wanting to terminate or prevent an arranged marriage or desiring to marry by own choice, engaging in heterosexual sexual acts outside marriage, or even due to a non-sexual relationship perceived as inappropriate, and engaging in homosexual acts. Women and girls are killed at a much higher rate than men.

Recently, there has been a spate of honor killings in the country and this has led the government to decide what laws should be put in place to stop this heinous crime. Also whether the Hindu Marriage Act

should be reformed or not is being debated. So what is the definition of honour killing and what leads families to commit this heinous crime so that they can protect their family honour? Is this practice prevalent only in India or is it prevalent in other parts of the world also? What are the misconceptions regarding honour killing and what are the solutions to stop this crime from spreading? These are the questions that society find the answer… In my opinion Honour killing is defined as a death that is awarded to a woman of the family for marrying against the parent's wishes, having extramarital and premarital relationships, marrying within the same gotra or outside one's caste or marrying a cousin from a different caste. Honour killing is different from the dowry deaths that are also a very common practice in India as, in the case of dowry deaths, the perpetrators of that action claim that they have not been given enough material rewards for accepting the woman into the family. In that case there is a lot of harassment from the in-laws and more times than one, it has been noted that the wife commits suicide rather than being killed by the in-laws, though it has to be said that she has been mentally killed, if not physically. We have had a tradition of honour killing. This tradition was first viewed in its most horrible form during the Partition of the country in between the years 1947 and 1950 when many women were forcefully killed so that family honour could be preserved. Now, there are various reasons why people or family members decide to kill the daughter in the name of preserving their family honour. The most obvious reason for this practice to continue in India, albeit, at a much faster and almost daily basis, is because of the fact that the caste system continues to be at its rigid best and also because people from the rural areas refuse to change their attitude to marriage. According to them, if any daughter dares to disobey her parents on the issue of marriage and decides to marry a man of her wishes but from another gotra or outside her caste, it would bring disrepute to the family honour and hence they decide to give the ultimate sentence, that is death, to the daughter. Now as has become the norm, the son-in-law is killed as well. Sociologists believe that the reason why honour killings continue to take place is because of the continued rigidity of the caste system. Hence the fear of losing their caste status through which they gain many benefits makes them commit this heinous crime. The other reason why honour killings are taking place is because the mentality of people has not changed and they just cannot accept that marriages can take place in the same gotra or outside one's caste. The root of the cause for the increase in the number of honour killings is because the formal governance has not been able to reach the rural areas and as a result. Thus, this practices continues though it should have been removed by now. There are various misconceptions regarding the practice of honor killing. The first misconception about honor killing is that this is a practice that is limited to the rural areas. The truth is that it is spread over such a large geographical area that we cannot isolate honor killings to rural areas only, though one has to admit that majority of the killings take place in the rural areas. But it has also been seen recently that even the metropolitan cities like Delhi and Tamil Nadu are not safe from this crime because 5 honor killings were reported from Delhi and in Tamil Nadu; a daughter and son in law were killed due to marriage into the same gotra. So it can be seen clearly that honor killing is not isolated to rural areas but also to urban areas and as already pointed out, it has a very wide geographical spread. The second misconception regarding honor killing is that it has religious roots. Even if a woman commits adultery,

there have to be four male witnesses with good behavior and reputation to validate the charge. Furthermore only the State can carry out judicial punishments, but never an individual vigilante. So, we can clearly see that there is no religious backing or religious roots for this heinous crime. What can we do to prevent such a thing from happening? Firstly, the mentality of the people has to change. And when we say that the mentality has to change, we mean to say that parents should accept their children's wishes regarding marriage as it is they who have to lead a life with their life partners and if they are not satisfied with their life partner then they will lead a horrible married life which might even end in suicide. Secondly, we need to have stricter laws to tackle these kinds of killings as this is a crime which cannot be pardoned because. Humans do not have the right to write down death sentences of innocent fellow humans. Abdullah Panniyankara