Xeric
RETIRED THINK TANK
- Joined
- Mar 31, 2008
- Messages
- 8,297
- Reaction score
- 42
- Country
- Location
Safe houses in India to protect newlyweds against ‘honour killings’ - Times Online
Safe houses in India to protect newlyweds against honour killings
Rhys Blakely in Mumbai
Couples who defy traditions and their parents to enter love marriages rather than arranged unions in India are to be given police protection in safe houses.
Police in Haryana, an affluent but conservative northern state, said that they had been overwhelmed by hundreds of cases in which couples had been attacked by enraged relatives for ignoring the strict social codes that dictate who they should marry.
Under a pilot scheme that will start this month, newlyweds judged to be most at risk will start their lives together under armed guard.
In the rural villages of Haryana, caste purity and adherence to traditions are paramount. As a result, the state has grown notorious as the honour killing capital of India.
Last year Sunita Prakash, 21, who was five months pregnant, and Jasbir Singh, 22, were dragged from their home in Balla by a mob of her male relatives. The bodies of the couple, who had been strangled, were found in front of her fathers house.
The couple were members of the Jat caste. Their crime was to have fallen for each other despite living in the same village a taboo similar to incest, according to Jat lore.
We are not ashamed of it . . . we have restored the villages pride, one of Ms Prakashs cousins said. Police said that her father confessed to the murders.
To counter a sharp rise in such crimes, a safe house will be established in the Rohtak district of Haryana. The scheme will be expanded if successful.
Vikash Narain Rai, the director-general of police for Haryana, said: Villagers are becoming more exposed to the outside world and young people are choosing to marry without getting their parents nod.
We have to take action as were seeing more and more cases of kids being harmed by their own kith and kin.
There are plans for a programme where police will explain the law to councils of village elders, who often sanction honour killings. Well be telling them that these practices are bad parenting, Mr Rai said.
Javeed Alam, the chairman of the Indian Council of Social Science Research, said: The safe house may provide temporary relief. What I think is needed is strong state protection to people who want to exit the community. But here is the catch: the government in Haryana is dominated by the Jats, and, I suspect, sizeable sections of the ruling establishment are in sympathy with the perpetrators of crime.
The Times of India said last week: In many of these cases, local law enforcement agencies are loath to disrupt the social balance by enforcing the law of the land. They turn a blind eye to the illegal activities condoned by village elders.
The National Crime Records Bureau in India does not list honour killings as a separate crime.
However, according to Jagmati Sagwan, of the All-India Democratic Womens Association, six or seven cases are reported every month in Haryana. Many more are thought to go unreported.
A recent survey by the International Institute for Population Sciences found that 95 per cent of marriages in India were arranged by a bride and grooms families and that most women were never asked their wishes.
Relationships that defied convention and crossed caste divides often ended violently, experts said.
The Indian Home Minister, P Chidambaram, said: We should hang our heads in shame when such incidents take place in the 21st century.
He outlined proposals including all-women police stations, but rejected calls for a new law. Honour killing is murder, he said. It would have to be dealt with as murder and tried as murder.
----
Shouldnt we do the same...???
Safe houses in India to protect newlyweds against honour killings
Rhys Blakely in Mumbai
Couples who defy traditions and their parents to enter love marriages rather than arranged unions in India are to be given police protection in safe houses.
Police in Haryana, an affluent but conservative northern state, said that they had been overwhelmed by hundreds of cases in which couples had been attacked by enraged relatives for ignoring the strict social codes that dictate who they should marry.
Under a pilot scheme that will start this month, newlyweds judged to be most at risk will start their lives together under armed guard.
In the rural villages of Haryana, caste purity and adherence to traditions are paramount. As a result, the state has grown notorious as the honour killing capital of India.
Last year Sunita Prakash, 21, who was five months pregnant, and Jasbir Singh, 22, were dragged from their home in Balla by a mob of her male relatives. The bodies of the couple, who had been strangled, were found in front of her fathers house.
The couple were members of the Jat caste. Their crime was to have fallen for each other despite living in the same village a taboo similar to incest, according to Jat lore.
We are not ashamed of it . . . we have restored the villages pride, one of Ms Prakashs cousins said. Police said that her father confessed to the murders.
To counter a sharp rise in such crimes, a safe house will be established in the Rohtak district of Haryana. The scheme will be expanded if successful.
Vikash Narain Rai, the director-general of police for Haryana, said: Villagers are becoming more exposed to the outside world and young people are choosing to marry without getting their parents nod.
We have to take action as were seeing more and more cases of kids being harmed by their own kith and kin.
There are plans for a programme where police will explain the law to councils of village elders, who often sanction honour killings. Well be telling them that these practices are bad parenting, Mr Rai said.
Javeed Alam, the chairman of the Indian Council of Social Science Research, said: The safe house may provide temporary relief. What I think is needed is strong state protection to people who want to exit the community. But here is the catch: the government in Haryana is dominated by the Jats, and, I suspect, sizeable sections of the ruling establishment are in sympathy with the perpetrators of crime.
The Times of India said last week: In many of these cases, local law enforcement agencies are loath to disrupt the social balance by enforcing the law of the land. They turn a blind eye to the illegal activities condoned by village elders.
The National Crime Records Bureau in India does not list honour killings as a separate crime.
However, according to Jagmati Sagwan, of the All-India Democratic Womens Association, six or seven cases are reported every month in Haryana. Many more are thought to go unreported.
A recent survey by the International Institute for Population Sciences found that 95 per cent of marriages in India were arranged by a bride and grooms families and that most women were never asked their wishes.
Relationships that defied convention and crossed caste divides often ended violently, experts said.
The Indian Home Minister, P Chidambaram, said: We should hang our heads in shame when such incidents take place in the 21st century.
He outlined proposals including all-women police stations, but rejected calls for a new law. Honour killing is murder, he said. It would have to be dealt with as murder and tried as murder.
----
Shouldnt we do the same...???
