The Menace of Honour Killing In India

Posted By: Haramrit Kaur Rao on: July 19, 2016 In: Misc No Comments

There is no honour in killing others life

The fundamental right right to life enshrined under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution bestowed every citizen, a life of ones own
choice. The annals of media reports murder of love couples for self-chosen relationships, every now and then. The social tyranny of
killing humans for defying the social conventions (which the law doesnt empower) is a prevalent social and human rights issue, left
unaddressed under the aegis of law.

ETYMOLOGY

The Oxford Dictionary of Law Enforcement (2007)

denes honour killing as the purposeful pre-
planned murder, generally of a woman, by or at the
command of members of her family stimulated by a
perception that she has brought shame on the
family. The crime is as old as the caste and
patriarchy systems in India. The word Honour has
its liaison with the psychological code of Indian
society. Our society and culture, in almost all the
parts of the country, perceives a woman in the
family to carry the so-called Honour, which
presents a burdensome reality. The killing of young
daughters and girls for reasons such as:

Refusal to arranged marriages,

Odd Dressing sense,
Pre-marital or post marital sexual relationship,
Victim of rape,
Disrespectful to the religion,
Homosexual relationships and
Demand for divorce,

have lead to the birth of this term honour killings. Here, language is tantamount to honour crime, as in; the term is used from the
killers point of view and not constructing a clicking perception of victimization of victim for whom it is an offensive term. Ergo the
substitution of the term will somehow reduce the risk of this abysmal insight.

HONOUR KILLINGS- Explained

The Criminology of the Honour crimes is said to have three essential ingredients. In India, for the act of honour killing, patriarchy,
caste, class, culture and gender, etc. are amongst the originating and motivating factors to the crime. The criminals of such a
barbaric act are, ordinarily, the family members, hired village-goons and community members who target females, whether innocent
or guilty, their love-partners, , family of the love-partner, homosexual boys who defy the laid orthodox social norms.

Sociologically, It has become mens prerogative to dominate womens life. The never-ending upper and lower class and castetrend
has plagued the social mindsets; inter-caste marriages are still a taboo for many. In Lata Singh vs. State of U.P., the Supreme Court
had said: .. inter-caste marriages are in fact in the national interest as they will result in destroying the caste system. In almost
Chatwithus
 every incident, a Dalit is victimized for choosing a
relationship with the member of an upper
caste/class. The mushrooming of Khap Panchayats
and hegemony of such other self-elected male-
headed group creates an unpalatable social
environment. These groups endorse the killing of
young lovers in the name of familys honour. The
Supreme Court, once, summoned 67
representatives of KhapPanchayats to explain
their role in honour killings. They remained
obdurate and defended the act of honour killings
by advocating that it is the fault of the families who
fail to stop their daughters, sisters and wives who
mar their reputation by mingling with men and
therefore, are ostracised.

Psychologically, the female is the so-called

honour of the family and if she dishonours the
Honour killing explained under different realm
family, killing her will be taken as redemption for
the loss of reputation, status and respect. The
male psychology confers no right on the females to make independent choices for themselves, thus dening stereotypic code of
conducts for them and setting a bar to their natural freedom. The reasons like status anxiety, less value to female life, sexual
repression/ hostility towards sex (which is a natural and healthy extinct) develops such insane type of human behaviour. The
economic reasons have also found to act as stimulus to this grave crime.

Geographically, The U.N. General Assembly has noted that crimes committed in the name of honour occur in all regions of the
world. The phenomenon is occurring all over India but the states of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Western Uttar Pradesh are the
regions where these incidents are more frequently reported. In India, the traditional studies have reported it to be a rural
phenomenon but it has percolated to the urban middle-class communities as well.

STATISTICS RELATING TO HONOUR KILLINGS IN INDIA

The United Nations statistics observed that one in 5 cases of

honour killing internationally every year comes from India. Out of
the 5000 cases reported globally, 1000 are from India. Rather, the
national and international NGOs claim the gures to be 4 times
more, i.e. 20,000 globally every year. For India, which has still not
drafted any legislation to declare the honour killings as a
separate offence, it lacks statistical records at national and state
levels. The NCRB doesnt regard honour killings as a separate
category of offence, but a trend can still be drawn from the
information given in the gure (violent crimes against body).

violent crimes against body

During the period of 2010-2014, the crime rate against body has
arisen from 9.6% to 13.9%. The crimes classied with respect to
their motives depicts (see gure: motives for violent crimes
against body) that 13% and 12% of the crimes against body have
been accounted for having relation to love affairs/sexual causes
and illicit relationships, respectively.

State-wise trend

motives for violent crimes against body According to NCRB region-wise gures, Tamil Nadu and Bihar
accounted for 41% (18 out of 44 cases) and 32.4% (22 out of 68
cases) of murders due to caste related issues and class conict, respectively. 25% (7 out of 28 cases) of murders due to honour killing
were reported from Madhya Pradesh. 23.0% (300 out of 1,307 cases) of murders due to love affairs were reported from Uttar
Pradesh. (NCRB, Crimes in India 2010-2014)

THE GOVERNMENTS BACK AND FORTH PLANNING

Politically, so far there is no separate legislation to deal with gruesome acts of honour crime. In 2004, U.N. General Assembly passed
a resolution recognising that crimes against women committed in the name of honour are a human rights issue and that States
have an obligation to exercise due diligence to prevent, investigate and punish the perpetrators of such crimes and to provide
protection to the victims, and that the failure to do so constitutes a human rights violation. During the Former PM Vajpayee reign,
the Indian representative at the UNs Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee, while mooting the Special Rapporteurs report on
violence against women, acerbically denied prevalence of honour killings in India. After arduous efforts made during another5 years,
the issue successfully reached Parliament for discussion. Later, in 2009, Rajya Sabha members put forth the demand to have a

separate law. The UPA governments Home Minister P. Chidambaram, in response to the proposal, condemned to have a separate

Chatwithus
law, considering it to be an appendage of Homicide crime under IPC. Nevertheless, in 2010, following an inchmeal approach, the law
ministry forwarded a set of recommendations called The Indian Penal Code and Certain Other Laws Amendment Bill 2010
regarding the honour-related murders, but it didnt deem t to consider other forms of torture suffered by love couples.

AIDWA and NCW Comprehensive Drafts

Further, addressing the vacuity in the above said document, a well-articulated draft was presented by the legal cell of the All India
Democratic Womens Association (AIDWA) headed by Kirti Singh, entitled The Prevention of Crimes in the Name of Honour and
Tradition Bill to the government in consultation with many women organisations and individuals. The National Commission of
Women, then headed by Girija Vyas also supported the comprehensive proposal, and a similarly entitled draft was also submitted.

Proposal for amendment

Thereafter, The Central Government in May 2011, proposed an amendment in the Section 300 of IPC to include honour killings in
nd
the denition of Murder. But the 242 report of Law Commission entitled Prohibition of Unlawful Assembly (Interference with the
Freedom of Matrimonial Alliances) Bill, 2011 rejected the proposal and came with a narrow scope by addressing the formation of
unlawful assemblies against self-choice marriage couples and heralding the Khap panchayats as unlawful. Later, the intransigent BJP
Government stalled over the slow progress of law with an opinion of having no-law at all. The Central Government is cooling its heals
until any response is received with respect to the Law Commissions recommendations by the States.

These human right violations are a threat to our progressive country which will lower our standard at global level. The Government
should immediately enact a special law to prevent this crime.. What is the joy of celebrating higher GDPs if society lacks good ethics
and protect its so-called honour not by intellect but by illogical murders?

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 who deserve harsh punishment,-The Supreme Court of India

Bio Social Latest Posts

By: Haramrit Kaur Rao

Designation: Author at LetsComply

Date of Joining: May 14th , 2016

Alma Mater: University Institute of legal Studies, Panjab University

Location: Chandigarh
Contact info: haramrit@letscomply.com
Website: www.letscomply.com

What She says~

A prodigy since childhood, I am a lawyer-in-making. Painting, photography,singing, dancing, reading, travelling are
pursuits of my life. In search of happiness and fulllment, I have chosen to write and become an author, and thereby
contributing in the realm of law. I am seeking new ways of expanding my research work in the eld of Human rights,
labour laws, environment laws and crimes against women.

Share this:

Related

Importance of Contract laws in India Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Child Labour Amendment Act 2016: An
12/12/2016 Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Analysis
In "Corporate / FEMA Laws" Sex Selection) Act, 1994- A Necessity 22/09/2016
16/12/2016 In "Misc"
In "Judgements"

Chatwithus