Gender Violence in India Report 2014: Honour Crimes

Honor crimes and honor killings refer to ‘acts of violence, usually murder, committed by male family members against female family members who are perceived to have brought dishonor upon the family’.[1] Motives for honor crimes can include marrying outside prescribed social rules, premarital sex, refusing to enter an arranged marriage, or being the victim of rape or sexual assualt.[2]

The then United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, noted in 2010 that, in some parts of the world, honor crimes may be less likely than other crimes to incur punishment. Strong social norms, she said, place ‘family violence … outside the conceptual framework of international human rights’ or government responsibility.[3] A review by the UN Special Rapporteur for Violence Against Women highlighted ‘State inaction’ as a contributing factor in honor crimes and other forms of violence against women; governments do not always take steps to address the ‘structural subordination of women and dominant … norms of chastity and honor’ that are used to justify violence.[4]

In India, honor crimes tend to occur as retaliation against couples marrying or pursuing a relationship against their parents’ or communities’ wishes. Couples have been condemned for marrying ‘outside their caste or religion’ or ‘within a kinship group (gotra)’; the latter are deemed incestuous even when there is no biological relationship.[5] Khap panchayats, powerful but unelected village councils, play an important role in sanctioning honor crimes by publicly condemning couples, especially in the states of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Punjab.[6] These panchayats have taken particular interest in intra-caste marriages, or marriages between couples from the same gotra, or sub-caste.[7] Honor crimes also occur in South India; the October 2012 marriage of a Dalit man and a Vanniyar woman caused caste violence in the Dharmapuri district of Tamil Nadu.[8]

Know the Law

Honor crimes have not been addressed by any specific act or ordinance, nor are they considered a distinct category of crime under the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Rather, when reported or prosecuted, they fall instead under existing categories such as assault or homicide. Perpetrators, if convicted, face the penalties attached to those existing categories; there are no separate sentencing rules for honor crimes. Additionally, because of the caste dimension to these crimes, reports can be filed under the SC/ST Act instead of being recognized as an ‘honor’ crime. Moreover, family members often pass these deaths off as suicides or death by natural causes.

In August 2012, the Law Commission of India submitted a report proposing a law to deal with honor crimes, entitled ‘Prevention of Interference with the Freedom of Matrimonial Alliances (in the Name of Honour and Tradition): A Suggested Legal Framework’. The proposed bill aims curb the power of panchayats by ‘prohibiting the … gathering of such members of panchayats for the purpose of condemning the marriage’.[9] The proposal argues that a separate law is necessary because a ‘number of cases go unreported for fear of reprisals’ and because ‘the penal law lacks direct application to the illegal acts of such caste assemblies’.[10]

The Law Commission report also notes that the effects of panchayat-sanctioned marriage condemnations include endangerment of the victims’ life and liberty, and their having to experience ‘insecurity and misery’.[11] The suggested law to address honor crimes, besides making a panchayat or other gathering for the purpose of condemning a marriage illegal, would also make punishable ‘acts endangering liberty’; moreover, it would also address ‘criminal intimidation by the members of unlawful assembly’, and would call for ‘higher punishment’ for such acts of intimidation that are already punishable under the IPC.[12]

The Law Commission’s proposed law has thus far not been made into law, either as suggested or in amended form.

Keeping Count

As honor crimes have not been specifically and explicitly addressed in law, the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) does not keep a separate count of them. The actual incidence of honor crimes and honor killings is difficult to estimate; many of them may go unreported. When they are reported, they are generally classified under the broader NCRB categories of battery, assault, or homicide.

In 2010, the United Nations Population Fund estimated that around 5000 women are murdered worldwide in the name of family and community honor each year.[13] The National Commission for Women has said that it investigates around 70-80 cases per month, culminating in around 1000 cases per year.[14] Many women’s rights groups, however, assert that these figures are likely to be an underestimate; some non-governmental organizations estimate that as many as 20,000 cases occur globally each year.[15] Additionally, media outlets may decide not to report such crimes, judging them to be family matters rather than issues of national importance.[16]

[1] ‘Crimes committed in the name of “honor”’, Human Rights Watch, cited by Stop Violence Against Women, 2008, http://www.stopvaw.org/honor_killings, accessed 23^rd November 2014.

[2] See above note 1.

[3] ‘Impunity for domestic violence, “honor killings” cannot continue – UN official’, UN News Centre, 4^th March 2010, http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=33971#.VHg-wfSUc5i, accessed 23^rd November 2014.

[4] ’15 years of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, Its Causes and Consequences’, UN Special Rapporteur on VAW, 2009, p. 21, http://www.ohchr.org/documents/issues/women/15yearreviewofvawmandate.pdf, accessed 23^rd November 2014.

[5] ‘India: Prosecute rampant “honor” killings’, Human Rights Watch, 18^th July 2014, http://www.hrw.org/news/2010/07/16/india-prosecute-rampant-honor-killings, accessed 23^rd November 2014.

[6] See above note 4.

[7] Dutta, S. & Stancati, M., ‘Why Honor Killings Happen’, Wall Street Journal, 16^th January 2013, http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2013/01/16/why-honor-killings-happen, accessed 22^nd November 2014

[8] PTI, “HC questions TN govt over promulgatory orders in Dharmapuri”, The Hindu: BusinessLine, 23^rd August 2013, http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/hc-questions-tn-govt-over-promulgatory-orders-in-dharmapuri/article5052317.ece, accessed 22^nd November 2014

[9] ‘Prevention of interference with the freedom of matrimonial alliances (in the name of honour and tradition): A suggested legal framework’, Law Commission of India, August 2012, p. ii, http://lawcommissionofindia.nic.in/reports/report242.pdf, accessed 23^rd November 2014.

[10] ‘Prevention of interference’, Law Commission, Sec. 2.2, p. 5. See above note 9.

[11] ‘Prevention of interference’, Law Commission, Sec. 3.1, p. 10. See above note 9

[12] ‘Prevention of interference’, Law Commission, Sec. 3.2, p. 11. See above note 9

[13] “Impunity for domestic violence, ‘honour killings’ cannot continue”, UN News Centre, 4^th March 2010, http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=33971#.VAW_HMWSxVN , accessed 22^nd November 2014

[14] Arjunpuri, C., ‘Honour killings’ bring dishonour to India’, 27^th December 2012, http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2012/12/2012121614107670788.html, accessed 22^nd November 2014.

[15] Basu, N., ‘Honour killings: India’s crying shame’, Al Jazeera, 28 November 2013, http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/11/honour-killings-india-crying-shame-20131127105910392176.html, accessed 24^th November 2014.

[16] ‘Today: HBV in the contemporary world’, Honour Based Violence Awareness Network, http://hbv-awareness.com/today/, accessed 24^th November 2014.

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This series of posts were researched, drafted and edited by Divya Bhat, Shakthi Manickavasagam, Titiksha Pandit and Mitha Nandagopalan.

December 2014

Taking action against honour killings: A report from Sindh

Sohail Sangi, Sindhi women publicly announce free-will marriages, Dawn.com, September 3, 2011.

HYDERABAD: Honour killings and forced marriages in Sindh receive wide attention in the national media. What is less well-known is that young women from the province frequently publish announcements in Sindhi newspapers declaring their intention to marry of their own free will.

As a way of fending off allegations that they have been kidnapped or have committed adultery, it is a bold move by these women but is known to few people beyond the readership of these regional papers.

Shabana Khatoon, 23, of Bhango Behan in Khairpur district, declares in widely circulated Sindhi daily Kawish that her parents wanted to sell her to an older man for marriage. Ms Khatoon’s announcement is a summary of an attested affidavit she had a lawyer prepare for her and explains that she decided to run away and marry another man, Ghulam Murtaza Burero, in accordance with Islamic law.

She adds that no one has kidnapped her and that she is making the declaration as an adult in full possession of her senses. In case her parents register a case against her, her husband or his parents, it should be considered fake. Her statement, she says, is meant for purposes of record in case her parents move against her.

Shakeela Sheikh of Umerkot district also seeks protection through an announcement in the same paper, stating that she is divorced and left her parents’ house to marry Ali Ghulam Chandio when they tried to get her remarried against her will. Guddi of Badin announces that her parents got her engaged to Asghar Ali, who used to bear the expenses of her family, but now want to marry her off to a man offering better compensation.

Couples like Ms Shabana and Mr Burero normally first contact a lawyer who prepares an affidavit based on their story that is attested by a judicial magistrate or notary public. They then have a nikah and announce it by publishing an advertisement commonly titled “dhiyan talab” (“seeking attention”) or “qasam namo” (“sworn affidavit”). Some approach a local court to solemnise their marriages, also asking for protection from their families for fear of being declared karo-kari.

A study carried out by Kawish shows that an average of four to five couples announce these free-will marriages in the paper each day, and an executive in charge of advertisements there says this number can be as high as eight or nine a day. The men and women belong to a wide range of districts, tribes and castes of Sindh, including its Hindu communities, although most do not come from affluent families.

Couples who come to the newspaper’s officers are sometimes too poor to afford regular rates, are often scared for their lives, and sometimes send a relative or lawyer instead of risking a visit themselves. Before publishing the advertisements the newspaper asks for signatures and NICs from the couples, attested affidavits, and photographs of the women involved.

Mayaram Rathi, a manager who handles advertising for daily Ibrat, explains that this is not a new phenomenon and that such advertisements have been published for the last three decades. They include various kinds of cases ranging from teenage girls being forced to marry much older men, women being forced to marry men they don’t know and parents breaking engagements for monetary reasons.

In some instances the announcements are published by Hindu girls who have chosen Muslim husbands. They declare that they have converted to Islam, often adding that they were inspired by Muslim neighbours they had been visiting since their childhoods. One reason for the women to opt for this bold step is to prevent harassment by police or simply to seek the protection of law enforcers and the judicial system from their families, who lodge FIRs of theft or kidnapping, pressurise the couples through their communities or seek the help of jirgas.

But according to social worker Lala Hassan Pathan, who has been working on cases of violence against women and free-will marriages for the last seven years, police seldom take note of these announcements or keep them on record. The couples themselves send clippings to local police officers, who rarely take action based on them and sometimes register kidnapping cases on the parents’ behalf despite the existence of these declarations under oath.

According to Mr Pathan, men who end up in police custody for kidnapping in such cases are often tortured while the women are pressurised and sometimes taken away by parents with the knowledge of police. Judges in lower courts, he says, also tend to be unsympathetic towards the couples in free-will cases.

According to women’s rights activist Arfana Mallah, however, the attitude of the lower judiciary towards women is changing and lawyers are now able to go to court with these affidavits without needing the support of NGOs or influential members of civil society.

On the other hand, she says, the publication of these announcements may provoke parents and other relatives and has been followed by the women’s deaths in some instances. Using the media is a double-edged sword for the women of Sindh; the same declarations that can save them from honour killings can also leave them vulnerable to even more angry reprisals.

The comments are equally interesting, and you can read them online at the original location of this article.