A Project By BySHAKUNTAL GOLEKAR(22) AVIRATH KADAM(28) HANSEL MENDONCA (41) SMEET VEDANT(59) PRARTHANA UPPAL(63)

y 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. y Honor killings are directed mostly against women and girls, but have been extended to men. y Honor killings are acts of vengeance, usually death, committed by male family members against female family members, who are held to have brought dishonour upon the family.

The perceived dishonour is normally the result of one of the following behaviours, or the suspicion of such behaviours: y Dressing in a manner unacceptable to the family or community, y Wanting to terminate or prevent an arranged marriage or desiring to marry by own choice, y Engaging in heterosexual sexual acts outside marriage, or even due to a non-sexual relationship perceived as inappropriate, and y Engaging in homosexual acts. Women and girls are killed at a much higher rate than men.

A woman can be targeted by (individuals within) her family for a variety of reasons, including: y Refusing to enter into an arranged marriage, y being the victim of a sexual assault, y Seeking a divorce even from an abusive husband or (allegedly) committing adultery. y The mere perception that a woman has behaved in a way that "dishonors" her family is sufficient to trigger an attack on her life.

A Pictorial Representation
7% 57% 36%

Love Intrigues

Casteism

Marriage Related

y Large number of cases are reported mostly in parts

of the Middle East and South Asia. y Nonetheless, the issue is a global one where other cases have been reported in Bangladesh, Great Britain, Brazil, Ecuador, Egypt, India, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Pakistan, Morocco, Sweden, Turkey, and Uganda.

y Men & Women or Girls are killed in case of honor killing

by community or the family members assuming that they can again purify the community or family status y Idea of tradition & keeping up with the tribal beliefs of the role of women in society y The strong emphasis on family relationships y Belief that the demands of westerners deny the different cultural traditions of those practicing honor killings

y Honor killing is strongly supported in Punjab,

Rajasthan, Haryana, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh & in many of the other states. y Persons who killed the victims in their honor are almost never punished. In rare case they are brought on trail for serving only for three months in prison at most. y Moreover, most of them are let off

y JORDAN

Gay Jordanian men are shot or wounded by their own brothers. y PAKISTAN Relationships outside the tribe is the most abundant case for honor killing. In Pakistan honor killing is also known as Karo-Kari locally. y SAUDI ARABIA Saudi women was killed by her father for chatting on Facebook with a man. y INDIA, EGYPT, TURKEY, IRAN, YEMEN, etc. are also responsible to give rise to honor killing.

y Honor killings have been reported in northern regions of India,

mainly in the Indian states of Uttarakhand, Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, as a result of people marrying without their family's acceptance, and sometimes for marrying outside their caste or religion. y In contrast, honor killings are rare to non-existent in South India and the western Indian states of Maharashtra and Gujarat. y In some other parts of India, notably West Bengal, honor killings ceased about a century ago, largely due to the activism and influence of reformists such as Vivekananda, Ramakrishna, Vidyasagar and Raja Ram Mohan Roy.

y In May 2008, Jayvirsingh Bhadodiya shot his

daughter Vandana Bhadodiya and struck her on the head with an axe. In June 2010 some incidents were reported even from Delhi. y In Shivganga district of South India state, Tamilnadu, a 20 year old girl Megala & a 24 year old boy Shivkumar were killed by Megala s father & brother after being traced out when they eloped out after 10 days of their marriage .

Nirupama Pathak, 22, a New Delhi based journalist, was allegedly murdered by her own mother. Her crime? She had wanted to marry a fellow journalist who belongs to a lower caste and she was pregnant. On a trip home to make a final effort to convince her family, Nirupama texted her boyfriend that she was being held captive, locked up in a bathroom. On 29 April 2010, she was found dead. The family claimed Nirupama had killed herself, and lodged a case against her boyfriend for rape and abetting suicide. But when the postmortem results revealed Nirupama had been asphyxiated, the police arrested her mother, Sudha Pathak.

In 2007, Manoj & Babli honor killing was ordered by a khap panchayat in their Karora village in Khaital district, Haryana. They were abducted & killed by Babli s relatives. They were killed for marrying within the same village gotra.

Recently , Imrana, a 16 year old girl from Buxar, Bihar was set on fire in her house in a case of what the police called, Moral Vigilantism. She later succumbed to death of the injuries, when admitted to the hospital

Kuldeep and Monica both belonged to the different community were eloped and married in 2006 for which Monica s family members were not happy. Following this Monica cousins & her brother decided to kill them on the name of the honour of their family. They were killed on 20th July, 2010 in Delhi.

Zahida s brother brutally attacked her because she had been unfaithful & brought shame to the family. He cut off her ears, tongue, & nose, gouged out her eyes, & left her for dead.

Some women are burned alive by their families to regain their family honour

y The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) estimates that

perhaps as many as 5,000 women and girls a year are killed by members of their own families. y According to a poll done by the BBC s Asian network, 1 in 10 of the 500 Hindus, Sikhs, Christians and Muslim surveyed said they would condone any murder of someone who threatened their family s honor. y According to the Delhi based INDIAN POPULATION STATISTICS SURVEY (IPSS) in mid 2007 almost 655 homicidal cases have been registered as honor killings in India y ALL INDIA DEMOCRATIC WOMEN S ASSOCIATION (AIDWA), an association since 1985 confirms that 6-7 cases of honor killing have been reported every month in India. Moreover, it has been reported that 10% of all women killings come under the category of honor killing.

Statistical Graph

18% 30% 52%

2008

2009

2010

y According to this article in the Asian Age, India has reported

over 1,000 cases of honour killings every year. And 900 incidents of such honor killings are reported from three Indian states alone: Haryana, Punjab, and U.P. y Of course such figures are on the lower side as many cases of honour killings go unreported as family members involved in such murders report them as natural deaths to escape punishment. Also, many times the police is hand-ingloves with the perpetrators and either do not register the complaints or falsely label such killings as personal animosity, suicide, natural deaths, accidents but not honour killings, which they really are.

y Honor killing incidents continue to take place in

different parts of the country, as directed by prominent khap panchayats. These are actually unauthorized courts, which are formed by the village elders who represent a specific caste y Based on this provision of the Central Government, any person who participates in decisions of these panchayats pertaining to murder of any couple, will be as criminally liable as the actual murderers. Further, social boycotting of the family members of these rebellious young couples will be also considered as a separate offence under the proposed law.

y Indian laws pertaining to honor killings are covered under

the Indian Penal Code. Clearly, the IPC considers honor killings as a heinous crime. Unfortunately, honor killing is not classified as a separate crime in India. However, the government of India is set to add new section to the criminal law to define honor killing as a separate crime. y The proposal has already been approved by the Home Ministry and the Law Ministry. The government is likely to pass a bill in Parliament in the next budget session. y The punishment for honor killing carries the same punishment as that of murder. The punishment could range from life term to death sentence.

y India legal news reports have consistently discussed the

growing menace of honor killings in different parts of the country. The situation is going out of hand to such an extent that young Indian couples are being ruthlessly killed by their own relatives for marrying within the same gotra or for marrying outside the caste. y The problem with honour killings is that investigation of this offence may not make progress because the victim's family is usually responsible for it and therefore, keep the actual facts concealed. Without evidence, nothing can be done by the courts to pass a fair judgment. Further, legislative intervention cannot weed out this offence unless there is better public awareness about this issue.