Latest incident from honour killings in Tamil Nadu, govt in denial

#Chennai : #TamilNadu  Reports of the latest incident of honour killing in Tamil Nadu have quickly triggered more serious media coverage and debate than perhaps the devastating floods that claimed hundreds of lives in December. The number of such killings is growing despite the two major Dravidian parties, which have ruled the state alternately for more than five decades since 1967, promising to curb crimes, especially against women and minorities, especially Dalits, who form a major vote bank. While there is no separate classification for honour killings in official records, caste related murders have been on the rise. The Policy Note on Police Department (which comes under Chief Minister of the state) for 2015-2016, tabled in the Assembly during the recent Budget session, shows number of murders owing to casteism was 12 in 2012, 7 in 2013 and 18 in 2014. The number of murders over love affairs/sexual causes, was 321 in 2012, rose to 351 in 2013 and came down to 320 in 2015. The killing of 22-year-old Shankar on Sunday in the town of Udumalaipettai near to the textile town of Tiruppur, allegedly for marrying Kausalya, an upper caste Hindu is the most recent one. The girl belongs to the Thevar caste, which according to reports is a community that, along with Vanniyars and Gounders, has a history of committing atrocities against Dalits. In 2015 Gokulraj, another Dalit man was allegedly killed by members of the Gounder community for speaking to a Gounder woman at a temple, according to reports. In 2012, more than 200 Dalit houses were torched by an angry upper-caste mob after a Dalit boy, E Ilavarasan, had eloped with a girl from their community, N Divya, and married her. Ilavarasan committed suicide after caste-related violence and strong-arming put a strain on their Hindu-Dalit marriage. Divya’s upper caste Vanniyar community also enjoys great political clout through the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK). Divya, too, decided to give up the fight against people in her village who had earlier stormed Ilavarasana’s colony, torching and destroying property. This was after her father committed suicide to protest the marriage. Earlier, there has been the murder of a 21-year-old pregnant woman in Ramnad, who married outside her community, and the retaliatory killing of a 23-year-old upper caste Hindu girl from Madurai who dared to elope with a Dalit boy she met during her post-graduate studies. Despite higher literacy levels, there seems to be no end for honour killings or threat for such marriage, said a Chennai-based psychiatrist, who attributed the violence to emotional problems rather than merely caste. A Chennai-based IT professional, who hails from a small village 600 kms from the state capital, said on condition of anonymity that while her parents support her working away from home, she has always been warned and threatened with dire consequences against doing anything that could disgrace the family. A media reported quoting Chennai-based social commentator and activist Raakhee Suryaprakash said that honour killings is the outcome of a complex mix of factors. “They are a blot on our collective conscience as they feed on the ‘lakshman rekha’ mentality and so-called societal norms. Unfortunately, violence against women in many instances is perpetrated by the women of the family too. It’s a vicious cycle fed by patriarchal, communal and religious passions that dispenses with all sense of right and wrong,” the report quoted Suryaprakash as saying. Honour killings not only carried out by the family or community members against a member, who they believe has brought shame to them, mostly through sex- or marriage-related offences, katta or village panchayats also play a major role. Protection against such violence is guaranteed in the Indian Penal Code, the Constitution as well as the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, but many of the cases related to ‘honour killings’ rarely lead to prosecution, largely because of the influence the moral police exerts over the community, say legal experts. In August 2012, the Law Commission of India had prepared a draft legislation known as the Prohibition of Interference with the Freedom of Matrimonial Alliances Bill, which was designed to target the unlawful activities of so-called ‘khap panchayats’ in Haryana and punish honour killings. However, the draft has not been presented before Parliament, and the future of the proposed bill looks uncertain. A few months earlier, Tamil Nadu Finance Minister O Panneerselvam (when he was holding the Chief Minister’s office for a brief period last year) denied any incidents of ‘honour killings’ in the state and also dismissed the need for a separate legislation to prevent such murders. “There was no incidence of honour killing in the state. Rarely does suicide or suspicious deaths involving inter-caste couples occur. The police are taking firm action in these matters against culprits under the Indian Penal Code. To prevent caste clashes and murders caused by them, there is no need for enacting a new legislation,” he said, intervening in the debate on the motion of thanks to the Governor’s address in the Assembly. He was replying to Puthiya Tamizhagam member Dr S Krishnaswamy, who raised apprehensions of increasing caste-related tensions and honour killings of inter caste couples recalling the history of the social justice movement in the state. reports by BS, and agencies.