National seminar on

Confronting Gender-based Violence in the Contemporary World,Current and Emerging Issues.

Sub-Theme:

Honour Killing and other forms of Caste based Violence against Women.

Title of the Paper: Caste based Violence Against Women- Honour Killing and Sexual Offences
Abstract

The term gender violence refers to the harm inflicted on an individual or a group because of their
gender. We have heard about the violence against women in our country which has been mostly
recorded cases among gender violence but the term gender violence address the violence
inflicted on other gender also men and transgender . In India 52.4% of men experienced gender
based violence out of 1000 males 515 experienced violence at the hand of their partners. The
condition of transgender are even worse and remains largely ignored which can be seen as unlike
crimes against men, woman and children, the Indian government does not publish annual statistic
about crimes against transgender people.

In case of The transgender person [Protection of Right ] Bill, 2016 which treats sexual offence
as a petty offence with maximum punishment being two year whereas for a sexual violence
against a women the punishment is of seven years . There is a lot of difference between how a
particular gender is treated and protected from the violence and atrocities and how the others are
given less attention to. Talking about the sexual violence against women India it is considered to
be one of the most dangerous countries in the world. India has gender specific laws against
sexual violence and does not consider that men could be raped Section 375 of Indian Penal Code
takes only account rape of a woman by a man.

One way this disparity could be fought is by introducing gender neutral laws in case of sexual
crimes and there has been demands for this, bill to make sexual crimes gender neutral has been
introduced in parliament. The law need to protect everyone irrespective of their sex and sexual
offences should be gender neutral.
Contents:
Introduction
Honor killing
Sexual offences
Cases
Constitutional violation
Conclusion
Caste based Violence against women- Honour killing and sexual offences

Introduction

A caste society is inherently violent in nature and this violence is most brutal and horrific
towards its women. However, debates on gender and violence in India have always located the
privileged, upper caste women as its central subject. In such a scenario, the systematic, complete
and relentless violence against the Dalit women, that is the outcast in the hierarchical structure of
caste and also the group that is the main victim of caste-based violence, is seldom highlighted in
most mainstream discourses.

The caste society unleashes violence on Dalit women because of a combination of three forms of
discrimination – caste, class and gender. Violence against Dalit women is most often used as a
means of punishment and demonstration of power by the dominant castes towards both the
women and their community. Forms of violence encompassing physical, sexual, psychological,
social and economic harm are perpetrated against women and girls from Dalit communities and
specifically include sexual violence, forced labour and slavery, trafficking, abduction and
physical and verbal abuse.

Mainly, violence against women is often seen in terms of patriarchy alone as though our society
is homogenous for all women, with all of them having similar privileges and vulnerabilities. This
is obviously false and extremely problematic discourse in a caste society. Here, the
intersectionality of gender, caste and class, which is so important to understand the violence
against Dalit women, goes totally unseen. The prevailing structure of caste and the secondary
status of women in society are largely responsible for the increasing number of caste-based
violence against women.

The nature of the such violence is different from that against any other category of women. In
comparison to other women, Dalit women find themselves in economically, socially and
culturally vulnerable locations. This works to aggravate the impunity with which violence is
inflicted on them. Often it is their very workplace and their resistance to its casteist structures
that trigger violence. In the case of the Dalit women, violence is almost always associated to
their caste positions and deeply connected to their behaviour within it. Often it is their resistance
to or interrogation of caste hegemony that brings forth the violence. This violence is not only
meant to control them as women, but is also used to strictly maintain the caste structure.

Also, in most crimes were the victim is a Dalit woman, there is a collusion between the police,
the medical officer, the investigative officer and all concerned authorities, which works to
protect the perpetrators of the crime. Often these authorities belong to the same community as
the criminals, and are also equally and violently prejudiced against Dalit women. So, they harass
and intimidate her in such a way that her attempt towards obtaining protection and justice is
made extremely different1. Moreover, the very same authorities that are meant to protect her,
heap further violence on her, making her position even more vulnerable in the society.

Honour killing

One of The main cause of honour kiilling is the pressure from the society and in many places the
panchayats and khap order to socially boycott the couples and punish them. The problem,
however, is the menacing phenomena of repressive social practices in the name of honor
triggering violent reaction from the influential members of community who are blind to
individual autonomy. 2

Some professionals argue that the present laws are sufficient to deter honour killing, if
implemented well while others feel that extra stringent and unique provisions are required to
address the threat of honour killings making honour killing separate law will help in the taking

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Ww.prsindia.org
into the problem more seriously and better implementation by the agencies. There should be bar
on the assemblies like khap panchayat or any such assembly which is there to disapprove a
marriage and should be penalised. They should be treated as unlawful assemblies3. The member
of such unlawful assemblies should be charged with criminal intimidation. Along with that the
system of joint liability must be introduced in the case of ‘honour killing’. Normally there are
groups involved who firstly orders for killings in the name of ‘honour’ (for e.g. Khap
Panchayats) and secondly the execution of it is taken by other persons. So by introduction of the
‘joint liability’ system both (i.e. person giving orders & executers) will be equally liable and this
will be efficient to reduce the ‘Honour killing’. Further the acts of endangerment of liberty
including social boycott, harassment, etc. of the couple or their family members are treated as
offences punishable with mandatory minimum sentence.

For protection of couples the officials should be made accountable for the failure of omission to
prevent those assemblies or to give protection to the targeted couple. The unlawful assembly
here should be different from what is mentioned in IPC here in criminal intimidation the
punishment should be higher and one of the proposals is to amend the Indian Evidence Act to
put the burden of proof on the accused.4 Thus, the khap panchayat or the family members would
be responsible for proving their innocence.

In furtherance to the Special Marriages Act, 1954, can be amended which would do away with
the provision for the mandatory 30 days notice period for marriages intended to be solemnized
under this Act. The amendment in Special Marriage Act, 1954 is necessary because the present
procedure of getting a marriage registered is a long process.5 The complete process takes about
45 days. During this period a couple may be vulnerable and incidence of killing in name of
‘honour’ may happen. So steps need to be taken to simplify the registration process. The time

3
Lawcommissionofindia.nic.in
4
Lawtimesjournal.in
5
www.prsindia.org
gap between the date of giving notice of marriage and the registration should be removed and the
entire process of registration of marriage should be expedited6.

Apart from legislation to effectively curb honour related crimes, it is equally important that the
steps should be taken to organise counselling programmes for the village communities, for
instance to explain to them that sagotra marriages are not opposed to law, religion ‘sadachar’ or
medical science.

Sexual Offences

The National Family Health Survey7 suggests that 30 percent women in India in the age group of
15-49 have experienced physical violence since the age of 15. The report further reveals that 6
percent women in the same age group have experienced sexual violence at least once in their
lifetime. About 31 percent of married women have experienced physical, sexual or emotional
violence by their spouses.8 When it comes to Dalit women, The National Crime Records Bureau
data records reveal that more than 5 Dalit women are raped every day in India9. This is a grossly
under reported figure since hundreds of cases of rape of Dalit women are not even registered.The
National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights, an NGO, says over 23 percent of Dalit women
report being raped, and many have reported multiple instances of rape.

The various kinds of sexual violence that occurs mainly to the Dalit women include rape,
molestation, kidnapping, abduction, homicide, physical and mental torture, immoral traffic and
sexual abuse. It is a disheartening reality that the maximum numbers of casesagainst Dalit
women were of sexual violence. Out of 45 cases there were 17 cases of sexual violence
alone.The maximum number of sexual violence cases came from Haryana followed by Rajasthan

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www.livemint.com
7
(NFHS-4)
8
https://yourstory.com/socialstory/2019/09/gender-violence-india
9
http://ncrb.gov.in/CD-CII2013/CII13-TABLES/Table%207.2.pdf
and Uttar Pradesh. There were 4 cases of sexual violence along with murder and eight cases of
brutal murder of Dalit women.10

Cases

There have been many cases where Dalit women are tortured or murdered or raped just because
of they belong to a caste or a class of people called Dalit. In Bihar, a woman had received money
from government as part of yojna and a policeman borrowed that money for short period. When
woman went to get her money back, she was raped in front of her family and burnt alive11. These
types of acts in societies show the level of cruelty and arrogance in the society that just because a
woman belongs to Dalit class, she becomes victim of crimes no normal prudent person can
imagine.In Rajasthan, when a Dalit girl was working with her mother on field, she was dragged
and then raped by a nearby villager. Though the victim's brother was nearby and he tried to save
her, the accused manage to escape on bike. The disturbing part is, when the family went to police
for filing complaint, police beat the girl and recorded the statement that the accuse did not raped
her and she had sexual relationship with her brother12. These acts of police constantly raise
questions in mind whether the law enforcement mechanism can be trusted.

Mathura, a young tribal girl, was raped by two policemen on the compound of Desai Ganj Police
Station in Chandrapur district of Maharashtra on 26 March 1972. The judgment returned found
the defendants not guilty. It was stated that because Mathura was “habituated to sexual
intercourse,’ her consent was voluntary; under the circumstances only sexual intercourse could
be proved and not rape “. On appeal the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court set aside the
judgment of the Sessions Court, and sentenced the accused to one- and five-years imprisonment
respectively.However, in September 1979 the Supreme Court in the judgement on Tukaram vs.

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Report of First day at National Tribunal- Violance against Dalit women in India, October 13, 2013
12
Report of First day at National Tribunal- Violance against Dalit women in India, October 13, 2013
State of Maharashtra13 reversed the High Court ruling and again acquitted the accused
policemen. The Supreme Court held that Mathura had raised no alarmand that there were no

visible marks of injury on her thereby suggesting no struggle and hence no rape. The judge
noted, “Because she was used to sex, she might have incited the cops to have intercourse with
her“. After the Supreme Court acquitted the accused, there was public outcry and protests, which
eventually led to amendments in Indian rape law via The Criminal Law (Second Amendment)
Act 1983.

In the case Smt. Bhanwari Devi vs The State Of Rajasthan14, Bhanwari Devi is a Dalit social-
worker from Bhateri, Rajasthan, who was gang raped in 1992 by higher-caste men angered by
her efforts to prevent an early marriage in their family. She was ill-treated by the police and the
court acquitted the accused. A state MLA organised a victory rally in the state capital Jaipur for
the five accused who were now declared not guilty, and the women’s wing of his political party
attended the rally to call Bhanwari a liar. She was ostracised by members of her own caste and
community and when her mother died, her brothers did not even allow her to participate in the
funeral.

Various Dalit women campaigns across the country are regularly monitoring the cases of sexual
violence against Dalit women, but unfortunately, they always hit a dead end because of the
dominant caste threats and the inadequacy of the law enforcement agencies.

Constitutional violations

We can see that the “honour killings” are the violation of the following constitutional provisions
like articles 14 [18] , 15 (1) [19] & (3) [20] , and 21 [21] of the Constitution of India. Honour
killing violates the women right to live, right to move freely, right to equality and right to
security. Hence the ‘honour killings’ can also be combated with the constitutional provisions too.

13
1979 AIR 185, 1979 SCR (1) 810
14
1997 (1) WLC 42, 1996 (2) WLN 387
Even though there are legal provisions abolishing caste system and providing protection for the
oppressed, the caste-based violence continues to exist in an alarming state. There are various
reasons that accounts to the cause of this scenario.

1) The failure of the existing SC/ST Prevention of Atrocity Act:

In all cases even though there were strict provisions within the existing SC/ST (POA),
none of them were employed or implemented towards protecting Dalit women. Even in
cases that involved caste abuse along with brutal rape, the SC/ST (POA) atrocity act was
not employed by the police and the judiciary.

2) The failure of the various National commissions in protecting the basic human rights of
Dalit women:
National Commissions which have been set up to specifically safeguard the rights of the
marginalized in our society, have failed miserably in performing their responsibilities.
Often, they are under various political and local pressures and are rendered useless. Even
when they make recommendations, they are neither taken up nor implemented by the
concerned parties. In short, the Commissions have not been able to play the important
and powerful role envisaged for them. They have neither been able to withstand political
pressure or work as a monitoring and guiding authority, nor have they been able to
oppose the malpractices of the State, the police and the judiciary.

3) corruption of the existing criminal justice system:

In most cases, the police totally ignore the desperate pleas of the women and families
who approach them to prevent atrocities, or to frame the criminals involved in them.
They are asked to go back, compromise, come up with a settlement outside the police
station, and they are dissuaded from using the law towards their own protection and
towards obtaining justice.15More importantly, FIRs are wrongly written, tampered with,
the names of the accused are often left out from the FIRs, women who have just been

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 violated are made to give statements and these statements are then changed or falsely
recorded. Often the police not only take money from the perpetrators but also work
according to the bidding of the powerful who are behind the criminals.

Also, lack of awareness of new legislations such as The Prevention of Child Sexual offenses Act,
2012 and the Criminal Law Ordinance of 2013, deny the victims of sexual violence from justice.

Conclusion

“Caste is not cultural, caste is criminal “, qoutedMs. Asha Kowtal16, General Secretary of the All
India Dalit Women RightsForum (AIDMAM).“A caste society has a crippling effect on
everybody, but it is clear that when Dalits attempt to move socially, culturally or economically
forward it is the bodies of Dalit women that are attacked with reprisal violence”, she added in the
26th session of UN Human Rights Council2014. Ms. Kowtal added that following such acts of
violence a whole chain of impunity ensues when it is dominant caste members who are
perpetrators placing severe barriers on access to justice for Dalit women. There is an urgent need
to take stock of the grim situation and collectively work towards a way forward. In the words of
Dr. B.R Ambedkar, “we need to find ways to put an end to these contradictions in our lives and
build a life of freedom and dignity for ourselves and our community. Each small step is critical
in the long journey towards a society that is free from exploitation and violence based on caste
and gender”.

16
REPORTT on UN Human Rights Council 26th session, 17th June 2014.
Recommendations

1. The N/SHRIs can play a major role by strictly recommending filing cases under SC/ST
(POA) Act, 1989 and monitoring cases filed under the SC/ST POA Act by ensuring all
the provisions and Rules are adhered fully.
2. Undertake a gender audit of the implementation of the SC/ST (POA) urgently so as to
ensure that Dalit women are able to make use of it more effectively.
3. Criminal cases should be filed against officers who tamper with evidence, protect
criminals and work to support criminals.
4. The sections of 4 in the SC/ST(POA) and 166 A should be used in the cases of
negligence by the police.
5. The DYSP should be a woman who deals with the case of violence against Dalit women.
6. Free legal service should be made available and provided by the legal services
Authority/State District/Taluk as soon as a case of sexual valences are registered in a
police station.
7. Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment should come up with a rehabilitation
scheme for victims of caste atrocities.