It was just something I felt instinctively to be true. Our khap honour is sullied most easily when caste is murking up the gotra waters. Now there's the National Commission for Women report seems to confirm the view.
"
of the 560 cases where couples were threatened, 121 persons were killed... most violent reactions appeared to be prompted when a girl chose to marry a boy from a lower
caste than herself...
88.93% perpetrators of the crimes were from the girl's family."Read more from the ToI report.
Another snippet from the
Shakti Vahini blog:
The skewed sex ratio in the area has led to the worsening of the status of women in this region.I am reminded once more of that elderly gent who had sauntered once into a panel discussion on female foeticide. I don't know his name but I mention him in
my book in an essay on the subject. He had said, almost innocently, that there was nothing to worry about. It was all about demand and supply. When women got to be in short supply, India would learn to value them. Implying, of course, that we all need not get into such a flap; things would automatically get better.
I would dearly love to point him towards the Shakti Vahini report today.
I did subscribe to the elderly gents view, several years ago when I first came to know about the skewed ratios.
ReplyDeleteI was appalled at the mechanisms that evolved to cope- importing brides from poorer backgrounds from far away who serve almost as family serfs and even worse, forced polyandry.
I didnt quite catch the link to "honor" killing though.
thx,
Jai
I could never understand why it falls upon the woman to protect a family's "honor." Why this terrible burden of responsibility placed on her?
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