Honour killing is seen as a dirty behaviour by the member of the family thinking to bring purity to the family. It is an act of murder by the family on the family members to bring honour to the family to eradicate the shame and dishonour brought by the family member. The male member of the family kills the female member who has violated the wishes and honour of the family. This is a kind of pre-planned murder by the members of the family against the member who had bought shame to the family. Mostly these acts are caused due to trigger done by the relatives, society, neighbours by whom the accused feels dishonoured and gets provoked. Mostly these occur against the female who are assumed for sexual and marital offences. In situation where the members should be a support for the female are against them and brings a situation where they should not exist. India is a democratic country as every citizen has their rights and freedom to do acts which does not violate law. In a society where the citizens are equal without any discrimination, honour killing brings discrimination where the family member is considered to bring dishonour by choosing a person of a different caste.(Keane 2016) Caste and status are the main reasons for honour killing in the present world as the caste and status changes for a girl when she goes to her husband house.
HONOUR KILLING IN INDIA
Honour killing is an act of shame caused to the family for which it is otherwise called as shame killing. It is an act of killing when the person does not accept for arranged marriage, marrying a person disapproved by the family, doing inter-caste marriage which is against the wish and will of the family. In India, this type of killing is been carried over since many centuries. From the olden days this has become a practice. It has become a common practice for our country. Supreme Court had brought a decision based on honour killing that, „killing or physical assault being made over young men/women who marries against the wish of the family is illegal.‟(Ercan 2014) This type of killing is a brutal and barbaric activity made by the member of the family. However, in our country, honour killing has been made a separate provision having severe punishment. In India, mostly in places of Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan practice of honour killing is more. Due to
the complex socio-cultural problems the crime of honour killing is divulging more and more. The prime factors of honour killing is the high caste members do not accept inter caste marriage to maintain their caste and in case if anything occurs to bring their status down, they would feel such thing need not exist and in that case if the female /male gets married to that person of low status they feel the person need not exist instead of leaving down their status. Even in case the status and gotra is the same, the parents do not accept if the victim wants to go for love marriage. This killing is done to restore their honour which would be reduced due to the act of the young male/woman. In India, honour killing is practiced due to merciful act also. The parties who had committed the act of honour killing ca plea on the circumstance of grave and sudden provocation. Such an idea was been indulged when the act was formed as the act of honour killing is prevailing since ages. Honour killing is a crime which has become predominantly equal to other rigorous crimes. Culture is important for a family but still the young male/female that had been brought up by the family since years are also to be considered by the family. The level of importance given to the culture and status is not given to the members of the family. They think about the society and neighbors and the allegations and news spreading about the victim and get triggered to commit honour killing but does not seek remedy to safeguard the victim. This has become a spreading crime in our country.
EFFECTS OF HONOUR KILLING
Honour killing is not constrained to one gender. Men are also brought as a victim of honour killing. It is inappropriate that the victim is a man or a woman, if they had violated or brought down the name of the family, they are subjected to be killed by the members of the family. However, honour killing are focused on the women, it is not restricted so. It extends to men too. When the men violate the customs, the family members of the women or the male family members tend to join hands to kill him. For the execution of honour killing, the role of male is more. In case to commit the crime, the male descendants of the family form a group to kill the victim and especially if the victim is a girl, the male members would kill the victim. It does not matter about how close and love they had on the victim, they kill the victim if they cross the limits of the family. In certain cases, women also play a part in commission of honour killing. They join hands with the male descendants in executing the crime. They play a role in ensuring the limits of sexual regulations and plan to kill the victim, if the victim is her daughter.
SPECIFIC TRIGGERS OF HONOUR KILLING
Following are the specific reasons for which honour killing is been made(Reddy 2014; Singh 2013):
● Refusal of an arranged marriage: The member of the family be it a male or female member of the family, if refuses to accept the marriage arranged by the family, they would be triggered to be killed for the welfare of the family. It is a kind of shame the family members feel when the person does not accept the marriage arranged by the family.
● Seeking a divorce: The victim of honor killing would be a married party and would have been divorced due to family issues in their marital life. Seeking divorce by the member would bring down the prestige of the family where they feel the victim would rather die than being alive and they themselves kill the person.
● Allegations and rumors about family members: The victim may be subjected to allegations or wrong talks by the neighbors or other members in the society. In that case knowing the true fact or not, the members of the family for their status and prestige would kill the member. Killing the victim according to them brings an additional prestige and status to the family.
● Homo-sexuality: It has become natural where love comes between the people of the same sex. When a couple of the same sex wants to live together the family or the society does not permit it and in turn creates more and more allegations and triggers the members of the family.
● Victims of rape: In a society where women should be protected, they are being raped. In that case it is the duty of the family to accept such victims but the family feels it as a shame and feels the life of the girl is gone and she is completely useless to the society and the family and thus she would be killed by them.
● Inter-caste marriage: Marriage done by the victim with another person of the different caste brings down the caste of the party who seek their caste as their soul and important than their member of the family. In such case, the member who is of higher caste would kill the victim than living by lowering their caste. In case where the victim is of lower caste, and the caste is the heart and soul of their prestige, they do not care about the victim and would kill them despite of the fact that they belong to their family. Not only their family members become the victim the other party with whom they want to live also becomes a victim.
Honor killing is definitely a serious and heinous crime.
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