http://www.tehelka.com/story_main47.asp?filename=Cr231010Seven_honour.aspSeven honour killings in 12 weeks.
Tamil Nadu does it too
BY THUFAIL PT
Judge dread The Pullakkadupatti panchayat platform, where Sangeetha's
fate was decided
ON 5 AUGUST, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram decried the tide of
honour killings in north India and promised legislation to prevent the
dishonour such murders bring to the nation. Just a month before that,
in his own constituency, Sivaganga, a father salvaged his 'honour' by
killing his daughter's lover and brutally attacking the girl. Yet, the
Supreme Court's 21 June notice on honour killings to seven states did
not include Tamil Nadu. In the past three months alone, seven honour
killings and suicides have taken place, with the involvement of the
ooru or village panchayats.
TEHELKA travelled to remote parts of Sivaganga district to unearth the
story of distant relatives Meghala and Sivakumar. Meghala, 19, who was
married against her wishes, decided to elope with Sivakumar to
Pudukottai, about 150 km from her village. Her father, Vijayan,
convinced the lovers to return, promising to formalise their alliance.
A promise that was never meant to be kept. In her statement to the
police, Meghala says that her father and his friends stabbed Sivakumar
and assaulted her. While Sivakumar succumbed to his injuries, Meghala
was hospitalised in Chennai.
Her father is not repentant though. If anything, he is furious with
Meghala. "How can she want to marry someone who is like her brother?"
he barks. Meghala does not have the sympathy of Sivakumar's relatives
either. Sabari Rajan, Sivakumar's brother, says, "The girl is the one
who deserved to be killed." They believe that Meghala persuaded
Sivakumar to elope. According to P Murugadasson, the investigating
officer at Manamadurai Police Station, no one from the village is
willing to testify in court as they all belong to the same community.
Not all killings are about same subcaste marriages. Some are about
untouchability too
UNLIKE THE khap panchayats of Haryana, not all honour killings decried
by ooru panchayats are about same sub-caste marriages. In
Pullakkadupatti village of Dindigul district, it is about
untouchability. Two years ago, the body of Sangeetha, an 18-year-old
girl, was found in a canal. The Naikar girl had fallen in love with a
Dalit boy, Balachandar. The Naikars whitewashed their temple after
Sangeetha's murder to 'purify' her sin. Balachandar's mother alleges
that the police too were party to the murder. "Sangeetha had appealed
to them not to let her parents take her away. However, the police
compelled her to go. Three days later, she was found dead in
mysterious circumstances. The police passed it off as suicide," she
says. Sangeetha's parents, still reeling under the shock caused by the
loss of their 'honour', are mute.
There are 76 sub-castes under the Scheduled Caste category in the
state and more than 200 communities under the Backward Class (BC)
category. K Mahendran, the Dalit MLA from the CPM representing
Perambur constituency, explains, "Since the 1960s, the Dravidian
parties in the state have been dominated by the BCs, who comprise 70
percent of the state's population. BCs benefited largely in terms of
economy and education. But Dalits, who comprise 22 percent of the
population, fell behind. Now BCs dominate Dalits in every sphere of
society."
No remorse Vijayan assaulted his daughter Meghala and killed her lover Sivakumar
PHOTOS: K PANDYA RAJAN
"In 7,000 villages of Tamil Nadu, untouchability still exists in
numerous forms," says K Samuel Raj, General Secretary of the Tamil
Nadu Untouchability Eradication Front. "It has been happening for a
long time, just that the media has woken up to it only recently."
In another case in Dindigul district in 2008, Sivaji, a 35-year-old
Dalit, was murdered by the brother of his non-Dalit wife, Laxmi, 29,
for daring to elope. Laxmi and her one-and-half-year-old son now live
with her mother-in-law and brother-in-law, and face threats daily.
"The police did not take any action on my complaint," she says. "The
inspector is from my brother's community."
In two years, 1,971 women killed themselves in TN. Many could be 'honour deaths'
Kathir of Madurai-based non-governmental organisation, Evidence, which
tracks cases of honour killings, says all suspicious murders of women
in the state should be subjected to judicial inquiry.
Like the murder of Thankalakshmi in J-Mettur village of Dindigul
district this April. The girl, who belonged to the Kallar (non-Dalit)
community, had eloped with Vinoth Kumar, a Dalit. They were dragged
back home by the girl's parents. "A caste panchayat was convened, to
which the boy's parents were invited so that they could be
humiliated," says Muthamma, the boy's grandmother.
As TEHELKA found, the attitude of the police too is lax. SS
Krishnamurthy, IGP, south zone, refused to comment on individual
cases. "The south zone is very caste sensitive," is all he says.
Analysing the data collected from 22 districts in the state through
RTI, Evidence found that out of the 1,971 cases of women's suicides
from January 2008 to June this year, 90 percent of the victims were
aged under 30. "Many of these cases could be in the name of honour, or
they could even be honour killings passed off as suicides," says
Kathir.
Take the case of Daniel Selvakumar (29), a Chennai-based customer care
executive. The Dalit Christian married a non-Dalit girl, Sathura, in
2008. Sathura's relatives managed to convince her to return to them,
only to keep her under house arrest. The couple kept in touch through
SMSes. Her last message, before poison was poured into her ear, read,
"Come and take me, da."
There is a risk that 'honour' will became a prestigious peg to justify
other crimes, as in the case of the man from Tiruvannamalai in
Virudhunagar district, who is trying to justify the killing of his
daughter, Rajanilatha, a Class IX student, as an 'honour killing'. But
her mother, Muthulakshmi, says the girl was killed for questioning her
father's illicit relationship with another woman. "Appa (father) also
tried to pour poison down our throats," say her siblings.
S Muthukumar, the inspector in-charge of the case, says, "The man
thinks that he won't be labelled a cruel father in his village if he
can prove that he killed his daughter to protect his family's honour."
At this rate, there won't be any honour left to fight for in the state.
thufail@tehelka.com
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