What Woman We do Like?

Friday, September 25, 2009

What Woman We do Like?

Indian HOLOCAUST My father`s Life and Time - Ninty SEVEN

Palash Biswas


Indian women in Parliament were free today to voice the demand for lagislature reservation without any uproar. the ritual to celebrate Woman`s day is, thus, over and we have to wait another full year to repeat the show. and the show goes on. The woman`s reservation Bill is in deep freeze and the Paternal Polity seems not least interested to pass it. While the Super Power to be India reflected well by Super Market Boom and Sensex celebrates the day with Liz Hurley. Liz made a sparkling debut as a married woman in India’s high society last night when she attended at a lavish waterfront party where English aristocracy mingled with the stars of Bollywood and India’s super-rich elite.More than 200 of Liz Hurley’s English and American friends were treated to a glimpse of the Indian high-life as they partied until the small hours at the sea-side bungalow of Adi Godrej, one of India’s richest men.
for your memory I want to remind another day while at half past four in the evening on 25th of December, 2003, more than hundred activists representing several Dalit, Bahujan and feminist organisations assembled in front of the memorial of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar at Chaityabhoomi, Dadar and set aflame dummy copies of the Manusmriti, Bhagwad Gita and Ramayana, condemning these texts and thus celebrated the ' Bharatiya Stree Mukti Din' This surprise gathering focused the fact that there is a need to protest against violent Hindu Revivalist force manifested in Politics, Media, Art and Cultural forms of expressions.
In West Bengal, the resistance against indiscriminate land aquisition is led by Women like mahashweta devi, Medha Patekar, Mamata Bannerjee, Anuradha Talwar, Arundhati Roy, shaonli Mitra , Aparna Sen, Joya Mitra and others.
What does it mean?
In Manipur, the people`s movement is led by women.
In Uttarakhand, the separate statehood was achieved at last with a movement led by Women.
In tribal India, it is maternal everywhere.
In Bangladesh and even in Shrilanka, the polity is headed by women.
We had our own leader the only man in India, a woman Mrs Indira Gandhi and a lady migrated from far away Italy Mrs sonia Gandhi leads the Ruling UPA.
What woman we like?
They sing. They dance. They play our hero's arm candy in all earnestness. They do it. And they do it really well. It is not too frequently that the Hindi film heroine gets the chance to come into her own and dominate the scene. But 'man', when she does, she makes history.
So, Nargis became Mother India, while Meena Kumari ruled Pakeezah. Madhubala defied royalty in Mughal-e-Azam as Nutan had her series of Sujata and Seema. Vyjanthimala played the bewitching spook of Madhumati whereas Waheeda Rehman shone in Khamoshi.
Even stylish divas like Asha Parekh and Sadhana couldn't miss the opportunity of having a Kati Patang and Woh Kaun Thi in their kitty.
Feisty beauties like Hema Malini, Rekha and Dimple Kapadia conveyed intelligence, modernity, vulnerability and integrity with ?n in a number of films.
The art of acting was authentically conveyed by actresses like Smita Patil, Shabana Azmi and Deepti Naval.
Superstars like Sridevi and Madhuri Dixit not just towered the scripts of Army and Mrityudand but commanded hefty fees as well. Even now, their comebacks evoke infectious excitement.
The assurance
"I reaffirm the government's commitment to work steadfastly for the social, political and economic empowerment of women. This is also a commitment of the UPA coalition endorsed through CMP. We are working hard to build consensus and some months ago nearly succeeded, but some problems came up. I remain committed working towards building broadbased consensus on the issue and bringing the bill as soon as possible," this suo moto statement of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the Rajya Sabha floored even his bitterest critics.The UPA government had been under tremendous pressure for not even listing the Women's Reservation Bill during the current session of Parliament.
In fact, Congress president Sonia Gandhi did not even mention a word about this in her speech to the Congress Parliamentary Party.
Replying to the debate on the President's address to the joint sitting of the two Houses, Dr Singh said that "our primary concern is to remove poverty."
In the three years that his government has been in office, they have been able to set up a growth process.
"We have a growth rate of 8.2 per cent and this year, we hope to have 9 per cent," Dr Singh said.
The growth process should reach all sections of the society, including farmers and women, Dr Singh said.
Dr Singh said he was happy to listen to speakers who, cutting across party lines, spoke about growth benefits reaching all sections of society.
This is a shame once again that the main bill of empowerment for women is still denied.Women are still listed among the hapless lot where has the country developed the atrocities will still remain though in an invisible form.Why is the bill a hot potato which cannot be peelled still.This shows the members of the parliament will still play with this bill as passing the parcel.who are they cheating, the half who have always stood bold enough to fightfor freedom and injustice.No wonder there is still corruption still reining in the systems which want it to continue that way for ever.This bill in the same format that it is in now was introduced during NDA regime. Sonia Gandhi was the one who refused to give consent for the same bill. They seem to be blessed with new vision now.While International Women’s Day on Thursday was marked with calls to end violence against women and girls and to increase women’s equal participation at decision-making levels. The United Nations Development Fund for Woman and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights released statements calling for stronger legal penalties against violence affecting women and girls, breaking through cultural barriers to find nonviolent ways to resolve conflict in personal and public life.
A World Health Organization study found that 23 to 49 percent of women suffered violence at the hands of their intimate partners in most of the 71 countries surveyed. UNICEF has reported that 130 million girls and women alive today have undergone female genital mutilation. According to the United Nations Population Fund, 5,000 women die every year in “honor” killings perpetrated by family members. And it is estimated that less than 5 percent of rape prosecutions lead to convictions globally, partly because the majority of cases place emphasis on the conduct of the woman and rather than the perpetrator.
More women than ever before are working, but a persistent gap in status, job security, wages and education between women and men is contributing to the "feminisation of working poverty", the UN labour agency says.In a report issued to mark International Women's Day, the International Labour Office said the number of women participating in labour markets - either in work or looking actively for work - is at its highest point. In 2006, the ILO estimated that 1.2 billion of the 2.9 billion workers in the world were women.
However, a large number of women are unemployed (81.8 million), stuck in low productivity jobs and services or receiving less money for doing the same jobs as men, it added.The report said the share of working-age women who work or are seeking work had actually stopped growing or declined in some regions, partially due to more young women in education rather than work.
"Despite some progress, far too many women are still stuck in the lowest paying jobs, often in the informal economy with insufficient legal protection, little or no social protection, and a high degree of insecurity," said ILO director-general Juan Somavia."Promoting decent work as a fundamental instrument in the global quest for gender equality will go a long way in raising incomes and opportunities for women and lifting families out of poverty," he added.
At the UN headquarters, the Security Council stressed women's role in preventing and resolving conflicts and in peace-building and called on member states and the secretary
general to bolster effort to empower women and increase their representation in the decision making process.
In a presidential statement, the 15-member Council stressed the "importance of (women's) equal participation and full involvement in all efforts for the maintenance and promotion of peace and security" and the "need to increase their role in decision-making with regard to conflict prevention and resolution".
The Council urged member nations to enhance women's representation at "all decision-making levels in national, regional and international institutions and mechanisms."
It also urged Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to forge ahead with his policy to appoint more women to senior positions as well as to increase their participation in UN field-based operations as military observers, civilian police, human rights and humanitarian personnel.
Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo of South Africa, which holds the Security Council's rotating presidency this month, read out the statement at a formal meeting held on the eve of International Women's Day, marked each year on March 8.
International Women’s Day is an occasion marked by women’s groups around the world. On this day women on all continents, come together to celebrate their day. In most cases considered the weaker sex, she has in many ways proved this wrong by giving the world examples of her bravery and patience. Woman’s Day is an opportunity to look back to a tradition that represent at least nine decades of struggle of equality, justice, peace and development, however their struggle still continues. There is not only neglect of women, but atrocities against them are increasing day by day. Exploitation at the place of work, at home or on the streets is common. Everyday we hear about incidences of violence and exploitation of women by men as well as other women.
Taslima Nasreen. Born in Bangladesh, Ms. Nasreen has led a twin career as a doctor and writer. She is the author of six novels, several collections of poetry and essays, and an autobiography. Her works have been translated into over a dozen languages. Two of her novels, Shame and My Girlhood, were banned in her country, where Islamic fundamentalists issued a fatwa against her. Accused by her government of blasphemy, Ms. Nasreen has been living in exile since 1994. She has received numerous international awards, including India’s Ananda Award, the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize and the International Humanist Award from the United States.
She writes, `Until a society is not based on religion and women are considered equal to men before the law, I do not think that politics will advance the cause of women’
She writes:
`The one whose wife dies is lucky. But not so the man whose cow dies.
Bengali proverb Every day, women continue to be victims of rape, trafficking, acid-throwing, dowry deaths and other kinds of torture. At the opening of this new century, women are still not considered as equal human beings in many parts of the world. Religion and patriarchy continue to have an all-encroaching hold on their lives, maintaining and justifying their age-old oppression. In some South Asian societies, this hold is even increasing. I do not believe that there can be real equality in a society dominated by religion. Western countries speak repeatedly about the necessity of economic development to alleviate poverty. But this is not enough. Societies such as Saudi Arabia may be economically developed, but women are deprived of all rights. The supremacy of religion is incompatible with freedom of expression, women’s rights and democracy. This is why I see religion as the main enemy of women’s development.We have to act on several fronts at once. First of all, improving access to education. In a society like Bangladesh, 80 per cent of women are illiterate. For centuries women have been taught they are the slaves of men. It is very hard to change their minds, to make them aware of their oppression, to give them a sense of their independence. This educational effort has to go hand in hand with a secular feminist movement in society. Such movements have to start within the country and they cannot take hold when people are uneducated and unaware of their oppression. I’m not sure you can accomplish much from the outside, except to expose in the media the atrocities women in all too many countries face in their day to day lives.In Muslim countries, this movement is emerging, but very timidly, and it has a slim margin of maneuver. It has the uphill task of fighting for the repeal of religious laws and the introduction of a uniform civil code. So far, it tends to be constituted by a few individual feminists who are forced to be diplomatic, to compromise with fundamentalists, be they men or women. But they are trying to change the system, step by step, and it will take a very long time. People are not yet ready to do away with religious laws that impact upon every aspect of society, from education and health to the workplace and the home. For women’s status to change, we also need enlightened leaders who believe in equality. In countries such as mine, women with a strong voice do not have the support of political leaders, whether they be men or women. Look at the countries in which women are in politics, or even heads of state. Does it follow that women in those countries are emancipated? Because of long-standing vested interests, such leaders continue to back measures that oppress women. They are not ideologically committed to changing these conditions. In South Asia, most of the women who become heads of state are religious, and like men, they adhere to the religious objectives of the Establishment. I am the victim of a country where the prime minister is a woman. Because I went one step too far in denouncing religion and the oppression that it keeps women under, I had to leave my country.I have seen women oppose me when I talked about women’s rights. They said straight out that God did not believe that women should have so many rights. And I have met men in my country who are against what is said in the religious scriptures and believe in equality between men and women. It does not depend on gender. It depends on one’s conscience. Muslim women who are wearing the veil and glorifying their subservience are obviously not going to better the lives of the oppressed.’Mahasweta Devi (writer and activist):
I find such a question neither intelligent nor of much use to the way I write or work. I feel, quite strongly, that these gendered notions of the body have been thought up largely by the middle classes who are seldom in touch with the people. One is born either a woman or a man, and it is positively idiotic to make a fuss about this. Perhaps if such questions were put to women like Tapasi Mallik, raped and burned in Singur, then the senselessness of these queries would be made even plainer. When I started writing, it was my only means of earning a living. The Bengali literary establishment was then entirely male, but even so, I did not feel either constrained or empowered by my body. Nor was this ever an issue in my activist life. I have travelled to remote villages and towns all over the country, often on my own or with unfamiliar men. I was born with a female body, and now that I have grown old, no new little bits seem to have sprouted anywhere (aar notun kichhu to gojay-tojay ni)! So I must be a woman still.
Leela Majumdar, the Bengali writer who turned hundred last month, was commissioned by AIR to broadcast a series, in 1947-48 , for Mahila-mahal on the “natural and ordinary problems” in the everyday life of a girl growing up in a typical, middle-class, Bengali family. She created Manimala, the story of a “very ordinary girl” whose grandmother starts writing to her from when she turns 12, continuing into her marriage and motherhood. These translated excerpts are Thakuma’s advice in response to some of Mani’s more bodily resentments and anxieties.
West Bengal Governor pays tribute to women The West Bengal Governor, Gopalkrishna Gandhi, had a word of praise today for working women on International Women's Day. "I wish to specially congratulate those working women who, risking their lives, have been struggling hard to eke out a living for their families," Gandhi said in Bengali during his inaugural speech in the state assembly's budget session.
Remembering five great women -- Meera Duttagupta, Hasina Murshed, Hemprabha Majumder, Begum Farhat Bano Khanam and Ellen Waist -- who were elected to the House in 1937, Gandhi said International Women's Day was an occasion to pay respect to them.
The GuardianFebruary 28, 2007
India's missing girls
Daughters aren't wanted in India. So many female foetuses are illegally aborted that baby boys now hugely outnumber baby girls, while a government minister has begged parents to abandon their children rather than kill them. What does this mean for the country's future, ask Raekha Prasad and Randeep Ramesh
[. . .]Although gender-based abortion is illegal, parents are choosing to abort female foetuses in such large numbers that experts estimate India has lost 10 million girls in the past two decades. In the 12 years since selective abortion was outlawed, only one doctor has been convicted of carrying out the crime.[. . . ]
FULL TEXT AT: http://www.guardian.co.uk/india/story/0,,2022983,00.html
8 th March 2007Invitation for A Joint Programme On International Women's Day
Friends
This is an appeal to organisations/ groups/ individuals to join hands tocelebrate International Women's Day together on the Delhi Universitycampus.Please come with your banners/posters/programmes and inform asmany people as possible to make it a big event.
It would not be a cliche to say that the need to strengthen our unityhas never been so pressing as it is felt today. Despite our collectivestruggles to establish 'Zero Tolerance for Sexual Harassment' on thecampus, everybody knows that there has been no qualitative improvementin the situation.
Let us meet at Vivekanand Statue, Delhi University (North Campus) at 12noon ( Thursday, 8 th March). It will be good if you can just forwardthe invite to other friends/formations so that they can also join us.
In solidarity
Anjali
Stree Adhikar Sangathan
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Buzz for secularism, on the dangers of fundamentalism(s), onmatters of peace and democratisation in SouthAsia. SACW is an independent & non-profitcitizens wire service run since 1998 by SouthAsia Citizens Web: www.sacw.net/SACW archive is available at: bridget.jatol.com/pipermail/sacw_insaf.net/
Liberating Womanhood , a Counter Current Story
By Kunda. Pramilani
countercurrents.org30 December, 2003
At half past four in the evening on 25th of December, 2003, more than hundred activists representing several Dalit, Bahujan and feminist organisations assembled in front of the memorial of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar at Chaityabhoomi, Dadar and set aflame dummy copies of the Manusmriti, Bhagwad Gita and Ramayana, condemning these texts and thus celebrated the ' Bharatiya Stree Mukti Din' This surprise gathering focused the fact that there is a need to protest against violent Hindu Revivalist force manifested in Politics, Media, Art and Cultural forms of expressions.
Two activists Ms. Urmila Pawar & Ms Kunda P N of Dalit-Bahujan Mahila Vichar Manch (DBMVM) voluntarily gave the call for this symbolic action. There was tension because Sena Bhavan was just few yards away and Shivaji Park Police station was also at visible distance. The act of burning any religious book being against Freedom of Expression as argued by our Gandhian friend, we had decided not to ask Police and Municipal permission for this programme. However we had decided to gather as ‘Flash Mob’ and disperse very quickly by registering our protest against Brahmnical order. We have consciously used the term that “we are burning symbols of Oppressive Brahmnical Ideology. ” The presense of more than hundred activists belonging to twenty organisations boosted our courage because in spite of knowing all above mentioned possiblities everybody felt the need to protest against present day Hindu Revivalist trend.
Urmila Pawar, member of the DBMVM and Aakaar Konkan Dalit Mahila Sanghatana reminded the gathering of the historical burning of the Manusmriti by Dr. Ambedkar and his associates on 25th December 1927 to condemn the oppression of women and shudras. She explained the significance of the event and informed the gathering about the celebration of this day as Bharatiya Mahila Mukti Din over the last five years by several women's organisations in Maharashtra. Another activist of the DBMVM, Kunda Pramilani while speaking on the occasion argued that like the Manusmriti, the Bhagwad Gita and the Ramayana also support in a cunning manner the Varna order and slavery of women and these texts too must be condemned. The Bhagwad Geeta clearly states that violence and war are needed for protection of Dharma while the Ramayana consciously propagates the false myth of Sita being taken back into Mother Earth. It is possible, infact to conclude, she continued, that unable to bear her anger against the unjust order, Sita may have committed suicide.
Vandana Gangurde, a firebrand activist of the Tejaswini Mahila Mandal of the Ramabai Ambedkar Nagar spoke about how just the burning of the Manusmriti was not enough that there is a need alongwith this to rid minds of the deep rooted blind faith . This is a big task and all women will have to come forth and provide social leadership for this task of bringing to an end all inequalities in society. Lata. P. M. of NACDOR and Streekathi underlined the need and significance of symbolic programmes such as that of the burning of the Manusmriti for challenging the communal and fundamentalist forces and bringing in social reform in contemporary Indian society. Advocate Vidya Triratne of the Bahujan Samaj Party argued that the Constitution drafted by Dr. Ambedkar was an appropriate alternative to the Manusmriti and the need of the day was true socialist and democratic politics. Pratibha Shinde of the Punarvasan Sangharsh Samiti in her speech narrated a humorous incident from the life of Babasaheb, wherein his wife Ramabai once asked him to cure a patient since he had the title of a doctor. Dr. Ambedkar told Ramabai that he was not a doctor of patients but a doctor of books. Further, he explained to Ramabai that he worked towards bringing to end serious diseases like caste that had grasped texts like the Manusmriti. Pratibha Shinde argued that infact today the disease is not limited to texts and books but that the diseases of casteism and communalism had taken hold of the entire society and that the gathering should vow to cure society of these diseases.
Several male activists attended the programme and one of them Mr. Mulanivasi Mala an activist of the Bahujan Mukti Mahasangh argued that it was essential to condemn the Manuvaadi ideology that Dr. Ambedkar had talked about and also the new international Brahmanism that comes to us in the form of the IMF. Aruna Bhurte, an experienced activist of the women's movement said that Dr. Ambedkar had by burning the Manusmriti set into motion a struggle for human emancipation. This movement will gain momentum when combined with the programme for women's emancipation. Sandhya Gokhale of the FAOW argued that this programme should not be viewed as a programme against one particular religion but since all religions subordinate women, the burning of the Manusmriti represents the burning of all non-egalitarian thought. People of all castes and religions must therefore join in this programme. Kusumtai Gangurde , senior activist of the Republican Mahila Aghadi said that by burning the Manusmriti, Babasaheb had initiated the emancipation of women and that it was a welcome sign that several people were gathering in different places to carry forward this message. Usha Ambhore of the Buddhist Association of India said that a lot of Indian literature reflects Manuvaad and must also be condemned. Vandana Shinde of the Andh Shraddha Nirmulan Samiti said that alongwith the Manusmriti , blind faith must be set aflame or else the undue importance of 'Bapu- Bua and Bangali Babas’ ( fake religious men) will only increase in society.
The organisations present were 1.Dalit-Bahujan Mahila Vichar Manch. 2. Tejaswini Mahila Mandal 3. Ramabai Ambedkar Nagar mahila Mandal 4. Panchashil Mahila Mandal 5. Akaar Konkan Dalit Mahila Sanghathan. 6. Streekathi . 7. NACDOR . 8. Bahujan Samaj Party Mumbai. 9. RPI Mahila AGhadi. 10. Bahujan Mukti Mahasangh 11. Punarwasan Sangharsha Samitee 12. Nirbhaya Bano Andolan. 13. Forum Against Opression of Women. 14. Women Centre. 15. Phule Shahu Ambedkar Vichar Manch 16. Andhasharadha Nirmulan Samitee Thane. 17. Raada Sanghatan. 18. Budhist Association of India. 19. Dr. Babasahesb Rashtriya Smarak Samitee. 20 Filmmaker Anand Patwardhan & Simantini Dhuru.
This report was immediately faxed to all mainstream news papers in Maharashtra but no one wanted to give the space or coverage to this news . All the mainstream news papers are full of euphoria ! They want to cover news about PM’s birthday celebrations at various places, anouncements of all Carnivals, Youth festivals and New year parties and not the news about protest
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Kunda . Pramilani, is film maker, writer and member of the Dalit- Bahujan Mahila Vicharmaanch.
Dishonour and death
There is nothing but dishonour in what men do to women who flout their code. By Ritu Menon
Killing women to redeem honour has no pedigree in India. These dishonourable killings leap across caste and creed: Hindu, Sikh and Muslim, are united in their agreement that avenging male honour entails killing one's own women. Feminist publisher Ritu Menon writes on a nation's shame.
Eighteen-year-old Maimun, filled with dreams of romantic love, made the mistake of eloping with Idris, who was already married with two children.
It was mostly love that blinded her to the consequences of her action, but also the desperate desire to escape marriage to an uncle she loathed. She was dragged back home, and hastily and forcibly married to a local lout. On their way to his home after the wedding, he raped her brutally, calling her a whore, invited his friends to do the same, then slit her with a knife from neck to navel and left her for dead. That's what she deserved for besmirching the honour of her family.
In another part of the country, village goons tied Pribha to an electric pole, beat her black and blue and shaved her head because she had chosen to spend the night with a relative. Nearby, the village of Johri in eastern Uttar Pradesh forbade the marriage of Yashpal's daughter to a man of her choice because it violated caste norms.
Killing women to redeem honour has no Muslim pedigree in India. These dishonourable killings leap across caste and creed: Hindu, Sikh and Muslim, touchable and 'untouchable' are united in their agreement that avenging male honour entails killing one's own women. Such killings may be carried out in public with the active connivance of village elders and caste panchayats (village councils), or in private by family members alone.
They may take place because women have chosen to love within the faith but not within permissible norms - like Maimun; or because women choose to transgress community and religious boundaries altogether by marrying across caste, community or ethnicity; or if they are audacious enough to commit adultery. Whatever the provocation, what they prove is that there is a patriarchal consensus around the violent 'resolution', so to speak, of the troublesome question of women's sexuality.
Their sexual status - chaste, polluted or impure - is a matter of extreme and stringent control, and any attempt by women to resist it may be punished with death.
Some feminists and women's groups in India who have been active in bringing all such cases to public and judicial attention, seriously question the use of the term 'honour killings' or 'honour crimes' to characterise this deadly form of violence against women - and, occasionally, men.
They argue that it obscures the true nature of the crimes by 'othering' them, seeing them as characteristic of non-modern societies, aberrant and irrational. They ask, instead, that we see such killings for what they are: violent acts of sexual control and subjugation of women in order to maintain either social and economic disparity, or the legitimate (caste, religious or ethnic) community.
Boundaries
All these stratifications are contingent upon the rigidity of boundaries; maintaining them, in turn, is contingent on endogamy, hence the strict supervision of women's sexuality.
Relationships of choice disrupt this continuity and threaten the political economy of communities. When a high-caste woman marries a Dalit man, for example, and then has the temerity to claim her inheritance, she rocks the boat of inequality and destroys the status quo in every respect.
Purna Sen of Amnesty International has identified six key features of what I shall now call dishonourable killings: patriarchal gender relations that are predicated on controlling and regulating women's sexuality; the role of women in policing and monitoring women's behaviour; collective decisions regarding punishment for transgressing boundaries; the potential for women's participation in such killings; the ability to reclaim honour through enforced compliance or killings; and state and social sanction for such killings that recognise and acknowledge 'honour' as acceptable motivation, mitigation and justification.
In Maimun's case, the marriage arranged by her parents to her uncle had the attraction of monetary gain, as well as conformity to family and social expectations.
When Maimun repudiated both, her mother was the first to react. 'You infidel!' she shrieked, 'you have actually married a man from your own village, from another sub-caste - I will kill you! If they don't slice you up, I will!' And when a team of officials from the National Commission for Women went to the village to enquire into the violence, they were surrounded by villagers who shouted, 'These are our customs, no one can interfere. Neither man nor god.'
In the other two cases above, the decision of the caste panchayat was taken on behalf of the whole village, collectively upholding its 'honour'. Unlike elected panchayats, which are constitutionally empowered to function as institutions of self-governance, caste panchayats are illegal and unconstitutional.
They act as moral policemen to the communities they 'govern' through power that is often hereditary. 'Office-bearers' can be corrupt, and caste considerations weigh heavily when 'justice' is being dispensed. More important, however, they make for a curious legal conundrum. Supreme Court lawyer Indira Jaising says that caste panchayats displace the justice-dispensing function of the state and elevate informal or non-state systems of justice into 'customary' practice, recognised by law.
Such systems rarely recognise the principle of gender or social equality, and almost inevitably reinforce patriarchal gender relations. Their assumption of adjudicatory power, moreover, is in effect sanctioned by institutions of the state through inaction.
Documentation
The experience of several activists and women's groups who have reported dishonourable killings bears this out. The All India Democratic Women's Association (Aidwa), which has documented killings in the north Indian state of Haryana, says that the police are reluctant to record them because the state machinery and caste panchayats are in cahoots.
Policemen have not set foot in the village of Johri for more than five years; and in Bijnore, when Pribha was being beaten, the beat constable was a mute witness. When AIDWA activists have exposed the killings, the villagers themselves and the panchayats try to cover them up.