www.sacw.net | June 21, 2005

Press Statement by Women's Organizations In India Re: 'community panchayats'

June 20th, 2005

We the undersigned women's organizations are horrified by media reports regarding totally unjust and inhuman decisions by "community panchayats". These were in terms of incidents that took place in a village in Muzaffarnagar district in Uttar Pradesh, and the case of an inter-caste marriage in a village of Haryana.

These 'decisions' involved in one case, forcing a woman, Imrana, to separate from her husband and marry her father-in-law who had raped her, a decision apparently supported by local clerics; in the second case, fines were imposed on families due to a marriage that took place against the will of the Panchayat in Haryana. Both these need to be severely condemned.

Two issues arise here -- the nature of the powers vested in panchayats and the warped attitude of religious authorities to gender issues. What are these 'community panchayats'? What sanction do they have to exercise virtually life-and-death powers? They do not appear to be the same as the village panchayats constituted by the state. How can a system exist parallel to the judicial and executive bodies constituted by the state, manned (they appear to be exclusively run by men) by persons who are ignorant and insensitive and whose judgments are irrational and inhuman? How can their authority supersede that of the state?
Secondly, how can men who claim to be of religious persuasion further victimize those who have already been brutally wronged while the wrongdoer escapes and even claims the support of religion?

We strongly condemn the primitive attitude that a woman who has been sexually assaulted is herself rendered 'impure' and unfit for marriage, fit only to be the sexual partner of the rapist. Even the courts have recently ordered rapists to marry their victims and thought that they were being humane. The woman's wishes are never an issue; she is never allowed a choice. In the case of Imrana from Muzaffarnagar, her existing marriage has been declared 'null and void'; she must observe a period of seven months to purify herself and then marry, not her husband but the man who raped her, her father-in-law. Surely Islam does not advocate such inhumane and absurd prescriptions!

These trends are not confined to the Muslim community. Newspaper reports of late have shown an increasingly disturbing trend of the gross misuse of powers by community panchayats to tyrannize not only over women, who are victims of brutality, but also over young couples.
It was only recently for instance that a young couple, again in a village, had to flee for their lives, since they seemed to infringe some 'gotra' principle of the caste system of the Hindu religion. Even their parents were punished and compelled to pay a daily fine of a hundred rupees.

It is high time that the citizens of our country took note of these occurrences and mobilized support for individuals who are otherwise helpless and isolated.
Extra-judicial powers, especially under the guise of religion, have often discriminated against women and young people. Imposing dress codes, imposing inhuman and humanly unacceptable types of sanctions on relationships, as well as crimes make women even more vulnerable.
We need to insist that a crime is a crime, whether it is rape or discriminatory treatment of citizens of the country. The perpetrators of such crimes need to be brought to book urgently.

We welcome the decision of the National Commission of Women to intervene and issue directives to the State Women's Commission to carry out further investigations within seven days. 

Akshara, Bombay
Aman Samuday , Gujarat
Awaaz-e-Niswan, Bombay
Criminal Justice Initiative, (India Centre for Human Rights and Law, Bombay)
CASH, Bombay
CEHAT, Bombay
Dilasa, Bombay
Disha, U.P.
EKTA, Madurai
Forum Against Oppression of Women, Bombay
Jagori, New Delhi
Sahiyar, Gujarat
Swayam, Calcutta
Saheen , Hydrabad
Saheli, Delhi
SAFAR, Gujarat
Stree Adhikar Sanghatan, New Delhi
Sama, New Delhi
SANGRAM, Maharashtra
Stree Mukti Sanghatana, Bombay
RAHI, New Delhi
Research Centre for Women's Studies, S.N.D.T. Bombay
LABIA, Bombay
Maati, Uttarachal
Nirantar, New Delhi
Olakh, Gujarat
Point of View, Bombay
VACHA, Bombay
WRAG, Bombay
Women's Centre, Bombay
Tamil Nadu Women's Forum
Tamil Nadu Dalit Women's Movement
Zubaan, New Delhi

Address for correspondence:
Awaaz-E-Niswaan 
CVOD Jain High School,
84, Hazarat Abbas Street (Samuel St.)
1st Floor, Dongri, Mumbai ó 400 009, India

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