Honour killing in India : A shameful misfortune

India is a country of mixed cultures and heritages. Our country is an epitome of equality and bonds of love and affection. The adage ‘Unity in Diversity’ aptly suits our nation. But, the unfortunate thing is that all these things are now becoming matters of the past. As we are heading towards a future that is darkened with things like religion and caste, killing someone in the name of prestige is gaining precedence over love and affection towards others.

The frequency of honour killings has been on the rise in the northern regions of India, with the states of Punjab, Haryana and UP topping the list. These honour killings are directed towards women or girls, and are a result of marriages that happen without the permission of the family, or those that happen with the girl and boy belonging to two different caste groups or religions.
In contrast to this, honour killings are close to null in the south Indian states as well as north western states of Gujarat and Maharashtra. Statistics have given extremely painful and sad results. Over 1000 young people are killed in India in the name of honour killing every year. Punjab has got the credit of having the highest number of honour killings in the country, with 34 honour killings being reported in the state between 2008 and 2010.

KHAP PANCHAYATS AND HONOUR KILLING
Khap panchayats are self driven setups that have gained wicked popularity for having paved a way for honour killing. Boycotting families from villages that chose to allow their children’s marriages to their choice, supporting the families in honour killing are some of the naïve activities of these so called panchayats.
The unlawful laws of the Kap panchayats are imposed through social boycotts where the victims are killed or forced to commit suicide. All these inhumane activities are done in the name of brotherhood and honour. Love marriages are considered taboo in these areas, which is highly unfortunate.

FEW EXAMPLES OF INHUMANITY
In the town of Jhajjar in Haryana, a father allegedly strangled his 21 year old daughter to death just for the trivial reason that she was in love with a guy.
In Uttar Pradesh, a youth who was opposed to his sister’s love beheaded her and threw her head in her lover’s house. This shows how inhumane and devilish one can become when their minds are possessed with spirits like religion and caste.
In yet another brutal act of tyranny, a man in Rajasthan had beheaded her daughter with a sword. The killer father was found roaming on the streets holding the severed head of his daughter.

WHERE ARE WE HEADING?
65 years of independence, development in the fields of science, technology, business, films and sports, etc. and yet, there are these dumb practices that threaten to push our nation backward to a few million years. Our nation’s dignity is being poisoned by religion and caste differences. People, who seem to be modern and broad minded, aren’t really so. Though honour killings are not prevalent in cities and metros, still love marriages are looked down. People tend to allow religion and caste to dominate the very meaning of love, which is a universal language. This mindless practice is not confined to a particular class. Both the educated and the uneducated, the rich and the poor, have this habit of honour killing in practice.

WHAT SHOULD BE DONE?
The laws are there. The rules are there. But all those aren’t stopping the people from becoming merciless killers. Their fanaticism for religion and caste makes them heartless tyrants, and they don’t care for any punishment that they are going to get.  What needs to be done is not to look at the punishment side, as that is not going to shake the criminals in any way. The best way to tackle this religious epidemic is to create awareness amongst the people, and educate them; as the ones who are into this barbaric act are the villagers and the uneducated. All these people are living in the mask of insanity; insanity born out of religion and caste. And only proper awareness and education can bring about a change for the better.

The Hunger Games of India

'The rich gets richer, and the poor gets poorer.' Well, this is not just the dialogue that escaped Rajnikanth's mouth in the film Sivaji, but more importantly, the very line that is now dictating the fate of our nation.

The recent report by the World Bank on Global Hunger shows that India ranks 65 in a total of 79 countries that have been assessed by the Global Hunger Index (GHI). What is even more worse is that according to the latest data on child under-nutrition, India ranks second from last on child-malnutrition in a list of 129 countries. Our economy is growing year by year, but what is the use of an economic boom when the very problems of our nation, which are degrading our development, only seem to worsen? Neighbouring countries like Pakistan and Nepal, which were once undergoing the same fate as ours, have now boomed and are consistently taking steps to eradicate this monster-epidemic of child hunger and malnutrition. There is much to learn from other countries, which, though small or are much behind us in terms of economy, are taking mammoth steps to push of these issues from the national domain. For example, Sri Lanka, whose national scene was blurred with civil wars etc., has achieved impressively high rates of literacy and life expectancy through various people-welfare policies, and enormous investments in health and education. Bangladesh, which is most often looked as a 'miniature' country by us, has succeeded in overtaking us in different social factors, like reduction in child malnutrition and child mortality. That point that deserves much attention is that these changes were possible in these countries only because of the responsible intervention of the states as well as the national governments. I don't know if they are democratic countries, but all I know is that, there, people are the first priority of the government. And yeah, that's what democracy really means.

I have no idea about the percentages of people below the poverty line, or the statistics regarding child hunger  or female malnutrition, and neither do I have the reports of the richest and the poorest in our country. I can say that we have aversion to learning, neither from our very own past, which was a beautiful painting of freedom and values by our national leaders, nor from other countries, which despite of being 'whatever' once upon a time, are now forging ahead while we keep gazing at them in meaningless amazement.

What's the use of a so called economic or IT boom, what's the use of different laws or reforms being brought by our government, what's the use of our nation making breakthroughs in the field of sports or medicine or technology or entertainment, when the very people of our nation are starving and rotting to death.