Expressing strong indignation over violence against women, the government on Tuesday said, "We should hang our heads in shame," in incidents like honour killings, which were taking place in the country even in the 21st century.
"The vilest crimes are committed in the name of defending the honour of the family or women and we should hang our heads in shame when such incidents take place in India in the 21st century," Home Minister P Chidambaram said.
He was making a statement in the Rajya Sabha in response to a calling attention notice of Communist Party of India Marxist leader Brinda Karat on increasing incidents of honour killings. The home minister said that he "recoiled with shame" on reading in the newspapers that two teenagers -- a Dalit boy and a Muslim girl -- were brutally killed in a village near Meerut in Uttar Pradesh in the name of honour.
Chidambaram said he had similar feelings when he read that a young man, accompanied by a warrant officer, was killed when he was on his way to fetch his wife from a village in Jind village in Haryana or when he read that a newly married couple in Delhi fear for their lives following a fatwa issued by a panchayat in Jhajjar district in Haryana.
"However, the government of India is deeply concerned about violence against women and recognises that real progress can only be made by addressing the causes that are rooted in anachronistic attitudes and false values," he said.
Chidambaram said it was difficult to identify or classify an honour killing as such in any given community, since the reasons for such killings often remained a closely guarded private family matter.
There was no separate law to deal with the crime of 'honour killing' and such crimes were dealt with under the provisions of the Indian Penal Code and were investigated and prosecuted as offences under the IPC/CrPC, he said. More efforts needed to be made through educational and awareness campaigns in the communities and by sensitising law enforcement agencies, he said adding the Centre has initiated a number of legislative and ameliorative measures to check such crimes.
The measures include enactment of Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005, setting up of helplines for women in distress under the Swadhar scheme, support services to victims and redressal of grievances through interventions of National and State commissions for Women.
Instructions and guidelines have also been issued to the state governments and union territory administrations to effectively enforce legislation related to crimes against women, he said. "The government deplores crimes committed allegedly to uphold the honour of the family or the victim or women," Chidambaram said.
