What is caste system ?.

The caste system has existed since time immemorial has been a part of Indian society. The
caste system divide the hindu in four major caste i.e. Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya, and
Shudra. Beside these four castes there is also a group of people known as dalits who are
considered lowest in the hierarchy of caste and often outcast and excluded they mostly are
considered to be doing odd chores or impure chores like manual scavengering cleaning
human waste leather works etc.

it’s affect on society and violence on women because of caste system.

India is a culturally rich country and people here have higher regard for their religious
believes and believes related to their caste like in case of marriage people tend to prefer to
marry in their own religion and caste and if someone goes against the norms of the society
they may have to problems. Taking into consideration the staus of women of various caste
overall the status of women is not a much better position women from lower caste face more
discrimination and are more deprieved than women from upper caste. The cases related to
honour killing and sexual crimes are common in many parts of the country which has it’s root
cause in the caste based and religion based system.

Honour killing

Going by the meaning honour killing means the killing of a relative, especially a girl or
woman, who is perceived to have brought dishonour on the family by inter caste or inter
religion marriage Honour killings have been reported mainly in the Indian states of Punjab,
Haryana, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh. According to national crime bureau data the instance
of honour killing has increased in India while 28 cases were reported in 2014 in 2015 251
cases were reported. The highest no. of honour killing is reported in the state of uttar Pradesh
followed by Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. Each year many young people are killed by their
families and community member on the orders of khap. Khap is a close knit village or group
of villages and people living in a khap are considered to be brothers and sisters belonging to
same gotra and hence can not marry each other in these areas love marriage is considered as
taboo. These khap have khap panchayat which consist of some elderly member of the village
who try to resolve the problem social boycott and fines are major tools for implementation of
their orders.

Supreme court in 2011, termed such khap Panchayat as “kangaroo courts”, and declared them
illegal and court wanted them extinguished.

Cause of honour killing

The main cause of honour killing is the rigid caste system people believe in maintain the
purity of their race and that marrying outside the community threaten the harmony of the
community and will bring disgrace upon the family if a female marries outside her
community it is highly unacceptable and there will be further problem in the marriage of the
younger members of family. Illiteracy and people not knowing about their rights is another
major cause. Honour Killing violates Article 14, 15 (1& 3), 19, 21 and 39 (f) of the
Constitution of India and it also Infringes right to live with dignity as per article 21 of the
Constitution of India.

In case of shakti vahini the supreme court of india gave guideleines for prevention of honour
killing

# There will be fast-track courts for fighting against honour killing cases.
# The disposal of the cases can be expected within 6 months.
# Immediate FIR against Khap Panchayat if they order any diktat against any couple.
# There will be a provision of safe houses for the couples by the government, along with
security, if needed.
# DM/SP will supervise the safe houses.
# The safe houses will cater young bachelor-bachelorette couples along with married couples
whose relationship is being opposed by Khap.

Guidelines to prevent Khap incidents:

# All the governments should find out districts, villages where incidents of honour killing
have been reported in the past.
# The governments should also identify villages with the presence of Khap Panchayats in the
last five years.
# Advisories must be issued to the superintendents of police and the police departments by
the home department of the concerned states in order to be extra vigilant when an inter-caste
marriage under their jurisdiction occurs.
# If any harm is caused to the couple or their family members, the khap will be criminally
liable.
# The police must inform Panchayats that holding Khap meetings is illegal.
# To prevent meetings of Khap, police will invoke provisions of law, invoking prohibitory
orders under section 144 of the Code Of Criminal Procedure.
# Police can also arrest participants of Khap assembly under Section 151 CRPC, if needed.

The krnal district court gave the judgement in which court gave the order for execution of the
perpetarators of the honour killing and imprisonment for life to the head who ordered the
honor killing In this case Manoj Banwala and babli who belonged to the same clan escaped
from the village they were under police protection but inspite of being under police protection
they were kidnapped and killed and their bodies were thrown into canal.

To overcome this problem the law commission 2012 made a draft bill to prevent the
intervention of khap in the matter of marriages and stated that sunch groups will be treated as
unlawful assembly.

Caste based sexual violence.

Women have been one of the oppressed group of the society taking into consideration dalit
women are amongst one of the most unprivileged and neglected the scenario in the modern
world has not changed much there have been many cases of dalit women being raped and
murdered according to

The National Crime Records Bureau data records reveal that more than 5 Dalit women are
raped every day in India. In India the overall conviction of rape victims is 25 % but in case of
dalit women it is only 2%

Most of these problem are because of the caste baste inequality and stigma prevailing the
societies.

Which can be overcome if the government policies that are made for protection of dalits are
implemented properly.

Media and Ngos can work together to spread awareness among women about their rights and
liberties and how they can claim their rights.

Goverment can make policies targeting the literacy of the dalit women.

Implementation of fast track court for the disposal of the cases related to caste based sexual
violence.