In the month of March, Sudhakar had married a woman from the Vanniyar community in the town of Walajah. While both of them belonged to groups classified as Most Backward Caste (MBC) by the state’s classification list, Sudhakar’s caste (Oddar) was considered to be the lowest among the MBC groups. The woman’s family was against the marriage and hence gathered at the local Panchayat in order to nullify their marriage and forcibly separate the couple. Sudhakar was later harassed and chased away from the village. Since the members from his community were in a minority in the village, they remained silent and couldn’t question the ruling made by Panchayat. Concerned for his safety, Sudhakar’s parents, who were poor daily wage workers, sent him to Chennai to work for a living. However, after the nationwide lockdown was announced, Sudhakar found it challenging to earn a living in Chennai and was forced to return to his village. On March 27, when Sudhakar was alone near the village tank, the girl’s father, Moorthy (56), and relative Kadiravan, attacked Sudhakar with iron rods. He was killed on the spot due to the severe injuries he had sustained. What he did eventually cost his life, he made an attempt to meet his ex-wife, which infuriated the girl’s relatives and caste people. The woman’s family, despite themselves being members of a marginalized caste group, acted upon an imbibed belief of superiority over the deceased man’s family—members ranking slightly lower than them.
Human Rights Watch defines honor killings as “acts of violence, usually murder, committed by male family members against female family members who are perceived to have brought dishonor upon the family by being romantically involved with or choosing to marry men outside their caste, class or religion.” In India, women account for almost 97% of honor killing victims. Honor killings are often reported by relatives as suicides, with family members destroying any form of evidence, even in the name of immediate cremation. Or, they are treated as homicides by the police. An English daily tracked 583 rape cases decided by New Delhi’s district courts in 2013. It was found that the single largest category of cases (nearly 40 percent) involved consenting couples who had eloped, after which the parents (usually of the women) had filed cases of rape. This startling fact meant that rape statistics are actually disguised as something else. When it comes to the number of couples that elope, the National Crime Records Bureau found that 10,773 people eloped due to their “love relationships” in 2018. Couples who elope make such decisions due to familial disapproval of their relationships over differences in their class, caste, or religion – thus leaving them more vulnerable to violence due to the same reasons. There’s a lack of in-depth investigation done for crimes that lead to ‘Honor killing’; verbal harassment, physical assault, coercion, and kidnapping, hence why the number of cases that are solved and given the appropriate sentence is very low.
There are methods in which the government could help reduce the number of such cases. In 2018, the Supreme Court condemned honor killings and issued directives like setting up special cells across the country to take calls from couples in distress. In Tamil Nadu, the evidence says the effort is a sham. “There’s not even an allocated staff or budget; it’s just one constable sitting at a telephone”. In August 2019, the Rajasthan Assembly passed the Rajasthan Prohibition of Interference with the Freedom of Matrimonial Alliances in the Name of Honour and Tradition Bill 2019, making it the first state to have a dedicated law for honor killings. Now crimes – including but not limited to killing — motivated by honor are non-bailable offenses in the state, punishable by death or a life sentence, in addition to a fine of up to 5 lakh rupees. Having such laws will not only provide accurate data but also provide protection to couples that are at-risk of honor crimes.