Hisar Panchayat's Love Marriage Ban Draws Focus to Violence Against Young Couples
A Hisar panchayat banned love marriages and threatened boycotts, as assaults on young couples in Jamui and Delhi sparked national outrage.
A social panchayat in Hisar district of Haryana has declared a ban on love marriages in its village, deciding that couples who defy the order, along with their families, would face a boycott. The move followed recent instances of young men and women in the village choosing their own partners. Those behind the decision said it was meant to preserve the village's social fabric.
The pronouncement runs contrary to Supreme Court rulings that have held such diktats by khap gatherings illegal, finding that they violate Articles 19 and 21 of the Constitution, which protect individual freedoms including the right to marry a partner of one's choice. A villager defended the ban by saying every girl in the village was considered the community's own daughter.
Around the same period, two cases of sexual violence against young girls drew attention. In Bihar's Jamui, a Class X girl and her male friend were returning from coaching classes when a group of men accosted them. The girl was groped, lifted and dragged, and the boy was beaten. A video of the incident circulated widely on social media and triggered a strong public outcry. Most of those involved were later apprehended, though a state minister initially dismissed the episode as a stray, insignificant incident.
In the second case, a 17-year-old girl was gang-raped in a Delhi park by three men who separated her from her male companion, threatened the pair with a gun and a knife, and assaulted her in turn.
In both episodes, the attackers targeted a girl who was out with a boy. The pattern points to a belief that a young woman's association with a member of the opposite sex marks her as promiscuous and invites violation. While sexual violence in India is widespread and not limited to such situations, the sight of a young couple together appears to provoke particular hostility among men angered by a girl's romantic choice made without family or social sanction.
The Jamui video was apparently filmed and shared by one of the attackers. Meanwhile, provisions of Uniform Civil Code legislation implemented in states such as Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh require live-in couples to register with the police, with imprisonment for non-compliance, placing such relationships under official scrutiny.