Dowry death
Manjeet kumar sahu
(Querist) 02 December 2012
This query is : Resolved
In what context,Dowry death is different from murder?
Please throw some light as to why Dowry Death was inserted under IPC.
Is it merely because of the unprecedented growth of such kind of secret killing.
(If this is the reason Honor killing awaits at the periphery.)
I think Murder in itself can cover such offences.Creating different kind of offences will only create quandary.
ACID ATTACK IS ALSO IN VERGE OF GETTING ITS PLACE UNDER IPC.
Raj Kumar Makkad
(Expert) 02 December 2012
An honor killing or honour killing (also called a customary killing) is the murder of a member of a family or social group by other members, due to the belief of the perpetrators (and potentially the wider community) that the victim has brought dishonour upon the family or community. Honour killings are directed mostly against women and girls. The perceived dishonor is normally the result of one of the following behaviors, or the suspicion of such behaviors:
dressing in a manner unacceptable to the family or community,
wanting to terminate or prevent an arranged marriage or desiring to marry by own choice,
engaging in heterosexual sexual acts outside marriage, or even due to a non-sexual relationship perceived as inappropriate, and
engaging in homosexual acts. Women and girls are killed at a much higher rate than men.
Recently, there has been a spate of honor killings in the country and this has led the government to decide what laws should be put in place to stop this heinous crime. Also whether the Hindu Marriage Act should be reformed or not is being debated. So what is the definition of honour killing and what leads families to commit this heinous crime so that they can protect their family honour? Is this practice prevalent only in India or is it prevalent in other parts of the world also? What are the misconceptions regarding honour killing and what are the solutions to stop this crime from spreading? These are the questions that society find the answer…
In my opinion Honour killing is defined as a death that is awarded to a woman of the family for marrying against the parent’s wishes, having extramarital and premarital relationships, marrying within the same gotra or outside one’s caste or marrying a cousin from a different caste. Honour killing is different from the dowry deaths that are also a very common practice in India as, in the case of dowry deaths, the perpetrators of that action claim that they have not been given enough material rewards for accepting the woman into the family. In that case there is a lot of harassment from the in-laws and more times than one, it has been noted that the wife commits suicide rather than being killed by the in-laws, though it has to be said that she has been mentally killed, if not physically. We have had a tradition of honour killing. This tradition was first viewed in its most horrible form during the Partition of the country in between the years 1947 and 1950 when many women were forcefully killed so that family honour could be preserved.
