annual report print final.qxd - Asian Centre for Human Rights

INDIA HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT 2005 Haryana
was kept in captivity near sector-6 of
Faridabad. She was brought along with
five other girls on pretext of providing
employment by a woman from Ranchi
where she had gone to attend a family
function. 16
IV. Gotra injustice
While buying of brides is a common
practice in many parts of Haryana, the
village councils have been perpetrating
atrocities in the name of gotra.
On 11 October 2004, Rampal and
Sonia of Assanda village in Jhajjar district
who have been married for two years were
issued order to dissolve their marriage by
the Assanda village Panchayat and declare
themselves brother and sister as they
belonged to the same `gotra’ (caste). 17 The
panchayat had even decided that Sonia,
who is pregnant with Rampal’s child,
would have to abort her child as it was
“illegitimate”. The NHRC intervened in the
matter. 18 On 28 October 2004, the village
Panchayat decided to validate Sonia’s
marriage to Rampal and accept her back in
the village after Sonia’s father swore that he
belonged to the Hooda gotra. 19
In October 2004, Jakholi village
Panchayat reportedly directed the breakup
of proposed marriage of Satyajeet
Kadiyan, son of Dr. Randhir Singh of
Jakholi in Kaithal district, with Pinki,
daughter of Pratap Singh Lohan of Ramra
Bhain in Jind. The caste Panchayat held
that no Lohan girl could be married into a
village where some Lohan families are
settled. The Panchayat also announced
social boycott of Lohan families of Jakholi
village and imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 on
anyone found to be keeping relationship
with these families. The social boycott hit
the Lohan’s livelihood. Nobody would buy
from their shops nor shopkeepers from
other communities were ready to sell
goods to them. Even the chemists refused
to sell them medicines. Labourers refused
to harvest their crops fearing action by the
panchayat. 20
On 7 December 2004, Supreme Court
directed the Haryana Police to provide
adequate protection to Hari Om from a
lower caste of Badshahpur village and
Manju belonging to an upper caste from
Gurgaon. They belong to different castes
and got married in a temple at
Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh on 21 July
2004. However, the village Panchayat
declared their marriage illegal. Both of
them had left their homes as they were
sure that their parents and village
panchayat would not approve of their
marriage. Manju’s parents filed a case of
abduction against Hari Om and the police
brought the girl back and restored to her
parents. Her parents forced her into second
marriage on 18 August 2004. But she fled
the house of her second husband and
returned to Hari Om at Muzaffarnagar.
Meanwhile, the village panchayats at
Badshahpur (Gurgaon) and Ladhpur
(Jhajjar) refused to recognize the marriage
and ordered that the girl should be
produced before them and sent back to her
second husband Pradeep of Ladhpur.
Feeling threatened by the diktats of
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