A story on women's rights in India today underlines both the importance of increased women's participation in politics and the crucial work undertaken by women's NGO's across the world (who so frequently do the work of government for them). Both The Hindu and Frontier India report today on MP Brinda Karat's ongoing struggle for a new law to combat 'honour killings' in India. In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Brinda Karat condemns his recent decision to refer the call for a new law to a special ministerial group, protesting that such a move will only delay action further.
Despite broad support for the proposed new law being expressed by all parties in a parliamentary discussion in 2009, no action has yet been taken. Brinda Karat recommends that the PM and his government work closely with NGO All India Democratic Women's Association, which has already created a draft law for the government's consideration.
In her letter, Brinda Karat also highlights that incidences of honour killings most frequently have many other dimensions, and is often preceded by other crimes such as social and economic boycott, coercive dissolution of marriage, levelling of fines on the family of the boy and their supporters, public humiliation, and threats and harassment against relatives.
Karat believes that a lack of understanding of honour killings is behind the delay in creating a new law. “It is this flawed understanding of those charged with addressing the crime which is responsible for the misconceived piecemeal attempts for a legal framework that we see today,” she said.
