Ban on single women using mobile phones
Source: Agencies |
November 25, 2010, Thursday
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A NORTHERN Indian village has banned unmarried women from using mobile phones for fear they will arrange forbidden marriages that are often punished by death, a local official said yesterday.
The Lank village council decided unmarried boys could use mobile phones, but only under parental supervision, council member Satish Tyagi said. Local women's rights group criticized the measure as backward and unfair.
Marriages between members of the same clan are forbidden under Hindu custom in some parts of north India, where unions are traditionally arranged by families. In conservative rural areas, families sometimes mete out extreme punishments, including so-called honor killings, for those who violate marriage taboos. In some cases, village councils themselves have ordered the punishments, though police often intervene to stop them.
The Lank village council feared young men and women were secretly calling one °?another to arrange forbidden elopements.
Last month, 34 couples eloped in Muzaffarnagar district, where Lank is located in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, police said. Among the couples who eloped, eight honor killings have been reported in the last month, police said.
"Three girls were beheaded by the male members of their family after they eloped" with boys from their same clan, said Police Assistant Director General Brij Lal in the state capital of Lucknow.
Rulings by village councils - called "panchayats" and comprised of village elders selected by the community - are not legally binding in India, but are seen as the will of the local community, and those who flout them risk being ostracized. In Uttar Pradesh, "panchayats" are powerful and have declared that boys and girls of the same clan are essentially siblings.
The cell phone ban is part of a wider, regional effort to curb intraclan marriage among the 3 million population of western Uttar Pradesh, Tyagi said.
The Lank village council decided unmarried boys could use mobile phones, but only under parental supervision, council member Satish Tyagi said. Local women's rights group criticized the measure as backward and unfair.
Marriages between members of the same clan are forbidden under Hindu custom in some parts of north India, where unions are traditionally arranged by families. In conservative rural areas, families sometimes mete out extreme punishments, including so-called honor killings, for those who violate marriage taboos. In some cases, village councils themselves have ordered the punishments, though police often intervene to stop them.
The Lank village council feared young men and women were secretly calling one °?another to arrange forbidden elopements.
Last month, 34 couples eloped in Muzaffarnagar district, where Lank is located in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, police said. Among the couples who eloped, eight honor killings have been reported in the last month, police said.
"Three girls were beheaded by the male members of their family after they eloped" with boys from their same clan, said Police Assistant Director General Brij Lal in the state capital of Lucknow.
Rulings by village councils - called "panchayats" and comprised of village elders selected by the community - are not legally binding in India, but are seen as the will of the local community, and those who flout them risk being ostracized. In Uttar Pradesh, "panchayats" are powerful and have declared that boys and girls of the same clan are essentially siblings.
The cell phone ban is part of a wider, regional effort to curb intraclan marriage among the 3 million population of western Uttar Pradesh, Tyagi said.
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