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The importance of Khap Panchayats in India is rising precisely because of the media publicity they are receiving. Media, stop running to Khap Panchayats!
A spate of rapes in Haryana, and the Khap Panchayats are out with their antiquated prescriptions to save women by getting them married by the time they are 16. Never mind that rape victims tend to be not just young, single women but married mothers and grandmothers too. The Khaps are regressive, the Khaps have no deep understanding of crime against women, the Khaps are made up of old men who are desperate to hang on to their power based on age and caste, in a fast changing world which doesn’t value these variables anymore.
All right thinking people know this, I would think, but the media rush to seek Khap opinion on issues, and especially on issues involving women, makes me doubt it.
Why does our electronic media rush to get the ‘valued opinion’ of Khap leaders every time there is an incident on which a regressive pronouncement is likely to be available? For we know it – we know what the Khaps are likely to say. Their tune is unchanging – lock up the girls, cover up the girls, order the girls to ‘dress decently’, stop them from using mobile phones so they don’t ‘go astray’, ask the Government to implement gotra rules that have no scientific validity. Really, there is only one tune the Khaps know to sing and that is a tune by now familiar to most viewers.
So why exactly is the media rushing to get their soundbites? Because their regressive pronouncements can be used as fodder to generate outrage? Because they are so ludicrous as to make for good TRPs? Frankly, I am bored, and I assume so are many other viewers. It was cringe-inducing to see the reporter asking a Khap leader respectfully, what he thought of the latest rape case.
What is worrying is that the Khaps are more likely to gain more confidence in their imbecility, thanks to media attention. Until 5 years ago, little was known about Khap Panchayats beyond the areas in which they operate – today, the word ‘Khap’ is widely known, thanks to the extensive media attention they receive.
What exactly makes a Khap member an authority to whom media must run to for soundbites when there is a rape? By giving them the oxygen of publicity, and especially television publicity, the media is only doing Khaps a big favour. What is happening is that they are being set up as a legitimate authority on social issues, with a point of view that deserves our time.
The truth is exactly the opposite. With migration to urban areas rising, with caste as a factor in mobility declining (even if slowly),with gender roles becoming more fluid, Khaps as an authority are losing their validity. That is a good thing, and we should cheer for it. Now if only our media would stop running to these archaic henchmen of the status quo.
Founder & Chief Editor of Women's Web, Aparna believes in the power of ideas and conversations to create change. She has been writing since she was ten. In another life, she used to be read more...
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Instead of seeking vengeance after horrific crimes, the public should push for faster and better judicial resolutions. That is the best tribute we can pay to the victims.
Trigger Warning: This deals with rape, violence against women and police brutality, and may be triggering for survivors.
On the news yesterday we came to know that 10 police officers who had killed 4 young men arrested for the rape and murder of Hyderabad doctor in an “encounter” have been found “guilty of concocting their story, and were to be charged with murder.” The report of the commission doing this enquiry also says “The panel also found that police have deliberately attempted to suppress the fact that at least three of the deceased were minors – two of them 15 years old.”
December 29, 2019 was a Friday no different from any other. I was running late so had no time to read the newspaper. On the way to work, I logged onto to Twitter to catch up with the news. The first thing I saw was the breaking story on the horrific gang rape and murder of the 26 year old doctor on the outskirts of Hyderabad.
To think that money can buy you anything is as wrong as singling a woman out after her divorce because the world feels she got overcompensated.
A lot of people are attracted to money and that’s not a bad thing. Which is also why everyone talks about money and the rich. The rich always make the headlines.
The rich, also, get upset when their personal lives are talked about, and rightly so. They have all the right to privacy.
Time moves on. However, people do not.