India has reported more than a 90 percent of drop in killings in the name of family, caste and religion between 2015 and 2019, the Union Home Ministry data shows.
In 2019, only 24 cases of families murdering their own members for ‘violating their beliefs’ were registered across India, while in 2015 this number was 251, the Ministry said in the Lok Sabha last week.
The data analysed by CNN-News18 shows that there has been a consistent drop in these cases in the country since 2017, when India recorded 92 such cases. In 2018, India reported 29 such cases.
(CHART: Honour Killing in India)
Further, Union Territories performed much better than states between 2017 and 2019 with only two cases reported during the period — one in Delhi in 2018 and another in Daman & Diu in 2017. In 2019, no cases were reported in any of the UTs. On the other hand, the states reported 91 cases in 2017 and 28 cases in 2018.
Out of the 24 cases reported in 2019, highest were from Punjab, followed by Gujarat, Haryana and Uttarakhand.
Most of the states, that were contributing a significant number of cases till 2017, have reported zero such killings in 2019, including Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand.
While most have reported a drop in registered cases, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, and Gujarat reported more cases in 2019 than the previous years.
Punjab, which reported only two cases in 2017 and three in 2018, had become the highest contributor in 2019 with six cases. Gujarat, with zero cases in 2017 and one in 2018, reported five such murders in 2019. Rajasthan, that reported two cases in 2019, had recorded only one each in 2018 and 2017.
While Madhya Pradesh and Uttarakhand reported zero cases in 2017 and 2018, the states recorded one and three cases in 2019 respectively.
(CHART: State-wise Cases of Honour Killing)
Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Karnataka, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura have not reported any of these cases since 2017, the data shows.
The numbers have improved significantly in Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh. In 2017, Jharkhand was the highest contributor when it reported 41 cases. It was followed by Maharashtra (16) and Uttar Pradesh(14). All the three states have reported zero such cases in 2019. Uttar Pradesh also reported zero cases in 2018.
In a 54-page judgement by then Chief Justice Dipak Misra, the Supreme Court had said in March 2018 that the act of killing one’s own kin over the belief that the vicitm has ‘violated the family’s honour’ puts the rule of law in a “catastrophic crisis”. It also said that it was the duty of the government to protect the life and dignity of those harassed by the assemblies.
In pursuance of Supreme Court’s judgement, the Ministry of Home Affairs issued a comprehensive advisory to all state governments and UT administrations in May 2018. The Centre asked the states and UTs to take preventive, remedial and punitive measures to address the issues relating to such crimes.
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