The Hindu : Living in fear for their lives

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jan 20, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Living in fear for their lives

By Our Staff Reporter

Geeta, and her mother-in-law Kashmiri Kaur, with the general secretary of AIDWA, Brinda Karat, after meeting the Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission in New Delhi on Monday. Photo: S. Arneja

NEW DELHI, JAN. 19 . Twenty-year-old Geeta has been a widow longer than she has been married. Threatened by men who killed her husband, Jasbir for "daring" to marry a Rajput girl, the only memories left of her brief brush with matrimony for a month are photographs. Living in fear for her life, she has been left to battle an unjust system with Jasbir's inconsolable widow mother and shattered aunt for `support'.

"My parents did not have any objections to the match. I don't even know these people from my community who decided to kill my husband. We had gone to drop him at the bus stop and four men were waiting for him. They were yelling that they would teach him a lesson for marrying a Rajput girl. They cut off his hand with a sharp sword and threw it in his aunt's house. We kept shouting for help, but no one came to our rescue,'' stated Geeta.

The only Jat family in a dominant Rajput village, "justice'' seems to be a hollow word for them. Isolated and without any money, with Jasbir killed, they have turned to the All India Women's Democratic Association (AIDWA) in Delhi for help.

"There are only three widows in the house and they have to hire security guards so that they can live. They have no financial assistance and the Punjab government has not bothered to help. How long can they keep paying these men to stay alive? The main accused has still not been arrested. The incident took place in November and it is now almost the end of January, but he is still roaming scot-free. We went to the National Human Rights Commission today to ask them to intervene. It is important that there is an institutional response against such honour killings,'' said the secretary general, AIDWA, Brinda Karat.

While NHRC has promised to help, it might be too late for these three women struggling to make ends meet. Dealing with the horror of watching her child being killed in front of her eyes and no one coming to their rescue, Kashmir Kaur has lost faith in the system. "We are staying alive only on the strength of the gun, but we have no money and how long can we keep paying these men. I just can't get over the fact that no one came to help when Jasbir was being killed. He used to say why should I worry as I have done nothing wrong and I have no enmity with anyone,'' she sobbed.

With the Government not obliged to provide compensation for the killing, these three women seem to have no help in sight. An endless wait for some hope, Kapur Kaur, Jasbir's aunt has walked this lonely road before. Reliving the nightmare of the 1984 riots when her husband was killed, she sighs: "It was never so bad then. When they threw Jasbir's dismembered arm into my courtyard, I folded my hands and begged them to leave. We are petrified. The man who is absconding has money; he keeps tipping everyone and roams free. Now everyone claims we are lying. We saw him being killed in front of us, how can we forget their faces?''

Geeta, however, is unafraid. "The worst they can do is kill me. They killed Jasbir, what do I have to live for,'' she asked.

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