A group of youths hailing from the Kanjarbhat community have decided to join forces and protest against uncouth and unlawful practices employed by the caste panchayat – such as taking large sums of money for giving their approval to a couple looking to get married and carrying out a ‘virginity test’ on the bride on the first night of her marriage – reports Indian Express.
The move to challenge these ‘traditional’ practices began on WhatsApp, when Vivek Tamaichekar, a Masters student at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (Mumbai) who is getting married next year, created a group and added people he believed would wish for these practices to be abolished, the report adds. His sister, Priyanka Tamaichekar, is also an active member of this group.
The WhatsApp group is called ‘Stop the V Ritual’ and has about 40 members so far, reports Indian Express. The ‘V’ in question refers to the word virginity, in this instance the virginity of the bride in question, and according to Priyanka, it is something that the members of the Panchayat believe they have a say over.
As quoted by the The Indian Express, Priyanka says that the process involves the bride and groom retiring to a room and having intercourse on white sheets, while some members of the panchayat sit outside.
If the groom comes out with a bedsheet with blood stains on it, the bride passes the test. But if the bedsheet has no blood stains, the panchayat members accuse the bride of having a physical relationship with a man in the past.Priyanka Tamaichekar to The Indian Express
She adds that sometimes the bride is even harassed or beaten if she goes on to fail the virginity test.
Her brother Vivek who is set to get married in May next year, has been rallying strongly against these practices, considering he is a part of the community and doesn’t want to put himself or his fiance through that, says the Indian Express.
My fiance and me are against this humiliating practice… we have declared that we would not be participating in it because it is against our right to live life with dignity and right to privacy… but just opposing it was not enough. So, we held a meet of all the members of the WhatsApp group in Akurdi on 3 December to plan an awareness campaign.Vivek Tamaichekar to The Indian Express
Vivek and Priyanka aren’t the only ones looking to actively fight these practices. The Indian Express report also says that last month, one of the group’s members – Siddhant Indrekar – had in fact filed a complaint against the caste panchayat at the Vishrantwadi police station.
The caste panchayat in Tingre Nagar had allegedly demanded Rs 10,000 from a bride and a groom to approve their marriage, and Indrekar had even provided video evidence of the same to the police, the report adds. However, he was soon told by the police that his complaint had been dismissed due to lack of any evidence.
More determined than ever, Indrekar along with Nandini Jadhav, the district president of the Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmulan Samiti (MANS) requested a meeting with Deepak Sakore, the Deputy Commissioner of Police. In this meeting, they had submitted official complaints containing 33 signatures from members of the Kanjarbhat community, to stop the virginity test practice, the Indian Express report adds.
As unbelievable as this practice of conducting virginity tests sounds, its actually very popular among the community.
Earlier in June, news that a 20-year-old woman from Ahmednagar district had been deserted by her husband and had been confined to her room by her father for failing the virginity test had created quite a stir, reports The Hindu.
According to The Hindu report, the girl was deserted by her husband, their marriage was invalidated by the caste panchayat and her to-be in-laws took away all the jewellery. Additionally, when the girl and her mother tried to lodge a police complaint against the in-laws and the husband in question, the girl’s father stopped them, confined the girl to her room and took away their cell-phones, in fear of retribution from other caste-members, the report adds.
Hasan Malke, a member of the Kanjarbhat caste panchayat in Pune district, told the Indian Express that they only took the standard amount of money from couples to carry out different wedding ceremonies and did not hold any virginity test.
There is no misappropriation… the caste panchayat is not involved in conducting virginity tests… it is up to the bride and groom to do what they want…Hasan Malke, caste panchayat member to The Indian Express
(With inputs from The Indian Express and The Hindu)
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