ISLAMABAD: Condemning the delay in the passage of the Hindu Marriage Registration Act, Scheduled Caste Hindus, particularly women, gathered in Islamabad in front of the parliament to lodge a protest against consequential social discrimination they have to face in the absence of a law protecting their matrimonial rights.
Scheduled Caste Rights Movement (SCRM) in collaboration with ActionAid held the demonstration. The demonstration started with around 200 people, including Hindus from different regions of Pakistan and civil rights activists staging a mock marriage ceremony in front of the National Press Club to highlight the ineffectiveness of a marriage when it was not registered by the government.
Scheduled Caste women speaking on the occasion said that the absence of marriage registration law culminated in multiple social issues for their community, including incidents of abduction, forced conversion and deprivation of benefit from any government scheme.
Shakuntala Devi, from Multan, said, "It has been more than four years that we have been struggling for our rights. In 2011, a bill was presented in the National Assembly to pass a law to register Hindu marriage but so far it has seen no progress. Hindu women are being constantly victimised. In absence of a marriage law, they remain deprived of basic social, political and economic rights."
Reema Mai, from Rahim Yar Khan, said, “since the past 60 years, Hindu women are being discriminated against with girls and even married women being abducted and later re-married to non-Hindus, which goes unnoticed because there is no law to protect us.
Explaining early marriage in her community as a form of defense mechanism, she said, "we feel very insecure and our elders take pre-emptive measures by marrying us at a very early age."
The travails for her community, Mai said, did not end there. "We cannot move freely as there is always a fear of being abducted." She added that even getting the national identity card is an uphill task for them, "If we have to get our National Identity Card, it becomes the most challenging for us. We have to bribe the concerned staff for getting a NIC and similarly we cannot stay in a hotel because of our inability to produce a marriage registration certificate."
SCRM president, Guru Sukh Dev said that four years back in 2008, Scheduled Caste Hindus realised that they needed to have a collective platform for pitching their demands.
"SCRM is now a social movement with many successes to its credit, however still we are facing challenges to make our voices heard."
SCRM had lobbied with many parliamentarians from different parties and introduced a marriage registration bill in the parliament which was still pending.
“It has already been more than 60 years that any law to protect Scheduled Caste Hindus was discussed in the parliament. Now we earnestly demand early passage of Hindu marriage registration law so that it brings an end to our sufferings and insecurities,” Dev said.
COMMENTS (14)
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@Syed is right. The issue is divorce that is delaying this marriage law. The Hindu community wants to delete the divorce clause, which is not possible according to basic human rights. India has a divorce clause, but our Hindu community is opposing divorce right. Those who dont believe it, please google this site for: "Divorce Remains sticking point in Hindu Marriage Act", published on 12/10/2011.
This is the thanks the non-muslim minorities for being loyal to the soil of Pakistan prior to Pakistsn.What do you think if the people take to arms for their rights?
@Syed
That sound more like an excuse for Pak government.
@Max writes "They are as good Pakistanis as someone else, so why don’t have the same rights of marriage, movement, ID etc.?"
Frankly, these people are better than Sunni Muslims of Pakistani. When was the last time you caught a Hindu suicide bomber? When was the last time you caught a Sunni Muslim suicide bomber?
I hope someone listens to them. Its ironic that even after so many years we feel as if they are not part of Pakistan. There should be no majority and minority segregation, only Pakistani.
@dv sikha I agreed man its true and 100 % true what u saying and i wanna remind u one more thing that all the reliegouse class and specially Madrassa Deoband great scholars were against the creation of this madness. i guess now its becoming more clear that they were right in some points.
Will Pakistan please come out of the dark ages. Although it may be written that the rights of minorities are protected by the Constitution of Pakistan, these are only words and can only hold weight if they are enforced. In reality, the rights of the minorities are marginalized at best and often ignored. Pakistan's courts are afraid of the religious conservatives and their archaic view about society. I hope one day my Pakistan can sit at the table with other civilized nations as well. Until then....
Had true Islam been imposed on the so-called Islamic republic of Pakistan, this issue wouldn't have at all been here! Its their basic right and they should be given every facility and special quota for being special Pakistanis not minorities
These are faceless destitutes created by the sadists who negotiated azadi and partition. They are the unwanted children of God.
@Mohammad Ali Siddiqui:
Obviously not. Saying it doesn't make it so.
Is there anything that happens the right way in Pakistan? They are as good Pakistanis as someone else, so why don't have the same rights of marriage, movement, ID etc.? Pakistan need to come out of this myopic version of nation and religion.
The right of minorities are protected in the Constitution of Pakistan.
It is a shameful matter for Government of Pakistan that people from the minority community are running from pillar to post to get their rights.
It is not a Provincial matter but it is a Federal Subject.
Does the Government of Pakistan wants Chief Justice of Pakistan to take suo moto action on this as well?
Very sad, my heart goes to them. Please help them. As per true Islam, we should protect minority rights.