anti-caste

HONOR KILLINGS AND OTHER EXTREME FORMS OF WOMEN'S OPPRESSION ARE ROOTED IN MATERIAL BACKWARDNESS

Not a matter of honour by Anuradha Dutt (The Pioneer)

"In recent months, cases of honour killing in Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh have claimed public attention and triggered demands from civil society for expeditious legislation to curb such crimes. Unconventional alliances, involving couples from different castes and clans, or of the same gotra, provide the pretext for medieval village-level, caste-linked governing bodies, called khap panchayats, to pronounce judgement and award punishment that can only be termed barbaric. Errant parties are hounded out of the villages, driven to suicide or killed. Their kin may also be persecuted by community members. Such events are accepted as being permissible for upholding the status quo in terms of social and caste relations. Outside rabidly feudal areas, alliances that do not meet family and community approval are unlikely to end in death. The errant couple might at worst be shunned by relatives. [...]

"Sati, though rare now in view of the vigilance maintained against the practice by local administrations, can also be considered honour killing since the hapless widow, more often than not, is forced to burn along with the body of her deceased spouse as a point of misplaced family pride. It is also a convenient way to keep property and assets within the marital family.

"Sociological studies indicate that in cases of honour killings of the kind rampant in Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh—and also Delhi, Punjab, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and other northern regions—the motivation usually hinges on purely material factors. Marriage between dissimilar groups holds the real danger of family property and wealth passing out of the community into alien hands, and consequent loss of social precedence. It is for this reason that wealthy landholders and farmers zealously guard their females along with their land. The phrase, ‘Jiski laathi uski bhains’ [He who wields the stick owns the buffalo], popular in these northern States, succinctly sums up this ethos."

ANTI-WOMAN LYNCHINGS ORDERED BY CASTE COUNCILS DEFENDED

Honour Killings in Haryana by Kavita Krishnan (Countercurrents)

"'Only whores choose their own partners.... Recently an educated couple married against the samaj’s (community’s) wishes in Jhajjar. We hail the panchayat’s decision to execute them...The government cannot protect this atyachar (immoral behaviour).... (The law of the land) is the root of all problems... That’s your Constitution, ours is different.' – Mahendra Singh Tikait, farmers’ leader of Western UP

"'Yahan izzatdar woh hain jo ladki ko marte hain (Those who kill their girls are respected here).' – a teacher in rural Haryana

"'Khap leaders are keepers of Jat tradition.' - Justice (ret'd) Devi Singh Teotia, a former judge of the Punjab & Haryana HC, active member of the Sarv Khap Panchayat, demanding legalising of the khap panchayats

"Mahendra Singh Tikait’s outrageous and offensive remarks once again raise the question: why do the khaap panchayats of Haryana and Western UP which issue open ‘death sentences’ for couples who defy their caste-diktats on love and marriage, enjoy impunity?

"In the context of such executions, Congress MP from Rohtak Deepender Hooda (whom the Congress proudly counts among its contingent of ‘young MPs’) had expressed sympathy for the 'sentiments and local customs of khap panchayats.' Will the Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh tell us why leaders of their party endorse such “sentiments” that mock the constitution and openly call for lynching?

"Tikait says women who choose their own partners are ‘whores’. The ‘dishonour’ of ‘whoring’, in his eyes, does not lie, it seems, in the act of buying sexual services. After all, men in the same region openly buy their wives (as reproductive machines) from other states, because women are in short supply due to female foeticide. The ‘dishonour’ according to him lies primarily in women choosing their own partners. This choice threatens the structures of property and land, and with it, the very edifice of the feudal order."

See also:

Honour killings: A blot on Indian culture, society (Merinews, September 19, 2009):

"Honour killings are not always committed by the family, often the announcement of the brutal punishment is done by a Khap Panchayat (prominent in western UP and Haryana) or a Caste Panchayat, a court which protects traditional norms of caste in a village. Even if a household agrees to the will of their children, this panchayat does not go with the decision of the family; instead such families are asked to leave the village.

"Ravinder Singh Gehlout’s family is the recent target of Khap Panchayat in Dharana village in Haryana’s Jhajjar district. Gehlout's family has been asked to leave the village as Ravinder has married a girl named Shilpa, who is of the same gotra.

"Being from same gotra means sibling like relationship, so according to the Khap, the marriage in the same category is equivalent to incest."

And see anti-caste: WOMAN-KILLING CASTE COUNCILS IN HARYANA WANT LEGAL COVER (September 8, 2009)

WOMAN-KILLING CASTE COUNCILS IN HARYANA WANT LEGAL COVER

Khap panchayats seek legal claws (Times of India)

"Khaps are traditional area-based community organizations whose rulings have no legal sanction. In keeping with tradition, khap panchayats oppose marriages within the same 'gotra' (lineage) and are known to have meted out harsh punishments to 'erring' young couples.

"At a two-day meeting in Rohtak that ended on Sunday, the Sarv Khap Panchayat, a conglomerate of various khaps, decided to set up a core committee to suggest amendments to the Act to disallow same-gotra and same-village marriages as per Jat tradition.

[...]

"[Justice (ret'd) Devi Singh Teotia, a former judge of the Punjab & Haryana High Court, said:] 'One of the sections of the Hindu Marriage Act says that you can’t marry your brother or sister, unless custom permits.' This exception clause was added for some south Indian customs where sibling marriages are allowed under extreme circumstances. 'Since Jat custom doesn’t permit marriage within the same gotra and in the gotra of one’s parents, we can seek a similar clause.'

See also:

Pesticide pills for 'wayward' girls (Times of India, September 8, 2009):

"'With mobile phones and television, milna-julna (interaction between the sexes) is too much. What can parents do except kill a daughter who disobeys?' says a local teacher defensively.

"Girls who survive their mother’s womb are brought up as daughters of the village. Not just [one village's] daughters, but of 12 neighbouring villages, says a khap member. All 12 villages form the Khidwali Bara khap, a Jat territorial unit. It decrees that boys and girls within these 12 villages cannot marry. Interestingly, the entire onus of ‘siblinghood’ rests on the girl. She is the keeper of village honour. Exceptions may be made for a boy, if the khap decides, but a girl is never allowed to bend the rules. 'If a girl married in her community’s villages, she will be in purdah in her own house. How can we allow that?' asks middle-aged Bedo.

[...]

"Vidya, who teaches at a government school in Sanghi, says she has had students who died in mysterious circumstances. 'We are only told so-and-so is dead,' she says. The physical trainer in her school adds, 'Kaaran koi nai batata (No one gives reasons).' On average, 10 to 12 healthy girls die every year, locals reckon, but there are no reliable figures.

"Generally, it’s the parents or father-brother duos who kill ‘wayward’ girls. A sympathetic mother may plead with a daughter to take the goli herself. A protesting daughter may be force-fed a pesticide pill, the preferred mode. The other route is death by hanging, all the better to ‘show’ it as suicide. No police, no complaint, no records. 'Yahan izzatdar woh hain jo ladki ko marte hain (Those who kill their girls are respected here),' says another teacher.

"If a couple runs away, the women in their families run the risk of being raped, gang-raped, and boycotted. At times, khaps also ‘fine’ the families lakhs of rupees. For the locals, that is par for the course. 'What else can be done?' asks an old woman."

Sonia of Asanada village, Haryana stood up to a khap panchayat in 2004

And see:

Medieval justice just 50km from Delhi (Times of India, September 8, 2009)

"For its part, the state government grants them legitimacy. Its website reads: 'Khap Panchayats... would be requested to use their influence in combating various social evils.' Even CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda has defended them, saying they’re needed in times of crisis.

"But Ranbir Singh says the khap panchayats’ increasing assertiveness is a sign of the identity crisis within the Jat community. 'Their landholdings are fragmenting and many fear that they would lose their zamindar status.'"

Haryana, 2007: eloping couple Manoj and Bibli killed by Bibli's family

And see also anti-caste: COUPLE BELONGING TO THE SAME CASTE KILLED FOR BEING TOO CLOSE IN LINEAGE (July 14, 2007)

HONOR KILLINGS ORDERED BY ISLAMIC-TRIBAL LAW

PAKISTAN: A young couple is in hiding after a tribal court sentenced them to death for their inter-tribal marriage (Asian Human Rights Comission)

"Tensions between tribes are not uncommon in Pakistan, and Balochi tribes such as the Jatoi consider it a particular dishonour if their women marry into another group. The groups are strictly feudal and religiously conservative, with justice meted out by tribal courts or jirgas: illegitimate gatherings of elders, in which women have no voice and hearsay more often than not, replaces evidence. In cases of female dishonour these cases often result in a woman being marked as Kari. A Kari or 'black marked' woman can be killed by any member of the tribe with impunity, for the sake of honour.

"Recent statistics have reported that about 300 women are killed every year in Pakistan because of Kari, often in land distribution disputes, and often by male relatives. This kind of rural vigilante justice is generally tolerated by local police, due to the influence of powerful tribal leaders, and few cases reach the courts."

AMANDEEP DHILLON MURDER: DOWRY DEATH IN CANADA

The sorrow of Amandeep by Michelle Mandel (Toronto Sun)

"Conflicts over dowries are such a serious problem in India that the crime of 'dowry death' was created in 1986 just to deal with the suspicious deaths of women within the first seven years of their marriage. Newly married brides are often subjected to vicious demands from their husbands and in-laws for additional money or gifts after the wedding and the abuse becomes so intolerable that some women choose suicide while others are eventually murdered for not complying with their new family's demands.

"According to India's National Crime Bureau, an estimated 6,000 to 7,000 women die annually in dowry deaths. Few of the perpetrators are ever brought to justice, and the grooms' families go on to secure new dowries as the sons marry again."

HONOR KILLINGS IN HARYANA

Two Girls in North India Brutally Murdered by Community for Visiting Boys on Festival Day (MedIndia)

"The festival of lights snuffed out the two young lives as villagers of Kaluvas set upon the girls with machetes, axes and stones and later set them on fire.

"They had waited for them on the night of Oct.28 after getting wind of their movements. The fathers of the two girls too were part of the hysterical mob, it is reported.

"When they found the battered girls were still alive though unconscious, some rushed to fetch kerosene cans. The bodies were then promptly doused and set on fire.

"One of the villagers, Rajender Shivran, who says he couldn’t sleep under the weight of the unspeakable crime, eventually ventured to make it to the office of the Bhiwani Superintendent of Police with a complaint.

"However authorities have remained indifferent, reports the Times of India."

AFTER FIVE WOMEN BURIED ALIVE FOR TRYING TO CHOOSE THEIR OWN HUSBANDS....

Pakistani lawmaker defends honor killings (Associated Press)

"A Pakistani lawmaker defended a decision by southwestern tribesmen to bury five women alive because they wanted to choose their own husbands, telling stunned members of Parliament this week to spare him their outrage.

"'These are centuries-old traditions and I will continue to defend them,' Israr Ullah Zehri, who represents Baluchistan province, said Saturday. 'Only those who indulge in immoral acts should be afraid.'

"The women, three of whom were teenagers, were first shot and then thrown into a ditch."

"LOVE MARRIAGE" PUNISHED WITH MURDER

Indian village proud after double "honor killing" (Reuters)

"Their bodies, half-stripped, were laid out on the dirt outside Sunita's father's house for all to see, a sign that the family's 'honor' had been restored by her cold-blooded murder.

"A week later, the village of Balla, just a couple of hours drive from India's capital New Delhi, stands united behind the act, proud, defiant almost to a man.

"Among the Jat caste of the conservative northern state of Haryana, it is taboo for a man and woman of the same village to marry. Although the couple were not related, they were seen in this deeply traditional society as brother and sister.

"'From society's point of view, this is a very good thing,' said 62-year-old farmer Balwan Arya, sitting smoking a hookah in the shade of a tree in a square with other elders from the village council or panchayat. 'We have removed the blot.'

"Growing economic opportunities for young people and lower castes in Haryana have made 'love marriages' more common, experts say, and the violent repression of them has risen in tandem as upper caste Jat men fight to hold on to power, status and property.

[...]

"[T]he legalization of property rights for women in 1956 made love marriages within a village even more dangerous for this elite, as daughters living close to home could in theory claim a part of the family land, sociologist Prem Chowdhry says."

WOMEN'S OPPRESSION KILLS

Honour killing: 18-year-old burned alive by father (Times of India)

"The only 'crime' 18-year-old Rekha Gokavi had committed was to love a boy belonging to a poor family. Rekha was clobbered and burnt alive by her father and uncle."

CALCUTTA: POLICE SIDE WITH HINDU FATHER AGAINST HIS DAUGHTER'S INTERCOMMUNAL MARRIAGE

Riots over death of Muslim with Hindu wife (The Telegraph (Calcutta))

"Mr Rahman, 30, was a computer graphics teacher from a Muslim family of modest means. His widow, Priyanka Todi, 23, is the daughter of a wealthy Hindu clothing manufacturer. Investigators are now trying to determine whether Mr Rahman, 30, who was discovered in September lying dead on a city railway track with a head wound, committed suicide or was murdered.

"Their doomed relationship began after Miss Todi began attending the bookish Mr Rahman's computer classes at a private academy.

"They secretly married in August and she left her family's lavish suburban villa for his cramped apartment in a poor Muslim area of Calcutta.

"In response, her father, Ashok Todi, a prominent businessman, went to Mr Rahman's house with relatives. There, he dropped to his knees and clutched his daughter's feet, begging her to save him from the 'humiliation', saying: 'I cannot take a Muslim son-in-law'.

The young couple wrote to the city's police force, seeking protection. 'Some anti-socials are coming to our place and threatening us with dire consequences if we continue to stay together,' their letter said.

Senior officers, however, sided with Mr Todi, and even warned Mr Rahman that he would be charged with kidnap unless he relinquished his wife.

[...]

"In the aftermath, the Calcutta police commissioner, Prasun Mukherjee, sided with conservatives, suggesting that it was his force's job to help Mr Todi lure his daughter back.

"'After taking care of the daughter for 23 years, if the family finds one morning that she has left them to start a new life with an unknown youth, parents cannot accept it,' Mr Mukherjee said.

"His comments caused further public outcry and the city's authorities have now removed the police commissioner and four other senior officers from their posts."

See also:

Hide Your Love Away (Times of India, October 4, 2007)

CASTE AND WOMEN'S OPPRESSION REINFORCE EACH OTHER

Girl escapes honour killing, now fights a lonely battle (IBNlive)

"Nineteen-year-old Poonam's blank look speaks of the trauma she has suffered at the hands of her family. Her relatives, threw her into a canal at Tibbi, near Haryana's border with Rajasthan, and left her to die. All because she, a Jat girl, married a Dalit boy."

MURDERED FOR CASTE IN CHICAGO!

Father Says He Set Fire That Killed Three (New York Times)

"A man set a fire last weekend that killed his pregnant daughter, his son-in-law and his 3-year-old grandson, prosecutors say, because he disapproved of his daughter’s marriage.

"The man, Subhash Chander, who lives in Oak Forest, a suburb south of here, told investigators that he was upset with his daughter, Monika Rani, and her husband, Rajesh Kumar, for what he saw as 'a cultural slight,' said Robert J. Milan, the first assistant state’s attorney of Cook County.

"Mr. Chander said that the couple had married without his consent and that Mr. Kumar was from a lower caste in India than Ms. Rani’s family, Mr. Milan said."

COUPLE BELONGING TO THE SAME CASTE KILLED FOR BEING TOO CLOSE IN LINEAGE

All for 'honour' (Frontline, July 14-27)

"This is the story of Manoj and Babli, but could well be the story of the many couples in Haryana who have lost their lives for the sake of 'honour' - family honour or community honour. In this case it is Jat honour, at Karoda village in Kaithal district.

"The duo who were in their early twenties eloped on April 6 as village elders would not allow them to marry because both belonged to the Banwala gotra. Marrying a person of the same gotra is taboo in most parts of Haryana."

Marriage and other relations within one's gotra, a claimed lineage within a caste that generally encompasses many millions of people, is thought to be incestuous. In this case, the couple disappeared after setting off to visit Babli's family, who happened to be much better off. But the police wouldn't help:

"As the police in both Karnal and Kaithal showed little interest in finding out the whereabouts of the couple, the family [of Manoj], despite its meagre resources, decided to investigate on its own. [...] On June 23, the bodies of the couple, with their hands and feet tied, were found in the Barwala branch canal in Hissar district.

[...]

"'There were maggots on the clothes, so we requested the policemen to get them washed. Instead, they gave us some soap and water and told us to wash the clothes,' said Seema and Chandrapati. 'It was my brother's shirt and there was my bhabhi's bangle too," said Seema, breaking into tears."

Once Manoj's family uncovered the crime and reported it to police, they were penalized by their own panchayat (village council):

"Karoda is among the bigger villages in Kaithal district. With a population of about 25,000, it has close to 10,000 voters, most of them Jats of the Banwala gotra, to which Gangraj belongs. The elected sarpanch of the village is a relative of Babli's family and is said to have played a partisan role in the case. 'What good was the panchayat to us? They are supposed to listen to our side of the story also. Instead they have imposed a social boycott on us and a fine of Rs.25,000 on anyone who interacts with us,' said Chandrapati [Manoj's mother].

[...]

"A village resident explained what the boycott meant. No one would sell to or buy anything from the family; none would talk to the family or visit it; no doctor would be allowed to visit the family; in school no teacher would teach Vinod; and no classmate would talk to him."

The killers have a lot of political support:

"[T]he Jat Mahasabha, a body representing the interests of Jats which is most active during the time of elections, is firmly behind Babli's family. The Mahasabha also holds strong views on social issues. In a statement to a Hindi newspaper, the Karnal Jat Mahasabha leadership extended its support to Babli's family stating that the couple had erred by getting married and that the murder was inevitable as the couple had left the accused with little choice.

"But more puzzling is the silence of the political parties barring the Left, be it the ruling Congress or the main opposition Indian National Lok Dal. It is, perhaps, yet another indication of the importance parties attach to caste support and 'gotra politics.'"

See also:

Haryana villagers not ashamed of honour killings (Nerve)

"The killers, now in police custody, say they have done the right thing. 'They brought shame on our community. Our action will set an example for others,' said one of the accused.

"Other villagers in Karoran feel the same way. They neither regret the killing nor are remorseful about it.

'The couple got what they deserved. Within their gotra, they were like brother and sister. They made an unholy alliance by getting married,' a villager said.

"By Hindu custom, people who share the same gotra are considered to have descended from the same ancestors from the Vedic age.

"'This (the marriage) cannot be tolerated,' the villager added. 'I think no one in this village will speak against the killing.'"

LOVE AMONG DISTANT BRAHMIN COUSINS PUNISHED BY CASTE PANCHAYAT

Cousins' affair sparks new Indian honour killing horror (The Australian)

"Locals say the panchayat, or village council, was summoned into extraordinary session to consider the 'incestuous relationship' and the pair's defiance of the family.

"The couple were ordered to end their relationship. When they refused, the panchayat passed its verdict: a death sentence for lowering the standing of the Thakur community.

"The punishment was slow, painful and remorseless as the mob avenged the honour of the village. Only Mahesh's grandfather showed any sort of anguish, his conscience moving him to lodge a police complaint.

"An officer said yesterday charges had been laid against 12 villagers over the killings."

See also:

Geting Away with Murder by Uddalak Mukherjee (The Telegraph (Calcutta), February 06, 2007):

"It is not as if killings such as this one are restricted to the tribal belts of Pakistan or other Islamic societies. The rise in the number of murdered lovers makes it impossible to believe that honour killings are ‘new’ to Indian society. In fact, the first reported honour killing in Muzaffarnagar, a district in western Uttar Pradesh, which has gained notoriety for such slayings, goes back to 1993. Since then, the numbers have been rising. For instance, in Muzaffarnagar, 16 such deaths were reported in 2005 alone. Other districts in the state, such as Saharanpur, Bijnor, and now Agra, have also witnessed similar crimes. Significantly, the claim that honour killings are restricted to certain feudal pockets in north India is a dubious one. The day Gudiya and Mahesh were done to death in Nehra, Mohua Mondol, a girl from Purulia in West Bengal, was shot dead by her own father, for daring to fall in love.

"It is not as if the deaths go unreported. But the method that the Indian media employ while covering such events is quite interesting. The vernacular press resorts to sensationalizing such deaths. On most occasions, there is also a hidden moral tone, which helps to legitimize the violence in the name of punishing defiance. The English dailies, as well as the electronic media, invariably point to these killings as tangible proof of the failure of the country’s vast rural hinterland to keep pace with an enlightened, modern, urban India.

"The caste panchayats, which often order lovers to be strangled, burnt or hacked, are found to have a direct role to play in the violence. But they are by no means alone responsible for the assault or killings; a patriarchal society’s curious interpretation of ‘honour’ and its relationship with gender and caste are as important. But while a lot has been written on this interdependence of caste, honour and gender, caste panchayats and their sinister designs remain curiously under-reported in the media.

"The caste panchayat is different from the gram panchayat, which is an elected body, headed by the sarpanch. The former draws its legitimacy from its claims of being a self-appointed keeper of tradition, customs and cultural practices, while the latter is a representative of the law of the land. However, in India’s villages, it is the caste panchayat which serves as an extra-judicial agency, a parallel court of law that resolves ‘private’ disputes at the local level. Its macabre verdicts are often read out in the course of conciliatory meetings, known as shalishis in Bengal. The nature of the disputes vary — people approach the panchayat for settling altercations arising out of inter-caste marriage, elopement as well as supposedly incestuous unions, as was the case in Nehra. A careful scrutiny of the incidents of honour killings would show that in most cases, the caste panchayats have passed judgments in an arbitrary manner, and always in favour of those who wield real power — social, economic or otherwise — to ensure that the status quo remains undisturbed. A runaway couple, guilty of defying time-honoured traditions, is invariably doomed once the kangaroo court steps in.

"Significantly, it is not as if only couples hailing from different castes are murdered. Mahesh and Janaka, a married couple from the same caste, were abducted from Kanpur and taken to Chak Kushehari, their native village in central Uttar Pradesh. They were first tortured for two days, then taken to a paddy field where they were left to die after the bride’s father and his henchmen slit their throats. What binds the killings in different parts of the country is the violence that is inflicted on the victims. The caste panchayat will not tolerate any resistance to a set of archaic rules, which determine individual lives in the rural hinterland. The gruesome deaths are meant to remind the men and women the price one pays for love."

BARBARIC ANTI-WOMAN PRACTICE REVIVED

Burning widows (Associated Press)

"While sati cases remain rare today, and India normally only has one every year or so, recent months have seen a surge: At least three widows have died on their husband’s pyres since August, and another was stopped from burning herself to death when villagers intervened.

"Experts can find no explanation for the increase. It’s possible that media reports and word-of-mouth lead to a copycat effect.

"But across rural India, it’s easy to find people who revere sati as the ultimate demonstration of womanly honor, devotion and piety. Thousands of sati temples have been erected over the centuries, many carefully preserved and still in daily use."

See also:

Brothers on murder charge for 'widow burning' (icWales, September 22, 2006)

"Indian police have arrested four brothers for allegedly throwing their 95-year-old mother on to their father’s funeral pyre [...]

"The brothers and villagers initially said the woman, Kuria Devi, climbed into the flames by herself, committing sati, as the ritual suicide is known. Sati has been banned for nearly two centuries.

"But police investigating the death said she was too old and frail to have clambered up alone. Even if she did, none of the 20 people at the funeral stopped her, and would therefore be arrested for abetting sati, local police chief Chanchal Kumar told the Hindustan Times newspaper.

[...]

"India has struggled in recent decades to end sati. While rare, the practice persists mainly in rural regions where widows are often shunned because of a belief they will bring bad luck and tragedy to the community.

[...]

"The Asian Age newspaper quoted the brothers as saying they had no idea sati was illegal and they regarded it as an act of honour."

And see:

liberal reformer Ram Mohan Roy writing against widow-burning in 1820

BOMBAY: LOWER-CASTE MAN WHO MARRIED BRAHMIN WOMAN HACKED TO DEATH ALONG WITH HIS FATHER, NEPHEW, AND FRIEND

High price for defying caste, family (Express India)

"'Papa is a mild man, but my mother and Dileep were violent. They were very proud of being Brahmin...thought women should never answer back, not make any choices. It just made me more determined to disobey them.'

"In October 2003, still an undergraduate student, Sushma capped that disobedience by leaving home and marrying neighbour and boyfriend Prabhu in the Bandra family court. Seven months on, she found herself a widow.

"Today, Sushma stays with her surviving in-laws, and says even if her now-freed parents try to call her or build a bridge, she is never going back. But she adds quietly, 'The truth is, I belong neither here nor there.'

"Studying for a masters degree, Sushma works with an NGO to keep herself and daughter Sona going. Days short of turning two, the cherubic girl is her mother’s solace. Sushma says, 'She is stubborn like me. I dream that she will become a pilot someday.'

"For herself, Sushma has aspirations of joining the police force. 'Otherwise, I am resigned to a lonely life.'"