STATEMENT BY 133 ORGANIZATIONS and 858 INDIVIDUALS
there are innumerable instances where the State and community have wrongfully assaulted adult couples when they engaged in inter-faith romances and marriages. Local panchayats have even put young couples to death for transgressing community norms. Most recently in the Shefin Jahan case, 2018, where finally the Supreme Court held that right to change faith is fundamental right of choice and also observed that consent of the family, community, clan is not necessary once the two adult individuals agree to enter a romantic partnership.
This Ordinance and many other similar Acts in other states are threatening to erase the small and big achievements of the women’s movements and human rights movements. They are actually seeking to reverse whatever forward steps our society has been able to take in the last decades. The women’s movement, while welcoming the Special Marriage Act, that enables inter-faith marriages, has also critiqued its requirement of publicly displaying the names and photographs of the couple 30 days prior to the marriage. It is this requirement that has made interfaith young couples vulnerable when right-wing love-haters swoop down upon young couples.
We are witnessing increasing moral policing, humiliation and violence by right wing vigilante groups like the ABVP, RSS and Vishwa Hindu Parishad on young people in parks, streets, public places in the city and in villages, on Valentine ’s Day and other social events.