Mahapanchayat condemns idea of reducing marriageable age

A Mahapanchayat attended byseveral Khaps in Sonepat district on Saturday refuted the idea of a Khap leader that marriageable age of girls should be broughtdown to 16 years, saying the suggestion was "individual innature" and should not be seen as stand of the body. The Mahapanchayat, attended by several Khaps or castecouncils, did not endorse the suggestion to help curbincreasing instances of rape in the state. The function was presided over by Nafe Singh Nain andattended by various Khap leaders including Sube Singh Samainand Santosh Dahiya, president of Mahila (women's) wing of a Khap. Dahiya said that the Mahapanchayat decided to form awareness cells, comprising of 3 to 4 people in each groups,to launch an awareness campaign in rural areas of the state to educate the people including young boys and girls in a bid to help curb incidents of crimes against women. The Khap leader Sube Singh, who also attended the meetabout 200-km from here, said that his comment on reducing agewas his personal opinion. The Mahapanchayat took note of rising incidents of crime against women including many rape incidents of rape in Haryanaduring the past two months and strongly condemned suchincidents, Singh said. Earlier, Congress President Sonia Gandhi had dismissedthe Khap Panchayat leader's suggestion, saying "We have ademocratic system here, we have an independent judiciary...lawis in the hands of judiciary, nobody else". On Sonia's comment, Dahiya said, "Our existencecannot be ignored. Khaps have been there since ages. They arepart of our social system and have been in existence evenbefore civil law was there." Dahiya said that the Mahapanchayat also stronglycondemned the statement of Haryana Congress leader DharambirGoyat, who on Thursday claimed that 90% of the casesof rapes involved "consensual sex". "We have demanded that Goyat should apologise for hisshameful comment. He should seek apology from all women forwhat he has said," Dahiya said. "We will also be telling people that boys and girlsshould be given equal rights and girls should also be madestrong- both physically and mentally," she said. On the issue of reservation to the Jat community ingovernment jobs, the Mahapanchayat resolved to expand thes cope of existing 24-member committee which is spearheadingthe demand by including more members and a decision to thiseffect will be taken when the Mahapanchayat holds anothermeeting in Jind district on October 21, Sube Singh said.