Four booked for social boycott of Thane family

Mumbai: The Thane police has booked four members of a jat panchayat for boycotting a family that had refused to support a virginity test. The police has registered a case under the Maharashtra Prohibition of People from Social Boycott (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, an officer at Ambernath police station said.

The complainant, Vivek Tamaichikar, who belongs to the Kanjarbhat community, told the police that his family had been boycotted by their community's panchayat for the past year for opposing a custom whereby a newly-wed woman has to prove that she was a virgin prior to marriage.

He alleged that the panchayat instructed all members of the community not to associate with his family. “The community members went to such an extent that when my grandmother died on Monday, they did not attend her funeral,” Mr Tamaichikar told reporters on Wednesday.

On the contrary, the same day, community members participated in a pre-wedding celebration in the locality with loud music while there was a death in his family, he alleged.

Mr Tamaichikar said in a progressive society, such boycotts are unwarranted.

Notably, the Maharashtra government in February this year said it would soon make forcing a woman to undergo virginity tests a punishable offence. "The test will be considered a form of sexual assault... after consultations with the law and judiciary department, a circular will be issued declaring it a punishable offence," Maharashtra's minister of state for home Ranjeet Patil had said. The demeaning custom is allegedly followed in the Kanjarbhat community, among others. Some youths from the community have launched an online campaign against the practice.