As you read this, Preeti (not her real name), her sister, and their parents, who belong to the Jatav-Dalit community of village Sakrod in Baghpat district in Uttar Pradesh, are in hiding in Delhi and have moved the apex court for protection.Their brother had eloped with his love of three years, a Jat girl, from the same village. According to a petition filed by the sisters in the Supreme Court, the Jat girl was married off against her wishes in February but she came back and eloped with the boy. The boy was then duly implicated in a fake narcotics case and, despite getting bail in June 2015, is still in jail as his family members are terrified of going back to the village.On July 30, the Jat community in the village held a khap panchayat, which ruled that the two sisters be raped, paraded naked after blackening their faces, and their family should never be allowed to return to their village. This is the payback for their brother’s elopement with a married girl.“Now the Supreme Court has filed a habeas corpus [a judicial mandate ordering that an inmate be brought to the court] to protect the Jat girl who eloped, as they fear she may be killed, or may have been killed [for honour],” says Vivek Singh, advocateon-record, Supreme Court, and the Jatav girls’ advocate. Tejpal Singh, member, Baghpat district panchayat, says, “It is a one-off diktat. Now that the matter has gone to the Supreme Court, even we are waiting and watching.”It is 12:30 pm. The sun is a searing ball of fire overhead. Ritu Tomar (not her real name) is waiting by the side of National Highway 10 that connects Delhi to Rohtak in Haryana. Clad in a crisp cotton salwar-kameez with her dupatta fluttering blithely in the breeze and sporting striking shades, the young lady could easily be mistaken for a city slicker from south Delhi.Ritu is a student of Hindu Girls College in Rohtak; the college bus drops her at the stand every day and one of her male relatives picks her up. It’s the same routine today. A scooter kicking up some dust in the distance heads her way. Ritu glances wearily in that direction, hastily removes the shades and drops them in her bag. The dupatta that was till now cascading merrily in the wind is quickly pulled back full length and rearranged to cover her head and face.Her “uncle” has arrived to pick her up. There is no exchange of words; Ritu hops onto the rear seat and they’re soon out of sight, riding back on the dusty road into a different world in Rohtak. Ritu lives in khap land in Rohtak district of Haryana where the men draw the lakshman rekha of dos and don’ts. Where cow slaughter is banned but not female foeticide, infanticide and honour killings; honour rapes — as the latest diktat of a Baghpat khap shows — too are par for the course.Khaps — or community or clan councils — have in the recent past passed diktats that range from the outlandish to the ridiculous — from a ban on eating chow mein and use of mobile phones to debarring DJs and, of course, eye shades. Some have even demanded changes to the Hindu Marriage Act, to accommodate a ban on same-gotra marriages and the repeal of legislation that gives women the right to paternal property.Ritu belongs to one such community.Where love and marriages between boys and girls of the same gotra is a big no-no. “After all, all boys and girls are brothers and sisters across 42 villages [that encompass Satrol khap]… They meet at family functions and marriages... How can a brother marry his own sister,” asks Inder Singh More, 70, the leader of Satrol khap. Gotra refers to the first ancestor of whom one is a progeny.When this writer visited Satrol — which is the largest khap in Haryana — and met up with More, he was reading Gyanamrit: Naree Tujhe Salaam , a magazine with a focus on women empowerment. He first brings a bucket of water to enable this writer to wash her feet and freshen up — a tradition and courtesy of the village, perhaps.In a departure from the norm, More was an agent to a big change in this neck of the woods. In a landmark event, he presided over a mahakhap in April 2014 that decided to allow inter-caste marriages, putting an end to a six-century-old ban on matrimonial alliances among people living in these 42 villages. More, who has seen almost two to three generations blossoming from adolescence to adulthood in front of his eyes, says that the skewed sex ratio and a rise in unmarried males were the driving force to allow inter-caste marriages, with the exception of marital ties in the same gotra. The sex ratio of Haryana stands at an abysmal 879 (females per 1,000 males) versus the national average of 943, according to Census 2011 data.A skewed sex ratio is what demographers call a ‘male marriage squeeze’, implying a shortage of brides and hence an excess of bachelors in the society. North and north-western states of India have been described as the ‘Bermuda Triangle’ by author Phillip Oldenburg . In Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Rajasthan, 76% of males between the ages of 20 and 24 were unmarried in comparison with 34% unmarried females, as per Census 2011 data.Some khap panchayats have, however, opposed the decision taken at the mahakhap. Jats and other communities across the country prohibit same-gotra marriages, which acts as a check against inbreeding and is a practice dating back to many centuries. “Even scientifically it has been proved that same-gotra marriages are not good for the progeny,” says Manohar Lal, chief minister of Haryana (see “Law is one Thing, and Culture Quite Another”).Start any conversation, and bhaichara [brotherhood] emerges as the glue that binds all social transactions in these close-knit communities, which are invariably dominated by the male elders.Many of the disputes, khap heads and villagers contend, are solved through bhaichara.“Even the most intractable disputes involving two families or factions are resolved amicably by bhaichara,” More says animatedly.Remind him of a study commissioned by the National Commission for Women , which reported 600 people as having been victim to honour killings between 2005 and 2010, and More counters vehemently:“Khaps never rule for killing anyone. We follow the rule of the land.”Yogendra Yadav, a former Aam Aadmi Party member and political analyst , who hails from Bhiwani district of Haryana and grew up in Hissar, feels one must first understand khaps as a social entity. “There is no social group in the country which does not have caste or community… And one of the functions the group performs is to solve interpersonal conflicts.Not every social issue must end up in a court of law. However, a line must be drawn when it comes to the law of the land. No khap or any other social group for that matter has any social authority to adjudicate upon a matter and violate the law of the land.”The land infamous for female foeticide, infanticide and honour killings appears to be embracing change, but at a painful pace. “Those who have money are more likely to get sex determination tests done. A poor man, though, will keep his daughter safe, try his best to educate her and marry her off to the best house he’s capable of,” says Kapoor Kaur, panchayat head of Jaipur village in Rohtak.“Khap ka roda yaha nahin hai [Khap menace is not found here],” she adds. As one enters the hinterlands of Haryana, one finds more boys than girls not just on the roads and homes, but also in the milling crowds of children outside schools.“We certainly believe in keeping a watch on what girls of our village wear.We believe in saada khao, saada raho [simple living, simple dressing]. If we are protecting our girls — our honour — what is wrong with that,” asks Anup Singh , a farmer of village Jaipur in Rohtak, who adds proudly that he has two double-MA girls who are now happily married off in the neighbouring villages. There are a total of 102 khaps in Haryana itself.Acknowledging the menace, the Narendra Modi-led government started the Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao programme in January 2015, with an initial corpus of `100 crore aimed at containing female infanticide, improving the sex ratio and ensuring proper education for girls in the country. Khap heads, on their part, claim that female infanticide is a matter of the past. “Today, everyone sees a girl as an asset. Still, if we come to know that a person is not capable of looking after a girl child, we will ask the family to take care of her for a year after which, as the panchayat head, I will arrange for the adoption of the girl to a new, better off family.This new programme will be christened as Beti Pao, Dharm Kamao,” avers More. But is the rest of Haryana ready for change? “There is no doubt that today, winds of change can be felt in some parts [of Haryana],” says Sunil Jaglan, panchayat head of Bibipur village in Jind district of Haryana. But when it comes to the prickly issue of marriage within the same gotra, the line is the predictable one.‘They can marry and run away but they can’t come back within the village fold,” proclaims Satbir Singh, a small-time merchant in village Julani in Jind district.Locals say that as khaps do not handle money — unlike elected panchayat heads — and are not official bodies to boot, these councils command enormous respect from the local people, as they are untainted by the lure of lucre. “Even the courts want resolution of cases, and that is exactly what khaps do,” says Surjeet Singh Mann of village Kahni in Rohtak district.Mukesh Lohan, president of the youth wing of Satrol khap, presents another reality of khap land. “The kind of work that khaps have done can’t be compared with politics or politicians. If khaps come to an end, bhaichara too will come to an end. In our land, people don’t fear the administration as much as they dread social boycott. A court takes 10 to 20 years for delivering a verdict, but we give a verdict within 20 minutes,” he says.Khap panchayats have been declared illegal and unconstitutional by the Supreme Court for their alleged encouragement of honour killings, but they continue to hold sway, in tandem with the state machinery, and are perhaps more powerful than the panchayats. The elected village headmen often side with them because without their support it is difficult to get elected. In many villages, khaps are the deciding factor in the electoral success of a candidate.In 2011, a division bench of the Supreme Court declared khap panchayats illegal and directed the state governments to take harsh measures to prevent their barbaric diktats. “Khaps are extra-constitutional bodies. They cannot pass directions or impose obligations on individuals who do not wish to follow them,” says Supreme Court advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan.Khap was a system of social administration in the ancient republics that flourished in north-western states like Haryana, Rajasthan and UP. The khaps were meant to keep the flock in and around the villages together, protect the local customs and solve interpersonal conflicts.Although the Sikh religion banned the practice of ‘kudi-maar’ (daughter killing) way back during the time of Guru Nanak, the ban did not have much impact. So much so that in modern times devices meant to detect foetal abnormalities turned into killer machines to identify female foetuses and terminate the pregnancies.This practice became so widespread — not merely confined to these states, but across the nation — that in 1994, India was forced to bring in a law (the PCPNDT Act) to rein in the use of sex determination technologies.On being asked if there are any such tests being done on the sly, Narayana Singh of village Atail in Rohtak says: “Na hamne dekhya, naa suna [we know of no such cases],” in his distinct haryanavi dialect.Deeper in the village, Kamlesh Kaur, who has two daughters, says: “The local administration keeps a vigil and sex determination tests are not possible. But many couples go to other districts, even to different states, to get the test done. Who can ever know if a couple went to Delhi for an excursion or sex determination?”In Bibipur village, where the panchayat head Sunil Jaglan flagged off the ‘Selfie with Daughter’ campaign, a slogan on the main gate says: Surakshit Bhrood, Surakshit Naari — Hum Sab Ki Hai Zimmedaari [Safe womb, Safe woman is our collective responsibility].Jaglan had launched the campaign after his first daughter was born. It was promptly picked up by the prime minister and became a nationwide initiative later.“We believe in gao-gotra-gohand [villagegotra-neighbouring village]. But it would be wrong to say that khaps are behind any killing. And talking of honour killing, even the Aarushi Talwar case of Delhi was allegedly an honour killing case, so why blame just khaps for that,” says Jaglan, holding his younger daughter in his lap. With roads named as ‘Lado Marg’, parks named as ‘Lado Sthal’ and nameplates of the girl child on their doors, sincerity — and symbolism — aren’t in short supply in Bibipur.Perhaps Baghpat in UP could take a cue from Bibipur. Enter Assara village in the district, and a person in a crowd lets on that a girl, all of 16, is bent upon suicide on the rail tracks. Spurned by her lover from the village across the track, she apparently hid herself in a five-feet high crop field adjacent to the railway line and had vowed to end her life under the first locomotive that comes by.Comments from onlookers are eyeopeners, alarming ones. “Nek kaam me deri kaisi? [Why the delay in doing the right thing]”, asks one Jitender. “Itna galat kaam kiya hai. Marna to vaise bhi hai isko [She has done wrong (falling in love).She will pay (with death) anyway],” says another man sternly, referring to the ordeal she would face once she returns to her village. Another person from the crowd says, “Ladki bagal ke gao ki hai; shaadi kaise ho sakti hai? Hindu-Muslim ho jayega yaha [the girl is from a neighbouring village; how is a marriage possible?A bloodshed as heinous as Hindu-Muslim riots may happen],” referring to the fact that gotra once again reigns supreme here, under the unwritten community conventions.Evidently beti bachao is yet to echo in Assara village of Baghpat.