Crime against women in matrilineal Meghalaya: Who'll bell the cat?
(as run by IANS for various papers and websites)
Like Economics, Sociology too cannot be a durable truth. It requires constant attention, closer scrutiny and revision. Such a notion or rather the conviction is reflected in the case of crimes against women. Which of the two worlds, a pro-feminist or matrilineal one or male-chauvinistic one suits women better?
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Society needs to understand the world around it better to ensure heinous offences are not committed against women. It cannot bank on one or two constant and standard factors believing that taking precautionary measures following those roadmaps would ensure the general good.
Long back, sage Chanakya had said that a 'woman' remains the most mysterious living being on the earth. No one can be sure that he has mustered enough knowledge about a woman as an individual or as entire womenfolk. This observation could be guided by male chauvinism. I need not dispute this. There is a peculiar predicament as it is also difficult to understand what really drives the perpetrators of crime against women.
Recently, the National Crime Records Bureau (NRB) has thrown up a new challenge with its data about growing incidents of rape and other incidents of crime against women in Meghalaya. The paradoxes involved make it equally puzzling as to why such a thing could happen against women in the state of Meghalaya. All knowledge and expertise on criminology and women related problems seem to fail.
How? Firstly, Meghalaya is a matrilineal society of Garos, Khasis and Jaintia tribes. So, a world where the 'woman is supreme' and wives and mothers are guardians of households did not matter; and the perpetrators have continued with their criminal ways.
Nestled in the northeast of India, Meghalaya is predominantly a Christian state, and hence even the much-cherished Christian values could not work as a deterrent for the perpetrators of the crimes. Another predominantly Christian state in the region, Nagaland, is generally known as a male chauvinist society. The women are safer there, and the crime cases against women in the year 2020 stood at 37. By contrast, Meghalaya's figures stood at 568 during the year. In states such as Mizoram, Manipur, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh -- the number of cases of crime against women was fairly low, and these states have population figures similar to Meghalaya.
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Now, let us take another yardstick, the skewed male-female sex ratio. Some years back the declining sex ratio in Haryana was given out as the chief reason for growing cases of rape and other crimes against women. Around 2012, the Haryana sex ratio figures stood
at 877 females for every 1,000 men. Brides came from other states and other communities, often after payment of a hefty amount. But the Haryana example cannot be compared with Meghalaya's. In the Northeastern state, the female-male sex ratio is 986 women for every 1,000 men; and this has increased from 975 per 1,000 males between 2001 and 2011.
So where do we go from here?
The real answer perhaps is that no single or two trend(s) can be attributed to explain the rise in crime against women. It is basically in men's minds.
Reasons have been given to explain the Meghalaya situation. Congress legislator and Pradesh unit vice president Mazel Ampareen Lyngdoh, says: "There are multiple factors. Alcoholism and the growing number of men taking drugs and other substances are responsible (for crimes against women)."
As the chairperson of the Assembly Committee for Empowerment of Women, she says the district administrations have been pulled up. She agrees the growing number of 'broken marriages' that have compelled women to stay alone and ensure regular income during the pandemic have contributed to these crimes.
One independent state legislator Julius Kitbok Dorphang, an ex-militant, was arrested for raping a 14-year-old in 2017. The rebel leader was also founder-chairman of an armed insurgent group Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC) and was sentenced to 25 years in jail by a special court in August this year. Militancy or insurgency in other northeastern states such as Nagaland and Mizoram are never known for such incidents against women. So, the ex-HNLC founder's case was an exception.
In 2017, the police had recorded 238 cases of rape, including a few gang-rapes. In Northeast and in Meghalaya too, gang rape was unheard of, but these days such crime occurs quite regularly, say some social workers. The state also has high cases of assault on women with intent to outrage a woman's modesty, and cruelty by husbands or relatives. Yes, that's despite the tradition of matrilineal practices.
These growing incidents are not new. In 2012-13 too there were generally a high number of cases of crime against women. Then again, in several instances, the perpetrators of crime are below 18 years. There is hardly or 'less' fear of the law as minors are subjected to a maximum seven years of imprisonment. In several cases, locals say, you will find the stepfather has committed the gruesome act. The women and young girls are generally caught unawares. In many cases the men would be under the influence of alcohol or even drugs.
A senior civil administration official says, "Earlier there used to be under reporting or no reporting of such cases. Now the women are more aware of their rights. Moreover, locals do not fear to report such cases knowing well that there is an assurance that the police would protect the victims' identity."
(VibesofIndia....report)
'Chanakya' said no amount of worldly knowledge could help anyone understand what is on a woman’s mind.
That may have been a rather chauvinistic declaration, but in these modern times too, we are faced with a peculiar predicament of what really drives the perpetrators of crime against women.
Which of the two worlds – a feminist or matrilineal one or a male-chauvinistic one suits women better? If a skewed sex ratio in Haryana leads to an increased number of rape cases, why then do we have such cases in Meghalaya?
The northeastern state of Nagaland is generally known for a male-biased society. The state has so far held the distinction of not having any elected woman lawmaker in the assembly.
Here, incidents of crime against women in 2020 stood at 39. In sharp contrast, another northeastern state Meghalaya is a matrilineal society.
In the social systems of Meghalaya, all three tribal groups – Garos, Khasis and Jaintias – practice a norm under which men use the surname of their mother and go to their mother-in-law’s home after marriage.
But the sad part of the tale is women are more unsafe in Meghalaya.
In 2020, Meghalaya recorded 568 cases of crimes against women.
This data, according to the Home Ministry’s National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), is much higher than states similar in population and size such as Manipur, Nagaland, Mizoram, Sikkim, and Arunachal Pradesh in the northeast.
Opposition Congress legislator, Mazel Ampareen Lyngdoh, says: “There are various factors starting from alcoholism to drug abuse by men and also growing numbers of single mothers in rural areas”.
In other words, she says, women are ‘vulnerable’ to such attacks and the wife or mother being the guardian of the house does not make any difference.
Quizzing a few social workers in Nagaland revealed another striking feature.
“In Nagaland, the society and the family system is male-biased. But women are safe; and even insurgents carrying guns would not disturb women and children,” says one social worker in Dimapur on the condition of anonymity.
In Meghalaya, the figure of 2020 is not a sudden occurrence. Even in 2008 or 2013 – there were a high number of cases for crimes committed against women.
Some say, there are myriad issues related to men-women relationships in the socio-political context also.
A law was adopted in 2018 by the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council that said that any Khasi woman who marries a non-Khasi, as well as her offspring born out of such marriage, shall be deemed as non-Khasi.
In other words, despite matrilineal traditions, the real political power is with the men.
A resident of a small hamlet Nongpoh and a mother of three daughters says: “In several cases, young girls are generally caught unawares among known people. You will find instances of stepfather having committing the gruesome act”.
Police also agree. In some instances, the victims and their mothers complained that such cases were perpetrated in moving vehicles by “unsuspecting people whom the victims knew”, they say
The Meghalaya Commission for Women, a statutory body, had stated a few years back that most of the victims come from families who are economically challenged and from broken homes.
In 2018, cops arrested one of their own personnel for allegedly raping a woman in her tea shop. In 2013, the total number of rape cases registered in Meghalaya was 179, out of which 118 cases – about 64 per cent – involved victims below the age of 18.
Congress legislator Ampareen Lyngdoh agrees. “I am really concerned. In Meghalaya along with women, even children are not safe. I am also the chairperson of the Assembly Committee for Empowerment of Women, we have taken up these seriously and also pulled up at least four district administrations”.
She also says that the growing number of broken marriages and women being forced to stay alone and manage home, ensure regular income during the time of a pandemic and lockdown have also contributed to an increase in these crimes. But old trends can not be brushed aside.
An independent MLA, Julius Kitbok Dorphang, who is an ex-militant, was arrested for raping a 14-year-old in 2017. He was sentenced to 25 years in jail by a special court in August this year.
The Special Judge (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences – POCSO) Febroneous Silkam Sangma also slapped a penalty of Rs 15 lakh on the 56-year-old leader.
Social workers are angry about the situation but also clueless about the solutions. A Shillong based-educationist says, “No single law or some drastic action, and arrest of suspected and habitual offenders can solve this problem”.
The issues ought to be understood in their entirety and then a solution worked out, she says.
“Most often for malaria, we think burning a coil or spraying some liquid could stop it. The real issue is open drainage. Similarly, for the growing number of crimes against women in Meghalaya we need to identify the drainage – the real source for such crime,” she told this journalist.
In some northern states such as Haryana, the male-female ratio is often blamed for rising rape incidents.
It is said, the skewed sex ratio compels men to get brides from other states by paying a hefty amount. Here again things are perplexing and cannot be analysed taking Haryana’s case as an example.
The Sex Ratio in Meghalaya is 986 for each 1000 male and this has increased from 975 per 1000 males between 2001 and 2011.
Haryana recorded 922 female births per 1,000 males in 2020, a major improvement from what was around 877 women to every 1,000 men some years back.
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| Ampareen Lyngdoh: Congress leader |
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