Editor,
The editorial, “The marital knot”(ST 12 April) pointed out that many women have to sacrifice their career prospects after marriage and are forced to become “mindless” housewives! Though the attitude of forcing married women to forsake their career is indeed condemnable, but how can being a home maker be dumbed down by terming them “mindless”? If the fairer sex gets denigrated in such a way in a reputed daily with a respectable lady at its helm, what can be expected from the society dominated by male chauvinists? Right from rearing and educating the child or children, overseeing or engaging in kitchen work, looking after the medical, emotional needs and the well-being and interest of all members of the family, planning the purchases or the lunch/dinner menu to maintaining the cleanliness of the house; the contribution of housewives( currently termed as home-makers) is simply unfathomable to say the least. If she falls ill for a single day, all routines of the family go haywire. It is the “mindless” home-maker who keeps the wheels of the household moving each day; without the yeoman’s service of whom all rhetoric of “productivity” of other “cerebral” family members stand next to nil.
Yours etc.,
Kajal Chatterjee
Kolkata -114
Editor replies: The editorial does not in any way infer that being a home maker is a ‘mindless’ job. What the editorial suggests is that sacrificing a career to build a home can often result in disappointment especially if the woman is giving up a lucrative career. Household chores can become a routine, thankless job without any economic value. Few if any acknowledge the yeo-woman’s service rendered by the woman in a home. It’s good to know that her services are now acknowledged to be indispensable to the family’s welfare. She has been looking for this recognition in vain for centuries!
No clean politics in Nongkrem constituency
Editor,
We read about the Clean Politics Campaign by Ardent Basaiawmoit, MLA of Nongkrem but the policy preached by the leader of Clean Politics is not practiced in Nongkrem Constituency. All schemes under MLA Scheme do not reach the poor and all schemes are decided by the Nongkrem MLA himself and the Nongkrem unit of the People’s Development Council (PDC).
Only the names of beneficiaries recommended by the Unit which is chaired by the MLA get special benefits. Voters who did not support the MLA during the last election are not given priority. Schemes amounting to several lakhs of rupees are allotted to the Village Dorbar but on one condition – that the contract work is done by the MLA’s PDC unit. The Rangbah Shnong and Committee are afraid, to lose MLA schemes so they prefer to remain quiet and not ask any questions.
After the MLA election, Mr Basaiawmoit declared that all MLA schemes would be implemented only by the MLA’s best friend and contractors and that the Dorbar Shnong and other people cannot interfere in anything. Last year a new foot bridge costing several lakhs in Pomlakrai, area collapsed but there were no complaints because they contractor is known to the MLA. The BDO’s office also kept quiet because he is afraid of being transferred.
Hence those who preach about clean politics do not practice it in their backyards.
Yours etc.,
L Marbaniang
Pomlakrai-Mylliem
Unthinking NGOs
Editor,
The malicious propaganda doled out by Irene Hujon’s faction of the Civil Society Women’s Organisation (CSWO) and other organizations who have come out in support of the Small Phawa, accused of raping a minor girl, borders on the ridiculous. The organisations which claim to espouse and uphold the rights of the oppressed are doing the opposite. Whether the accused had committed such an act by consent or without consent or through coercion, the fact remains that a crime is committed. Any form of sexual act on a minor amounts to sexual abuse which is what the entire episode is about. What kind of tribal community are we when minors can be raped with impunity and where the girl child is in constant danger of being abused and harassed? And this in our so called matrilineal system! Funnily, the guys in uniform are taking their own time to pin down the culprit. How can we have a reformed society when those who are supposed to enforce the law and respect the rights of the oppressed are seemingly unconcerned? As for the NGOs, those who support the rape accused ought to get their heads checked for any signs of deficiency in their thought process. What precedent are they setting by protecting rapists and such like?
Yours etc.,
Dominic S Wankhar,
Shillong-3