By Patricia Mukhim
March 8 (International Women’s Day) is around the corner. Women’s groups and the Government will be observing this day as another painful ritual of speeches and tokenism. But has anything changed for the woman in Meghalaya? Is her workplace safer than it was decades ago? Or is she still a victim of sexual discrimination? If she is a farm worker is she paid the same as her male colleagues? If not, why not? Have all institutions with more than 10 people working in them constituted a Complaints Committee against Sexual Harassment in the workplace as per the recent Supreme Court directives after the Verma Commission recommendations of 2013? The Committee is to be headed by a woman and not less than half of the members should be women. I know that several Government and public and private sector institutions have not considered it an imperative to constitute this Committee. So who should be holding them accountable? Women employees of course! They should form a cohort and demand that the Committee be constituted in right earnest in colleges, universities, banks, companies, hospitals, hotels, shops et al. That’s one small step towards empowerment.
Matrilineal Meghalaya is seen by many as the favoured destination for women’s libbers. People who don’t live matriliny believe that women here are automatically empowered because they have lineage and their children carry that lineage and also because women (the youngest daughter) inherit ancestral property. Patriarchy operates in subtle ways in Khasi society and both women and men all act out their roles as conditioned by patriarchy. This is one reason why a woman would never contest for the post of Rangbah Shnong, even though we have been discussing women’s participation in decision-making bodies for decades. It is easier for women to engage the state than their own traditional institutions. Whether it is out of respect for tradition or the fear of societal opprobrium, women respect that ‘lakshman rekha’ and believe it would be taboo to dismantle this last vestige of patriarchy in a matrilineal society.
Let us look at the number of rape cases in Meghalaya. Rape was the highest reported crime between March 2012 to April 2013 (179) of which 118 involved rapes of girls below 18 years of age. In 2013 there were 188 rape cases (Source: Social Welfare Dept). Interestingly in nearly all cases of rape it is a tribal man that rapes a tribal woman/girl. And such cases are transferred to the District Councils to be tried by the courts there. This flows from an order passed by the Gauhati High Court order No LJ(B)69/73/58 dated January 30, 1981, which says that any criminal offence between tribals are to be handled by the District Council Courts. As we speak there are 510 cases of rape and sexual assaults pending with the Khasi Hills District Council alone. Attempts to get figures of pending rape cases in the Garo Hills Autonomous Council court met with rebuff as the court officials wanted the request in writing. In JHADC court there are no rape cases pending, but there are cases pending with the Court of the District & Sessions Judge, Jaintia Hills who said she was not supposed to divulge details. In Jaintia Hills 24 rape cases were tried between 2002 to 2012, in the fast Track Court but not a single accused was convicted.
After a report about pending rape cases in the District Councils appeared in this paper, the standing counsel for the KHADC, Mr VGK Kynta pleaded that the Council did not have a fast track court as that has not been sanctioned by the State Government. Hence trial of rape cases has been pushed to the backburner. In such a dismal situation is there anything to celebrate about on Woman’s Day? The system seems to conspire against women with matriliny being just a fig leaf of respectability. Those who watched the first episode of Satyamev Jayate on Sunday March 2nd would cringe at the non-responsiveness of the system to rape survivors at every step of the interrogation. Doctors are reluctant to examine a raped girl/woman because the case is never seen as a health issue but a police case with the doctor being called to give evidence. The Forensic Science experts take their own time to give their reports! And often police mess up the case!
In other states, NGOs have prepared a standardised rape examination kit so that the untrained doctor does not complicate the matter and goof up the case. The reinforced law against rape stipulates that police collect proper evidence and the forensic science report on the rape case be submitted within 15 days so that the accused is charge-sheeted within two months. In December 2012, following the horrific gang-rape of 23-year-old Nirbhaya in a moving bus in Delhi, the Justice Usha Mehra Commission was set up to suggest measures to improve women’s safety. In February 2013 the Commission recommended the setting up of one-stop crisis centres for survivors of rape and sexual assault. These centres are to be set up in designated hospitals and should ideally have a gynaecologist or a medical expert (preferably a woman); a trained police officer of the rank of inspector or above (also preferably a woman); a woman counsellor or a representative of a concerned NGO; a forensic expert; and a qualified nurse, so that a survivor of rape and sexual assault can be properly examined in one place. A judicial or metropolitan magistrate should also be called immediately to record the survivor’s statement in order to enable swift action and speedy justice.
It is now over a year since the Justice Mehra Commission submitted the recommendations The Centre has issued directions to the Government of Delhi and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to take action but no substantive or effective on-ground development has taken place in most states. Can the Government of Meghalaya take pro-active steps to set up this Crisis Centre? As of today there is a Crisis & Trauma Centre located in the Shillong Civil Hospital which was initiated by the North East Network a leading women’s NGO mainly to assist victims of trauma from domestic and sexual violence. The NEN set up this Centre in 2012 but had initiated discussions with the Government about the need for such a Centre since 2006. NEN’s objective is to see that the Centre is institutionalised it so that it becomes part of the Government set-up. Through this Centre several batches of doctors have been sensitised on how to deal with women who are traumatised by assault or rape.
Clearly, speaking about women’s empowerment without addressing the basic issues that disempower them on a day to day is futile. Women don’t want tokenism. They want action. The workplace should be gender sensitive to accommodate the biological needs of women. Just because women enter the world of work they cannot be expected to fit into a male-defined “workplace.” This is particularly true of the corporate world where women are often expected to compete on an equal footing with their male colleagues, quite forgetting that women’s biology demands that they be given adequate support during child-birth and after it. These days many institutions give their women employees flexi-timings to accommodate their needs.
These are small steps that Meghalaya should consider. But before that the Government must sit up and take notice of the injustice meted out to so many rape victims who are awaiting justice. These huge numbers of pending rape cases in this State are a slap in the face of a matrilineal society.