Editor,
I must applaud the two Khasi men who wrote convincing pieces in the Shillong Times yesterday. Mr Mohrmen’s authoritative article exposed the cultural contradictions in the KHADC Lineage Bill, while Avner Pariat’s article was practical in its approach and called for wider dialogue, which was so lacking in the run up to the passage of this Bill which violates human rights and the Constitution.
Labour workforce participation rates in the 2011 Census shows that males in Meghalaya lag behind the Indian average while females score at 10 percentage points above the national average, standing third in the country. This is despite inexcusable social and health indices, unlike their sisters in Himachal and Sikkim, states which have very high gender indices, unlike their deprived sisters in Meghalaya.
Meghalaya has the highest fertility and birth rates in the country and the lowest use of contraceptives. This depletes the health of women and is demonstrated in a high maternal mortality rates and high prevalence of malnutrition in the children, among the highest in the country. Is it not men who are the main cause of these woeful statistics? On top of this, women in Meghalaya suffer the highest rate of abandonment in the country. In no other state do so many women have to shoulder the burdens of bringing up children as a single parent.
In spite of these handicaps, women have shown bold and brave determination and entrepreneurship as we see daily in the tea shops, pavement vendors and other enterprises. A much quoted study from the University of Chicago shows that women in matrilineal societies are more industrious and risk-takers compared to patriarchal communities.The study specifically looked at the Masai (in Africa) and Khasi tribes. Surely this is a matter of cultural pride for Khasis.
I commend the Shillong Times for the space given to debate on this important issue. However, we see hardly any contributions in favour of the Bill. Not much by way of cogent arguments or data-based research has come from supporters of the Bill. In the end this is just another attempt at patriarchal subjugation of women.
Yours etc.,
Glenn C Kharkongor,
Via email
Take time to discover root causes
Editor,
According to research, stereotypical thinking, ignorance, and selfishness are the three main causes of racism. Stereotypical thinking stems from prejudice. The word “prejudice” , is defined as wrong belief. Opinion has a potential to turn into an attitude. When we have a “sustained” attitude, it converts into belief. People naturally entertain more than 10,000 thoughts in a day. We harbour negative and positive thoughts. Interestingly we give high priority to negative thoughts. Ignorance is the second cause of racism. Thirdly, selfishness could also be reckoned as a root cause of racism. This implies that there are people who have egoistic or self-centered attitudes. In short, they do not care about others as long as they gain whatever they need. The big question that arises then is, “What do we do when we have a problem?” Do we jump straight in and treat the symptoms, or do we stop to consider whether there’s actually a deeper problem that needs our attention? If we only fix the symptoms – what we see on the surface, the problem will almost certainly return, and will need fixing over, and over again. However, if we really look deeper to figure out what’s causing the problem then we can go ahead and try to fix the things that are really wrong beneath the surface so that they go away for good.
There are five things that we seriously need to consider. We first need to define the problem. The second step would be to see how long the problem has existed and how it has impacted society. Thirdly let us try to identify possible causes and the events that have really led to this problem. Finally we should try to identify the root cause. Once we have identified the root cause, then only we should move ahead and try to implement a solution that will fix the problem once and for all.
We can only hope that our lawmakers would have carefully taken all of these factors into consideration before jumping in and bringing in any new law that might further weaken ,divide and destroy our society instead of strengthening, building and consolidating what has already been built. What we need are more servants and not saviours.
Yours etc.,
Pyndapbha Warjri
Shillong-2
Correction
In Avner Pariats’s article : KHADC Issues: Another Perspective (ST Aug 6, 2018), the following footnotes ‘Pnar model of assimilation,’ and ‘No bill can substitute for our loss of community; we all raised children to become Khasis, we encouraged people to turn into Khasis,’ which are points he noted down to use in subsequent articles have inadvertently appeared in the article. The error is regretted. (Editor)