Editor,
Apropos the letter “Frequent power cuts: MeECL needs recharging” by Salil Gewali (ST Jan 26, 2021), the writer narrates the problems faced by the residents of Shillong due to frequent electricity disruption.
As mentioned by Gewali, most of the employees of corporate companies who have returned to Shillong on the assurance of working from home have been affected badly. I am an employee myself and have faced this issue on almost a daily basis. Firstly, there are no fixed timings regarding the power cuts. Secondly the power cuts occur almost every alternate day. Sometimes my meetings are being affected and at other times the targets aren’t met on time. This is not just my problem but the problem of almost all the employees working from home in Shillong. What I want to underline here is that there is every chance that our respective jobs might be impacted badly if the same condition prevails since we cannot perform well from home. I have also seen that employees are now called back or compelled to return to the various cities from where they had come home. This is bringing a bad name to the state.
Then there are the board examinations of Classes 10 and 12 which have been recently declared by various educational boards. The students here are also having online classes on a regular basis and in such a crucial time it is more important for the students to be provided with better electricity and good network connectivity. Frequent power cuts are disrupting their studies and affecting their concentration.
Another major issue that I have experienced regarding telecom companies is that as soon as the electricity goes off the internet speed on these networks comes to a crawl and one can hardly download one small file. This not just affects the student community or working class of the society but also the common people.
As Gewali wants to draw the attention of the Government to the mis-administration of the MeECL, I would also sincerely request the government to look into this matter on a priority basis and try to fix the frequent power cut problems at the earliest. It’s not just about public convenience but more about the responsibility of the government towards its citizens.
Yours etc.,
Hemanta Upadhaya
Shillong-2
Why glamourize matriliny?
Editor,
Apropos the letter by Leezandra Dkhar captioned, ‘On matri-lineage (ST Jan 28, 2021) I would like to submit that the letter writer is not informed about the ground realities in Meghalaya and the manifold problems that afflict women in this much exalted matrilineal society. As a regular reader of The Shillong Times I have also been reading Albert Thyrniang’s well-researched and eloquently written articles on Meghalaya and the Khasi society with great interest. On Ms Dkhar’s contention that she is proud of her cultural heritage of which matriliny is an integral part and that she speaks about it with pride, I would like to invite her to return home or to read the shocking statistics vis-à-vis women and child health in Meghalaya. The Chief Minister recently announced that at least five women and 30 children die every week in the State. It has always been known that maternal and child mortality in Meghalaya is high – in fact as high as Bihar as per statistics. Therefore to say that women enjoy an exalted status merely because of the matrilineal descent is to be caught in a cultural chimera.
Time and again in these columns it has been highlighted that the plight of single mothers is deplorable. Most of them can no longer put their children through school because they barely have enough to eat. The children engage in child labour because they see the stark poverty at home. Many times I have asked these children who peddle all kinds of knick-knacks in Police Bazar and other commercial areas why they are not in school. Their answer has been, “My mother works in peoples’ homes and cannot afford to send me to school.”
In the villages women work in stone quarries carrying their little babies alongside. Neither the society, the traditional institutions not the government has tried to address the issue of single motherhood or tried to create special schemes to assist them. Women continue to grin and bear. It is wrong for the privileged to see things only from their limited perspectives.
Coming to Albert Thyrniang’s article on Matriliny, I would agree that the choice should remain with individuals whether they wish to take the clan name of their father or mother. The children and wives of civil servants (IAS,IPS,IFS) that I know always take their father’s surname because it is difficult to explain this to those that don’t follow this culture. I see no wrong in this. Society should be flexible and individuals in it should be allowed to adopt the surname of either parents or of both. And before we go gaga over the matrilineal system, I dare say that while it has served us well there are also glaring defects in it that we must have the courage to address. But knowing how finicky our society is about tradition despite the glaring ills in it I wonder if we will ever have the courage to change.
Yours etc.,
Joycee Lyngdoh,
Via email