It is unfortunate that Meghalaya should be in the news for its high total fertility rate (TFR). An official recently stated that about one lakh children are born every year. This is a phenomenon common to the rural areas of Meghalaya and the reasons are mainly teenage pregnancies. School drop-out is a common feature in rural Meghalaya. The reason is extreme poverty and hence the inability of parents to support their education. Such teenagers have to get into the workforce and support the family. Often the situation in most homes is so dire that girls are led to believe that if they marry they would have a better life apart from their maternal families and away from the other siblings. It is this idealism that prompts them to cohabit with the first man that approaches them. That cohabitation is equivalent to a marriage in Khasi society makes it easy for a couple to plunge into a relationship without knowing enough about one another and their ability to adjust to each other’s temperament. More often than not, teenagers are hardly able to distinguish between love and fleeting infatuation. They quickly get into a relationship, experiment with sex and the girl becomes pregnant. After that, trouble begins to pile up. Rural Meghalaya also happens to live in ignorance about safe sex; condom use; birth spacing and every other aspect that is a burden on the woman. It is the woman who has to give birth and often it is one baby a year. There is no concept of planning for a family that a couple can afford. The belief drummed into the Khasi psyche that every child comes from God and must be accepted and that contraception is wrong or sinful has been internalised in most families. Religion reinforces those beliefs.
The Print, a leading online news portal did a story on this sordid aspect of Meghalaya which also reveals just how disempowered women are when they cannot decide what their family size should be. That every child born must also receive adequate nutrition and be able to go to school does not appear to be a concern or priority in most rural households. Churches and other faith institutions which are meant to show the way to a better more progressive lifestyle are stuck in medieval mindsets. Sex education which is core to understanding the implications of sexual behaviour is not communicated in a way that adolescents can relate to. Adult education centres that once functioned across rural Meghalaya have now winded up hence women are not exposed to awareness on the advantages of planning a family so that their own health and that of their children are taken care of. In such a situation it is not surprising that maternal and infant mortality are both high in Meghalaya. The Government needs to think of more innovative methods of disseminating information to teenagers on the importance of planning a family; of reproductive rights of the girl/woman and to incentivize couples that decide on birth spacing.
