Each time a crime is committed against a tribal woman in Meghalaya, matriliny is invoked as a sacred scroll. People believe that the matrilineal society offers greater protection to its women than other societies. This is faulty reasoning because matriliny is only a customary practice where children derive their lineage from the mother’s clan line. The operative mindset is patriarchal. Why is it that in Khasi matriliny we also have an all-male Dorbar Shnong? And for centuries this has been treated as the birth right of men and it continues to this day. Women activists may rave and rant about being excluded from the would Dorbar Shnong but not a single woman would dare defy the status quo and claim her right to contest for the post of the Rangbah Shnong (headman). Indeed, women may be able to speak and wax eloquent at national and international platforms but when it comes to their own local governance they still have no say. It’s a man’s world all the way. So why do people expect men in matrilineal Meghalaya to behave differently than their peers in the rest of India? Why does violence against women sound incongruous and strange? It should not. And this matter should be put to rest here and now.
NGOs involved in issues of women’s welfare should begin by accepting the fact that the plight of women here is not different from anywhere else. Domestic violence, rape and sexual abuse are pressing issues plaguing the state of Meghalaya. Several sensitisation programmes have been organised by different women’s organisations in the last decade or so for different groups of women, for law enforcers and people at all levels of administration. There is sufficient awareness on how to file a first information report (FIR) should a crime of rape or domestic violence occur. The survivor has to make the first move to approach the law courts. Fast track courts have been created to deal with rape cases. The problem arises when the perpetrator of rape or domestic violence is a tribal and the victim too is a tribal. The case is sent to the District Council courts where they languish indefinitely. The plea of the District Council courts is that there are too many pending cases and inadequate human resource. This needs to be reversed immediately. All cases of rape and domestic violence should be handled by the fast track courts created by the state for the purpose of speeding up justice. In a rape case the procedures for arriving at a conviction are the same whether the perpetrator is a tribal or non-tribal. There can be no special appeal to customary laws in judging a rape case or a case of domestic violence. The High Court should take suo-moto cognisance of this fact.
