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Tucked away in India’s Northeast, with a population of just 2.9 million, is the scenic state of Meghalaya. Surrounded by misty hills, rock music wafting in the air, the Khasi people of Meghalaya pride themselves for the way they treat their women. At a time when the heinous rape of a 5-year-old in New Delhi has once shaken the collective consciousness of the country, it is a state that is far away from such violence.
Or so we thought.
In the past 12 months, New Delhi, with a population of 22 million, has reported 463 cases of rape. In the same time, 179 cases of rape have been reported in Meghalaya. In 118 of these cases, the victims were minors. In a space of just 10 days, a 6-year-old schoolgirl was allegedly raped and then murdered at Ranikor; a 13-year-old girl brought from Karbi Anglong in Assam as a maid was raped by her employer on the outskirts of Tura; and a 14-year-old was gangraped in the Nangalbibra area of South Garo Hills by three labourers.
In a matrilineal state, where the youngest daughter of each family is the caretaker and inheritor of the property and where children take on the mother’s name, the emergence of rape and domestic violence against women as the top two crimes is a cause for concern. Isn’t such a society supposed to be safe and empower women?
According to Mark Laitflang Stone, General Manger of the Avenues Group, a youth empowerment organisation, the answer is an emphatic no. “Matrilineality is a myth,” says Mark. “The fact that women are custodians of property and that their title is passed on to their children is just something that sustains or rather enforces our cultural identity and that’s about it. There is no empowerment of women.”
Mark seems to be right. Look closely at the matrilineal structure of the Khasi society, and you find that it is anything but that. The youngest daughter may be the caretaker of the property, but she is not the head of the family; her brother, or her mama (maternal uncle) takes the final decisions. Women are excluded from the political process, so in the local durbars or village councils, they can neither vote nor participate in a discussion, nor be elected.
“There is this perception that women are stronger because they have inheritance rights,” says Lahun Rumnong, Programme Assistant at North East Network, a women’s rights organisation, “but empowerment through matrilineality is a myth.”
Even if this empowerment is a myth, it does not explain the sudden rise in rapes and more importantly, why juveniles are raping juveniles. Rica Lamar, Director, Manbha Foundation, says a host of factors are responsible for this. “Earlier, we lived in joint families, it played a role in raising and disciplining the children of the house,” explains Lamar. “In the nuclear family, this support structure is missing. Working parents have less time for their children. At the same time, we have a high number of single parents, usually mothers.”