JOIN USPatriarchal mindset in a matrilineal Meghalaya
The men officials of Meghalaya accept that their state is ridden with a patriarchal mindset despite being deemed as matrilineal, finds-out Linda Chhakchhuak
Did the public outrage that followed the gang rape of a Delhi student on a private bus actually bring down the level of crimes against women, not just in the Capital but in the rest of the country? There is no straight answer to this question. Experts, government officials, and activists seem as uncertain about the answer as the public, given the explosion of such cases in the wake of the December attack.
In Meghalaya, Theilin Phanbuh, Chairperson of the State Women’s Commission (MSWC), was even constrained to observe that the rising number of such cases could be the result of “criminals taking the crackdown as a challenge to demonstrate their power even more, and going on a spree”. On the other hand, she felt that it could also be the case that the survivors of such crimes were getting more confident after the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013, and were increasingly more aware about their rights of redressal. Said Phanbuh, “As awareness campaigns proliferate, more people are getting encouraged to speak about such crimes and even file FIRs in police stations.”
One of the groups that has been galvanised into action is the Dorbar (traditional village authority) of Umpling, a locality in the outskirts of Shillong, the capital of Meghalaya. The village elders here have formed a Joint Action Committee on Crimes Against Women.
At a rally in May 2013 – incidentally the first to be held by a village authority in the state against the spate of rape and other crimes against women – the ‘rangbah shnong’ or headman, Sanwat Pyngrope, stated that the reportage in the dailies has struck horror across the community. “It’s become so common that we have woken up to the fact that this is not a woman’s issue alone but an issue that involves us men too. Therefore, as village elders, we decided we have to come out to fight against these attacks on women,” he said.
Pyngrope, along with the Additional Superintendent of Police (Crime), V. Syiem, put the major blame for the rise in such criminal behaviour on alcohol consumption and the spread of internet porn, which can now be accessed on the ubiquitous mobile phone. Many men rapists who were apprehended by the police blamed their intoxicated state for their crimes.
But Syiem touched a chord when he linked rising incidents of rape to a “patriarchal mindset”! It’s not often police officials are heard making this point. The fact is, as he put it, despite being a largely matrilineal society that holds women in high esteem, “a patriarchal mindset still dominates Meghalaya”. The widespread impression is that men can do what they want and escape the consequences of their behaviour.
According to Syiem, such people need to be taught a lesson. He urged his audience to inform the police immediately when such incidents occur. “Victims don’t need sympathy, they need empathy and support from the family and society at large to be able to file an FIR. It does not end in filing an FIR and arresting the culprit. That’s only the beginning. The witness has to come forward and not disappear, and the evidence should be saved and not destroyed,” he remarked.
The “rapist mindset”, Syiem pointed out, begins with eve teasing. It then progresses to molestation and finally, if unchecked by society, could lead to incidents of rape. He went on to say that while patriarchal society at large may wink at eve teasing and molestation, the law deems them as crimes. Women need to be aware of these laws and use them instead of taking such crimes lightly or as part of the occupational hazard of being women, he argued.
Another important piece of information passed on at the rally was that when it comes to reporting the crime, “time does not matter”. Said Syiem, “Many children or women cannot come forward immediately to talk about what they have suffered. They may have suffered in silence for a month or for years, but if they want to register that crime they can come forward at any time, and the police will have to take action.”
Of course, in cases where police officers are themselves the perpetrators it becomes that much tougher for victims to speak out. Recently, a non-bailable warrant was issued against a sub inspector of police, Narul Islam, for allegedly raping two minors who he had escorted into his ‘thana’ (police station) at Ampati in Garo Hills District. In fact, on June 4, 2013, some police officers, including a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), were suspended for protecting the officer.
The fact is that many women still shy away from making such crimes public – and according to Phanbuh, the dismal conviction rate in rape cases is certainly not an encouraging sign. She recently compiled statistics from different courts in Meghalaya to get an idea of the number of pending cases of violence against women. For instance, there are 60 pending cases in the Fast Track Court in Nongstoin, West Khasi Hills, while Ri Bhoi District registered 43 cases – seven of which were in the Juvenile Court. According to her findings, cases pending investigation until 2012 numbered 160, while 402 were pending trials.
The MSWC had also compiled a similar list involving the District Council Court (Khasi hills), which reported 163 cases under trial, 99 of which involved minors – some of them pending for as many as six years. Whether this data is part of the overall state figures or not is a question that remains unanswered, given the ongoing turf war between the Council Courts, which were set up under the Sixth Schedule, and the general courts.
When asked why crimes under Section 376 series were sent to Council Courts, the reply from a senior police official, who did not want to be named, was that cases in which both parties are tribals are handled by the Council Courts, which functions basically as a court for implementing customary laws and practices.
This, in itself, is a serious miscarriage of the law, since it seems to imply that rapes, including rapes of minors, are a customary practice that can only be adjudicated by special courts. Agnes Kharshiing, the president of the Shillong-based Civil Society Women’s Organisation, has raised this issue and demanded that rape cases pending before Council Courts be brought under the state’s fast track courts.
Meanwhile, given the rapid rise in the number of rape incidents across the state, the government has added another court – the Judicial Magistrate First Class in Tura, West Garo Hills District – to adjudicate on both old as well as new cases involving crimes against women.
But, as Phanbuh put it, it is not the number of courts but the number of convictions reported that make a difference. Otherwise, local vigilantes may be tempted to take law into their hands when verdicts get delayed for years together.