Lockdown has brightened the hopes of community acceptance for a Meghalaya rural family that was ostracised more than five months ago for questioning the alleged unfair practices of the local fair price shop dealer.
The Dorbar Shnong (the Khasi traditional local council) of Laitniangtlong village had excommunicated the family of Phutborsing Rangslang in November 2019 after the couple protested against the fair price shop dealer for giving them 32 kg of rice instead of the 40 kg due to his wife Aihundalin Mawlong’s ration card.
The village is in East Khasi Hills district and is about 35 km from State capital Shillong.
The couple had also objected to overpricing — the dealer was allegedly charging double the rate applicable per item allotted under the public distribution system.
“Though there was no official complaint, we took note of an information provided by an NGO and summoned the leaders of the Dorbar Shnong and advised them not to earn a bad name at a time when we are undergoing the COVID-19 crisis,” an officer of the local Mawngap police station said.
He added that the villagers had assured the police that they would lift the “community ban” on the family.
Many instances
“There are many such cases of poor families being excommunicated for demanding their rights and questioning malpractices in Meghalaya. We intervened in this case after Mr. Rangslang approached us saying the Dorbar Shnong supported the fair price dealer who stopped giving them rice,” Shillong-based rights activist Agnes Kharshiing told The Hindu .
She heads the Civil Society Women’s Organisation.
The intervention was necessary when the Dorbar Shnong made the ban on the family formal by issuing an “order” on April 16 asking the villagers to shun the “criminal” family for being a “hurdle to the village and society”.
In 2014, the dorbar of Umsumbah village in West Khasi Hills district deprived 11 inhabitants of their basic rights for seeking information about the rural job guarantee scheme through the RTI Act.
In 2011, three women – Fatima Mynsong, Acqueline Songthiang and Matilda Suting – were excommunicated by the dorbar of Jongsha village near Shillong after they exercised the RTI to know about the utilisation of government funds for the village.
The trio, however, fought back and managed to get the village headman, who ordered their exile, ejected from his post.
In February 2011, a student leader named Bobby Basaiawmoit was asked by the dorbar of his native Mairangbah village – about 110 km from Shillong – to either pay a fine of ₹5,000 for exercising RTI or be banished.
