A male bastion likely to fall in matrilineal State of Meghalaya

Women’s organisations have been fighting for berths in the executive committees of the traditional village body in Meghalaya

Children take the family name of their mother in the tribal communities of Meghalaya. | Photo Credit: Ritu Raj Konwar

GUWAHATI A traditional village-level administrative male bastion my fall in matrilineal Meghalaya. 

The Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC) is planning to rewrite the rules to make it mandatory for every Dorbar Shnong to have two women representatives in its executive committee. 

A Dorbar Shnong is a traditional village institution of the ethnic Khasi community where age-old customary laws largely dictate governance. Each Dorbar Shnong across the Khasi domain is headed by an elected Rangbah Shnong. 

The Khasis are a matrilineal community dominating the Khasi Hills region of Meghalaya. The Garo community in the Garo Hills region and the Jaintia community inhabiting the Jaintia Hills also follow the matrilineal system where children take the family name of their mother and the youngest daughter of the family is the custodian of the ancestral property. 

“We will define the rules to have two women members in the executive committee of each Dorbar Shnong once the Khasi Hills Autonomous District (Administration of Elaka) (Second Amendment) Bill, 2023, becomes an Act,” Pynshngainlang N. Syiem, the KHADC’s deputy chief said after a meeting with a women’s delegation in the State’s capital Shillong on Thursday. 

“It has become important to have women representatives in the Dorbar Shnongs, specifically for handling the issues and problems relating to women,” he said, admitting that the Bill has room for further amendments. 

Mr. Syiem, however, said the KHADC would leave it to the wisdom of each Dorbar Shnong to decide whether or not to let women take part in the process of electing the Rangbah Shnong. 

Theilin Phanbuh, the president of a traditional women’s organisation named Ka Lympung ki Seng Kynthei, said the members of her organisation are not demanding that women should vie for the post of the Rangbah Shnong. 

“What we are demanding is that women should be members of the executive committee to enable them to raise gender-specific issues in the Dorbar,” she said, insisting opening the doors of the Dorbar Shnong for women would positively impact society. 

Ka Lympung ki Seng Kynthei, she said, has been asking the district council since 2011 to recognise the role of women in village-level administration and facilitate their entry into the Dorbar Shnongs.