22nd April 2005, Protected by strict tribal and customary laws, incidents of child marriage, female foeticide and rape are on the rise in Arunachal Pradesh. Jarjum Ete, chairperson of the AP State Commission for Women in a recent report entitled "Status of Women in Tribal Arunachal" says that the state still witnesses child rape, marital rapes, impregnation in confinement and not to mention polygamy. According to her, "In the last 19 years, we have seen patriarchal, patrilinial, paralegal male dominated society”. "In my state when it comes to institution of marriage, we still have child marriage, forced marriage, multiple marriage and rape of young girls and in case women seek divorce because of incompatibility, because of domestic violence by the husband but she does not get divorce," notes Ete. One of the reasons Ete cites for this state of women is the lack of legal education among administrators and no right to women to inherit property especially from parents. "In the worst case, marital rape is sanctioned by society in many tribes of the state and even if a woman complains, the penalty is minimal. All these had led to autonomous women organizations and movement for demand of codification of customary laws in April 1994," she says.

Another interesting fact is that both the East and West Siang districts have higher literacy rate among women, but these districts have not thrown up women leadership in political arena (barring Omem Deori, former Rajya Sabha MP), Ete writes. Female foeticide has been also happening in the state but the cases are not on record, she says. The traditional tribal society of AP has no record of female foeticide but there is a male child preference so much so that not bearing a son could be a reason for committing polygamy or divorcing a wife, Ete says. Even if customary practices are documented and codified and they become laws, there should be scope for the laws to be changed from time to time, she feels. The essence of declaration by the tribal people was that tribal customary institutions of decision making bodies must be recognized by the states and that these institutions must have equal participation by women, she says. Women of tribal societies could benefit much from the protective statutory laws and provisions of the constitution but they would also be better off and on such grounds with their own customary practices, she says.

Source: The Hindustan Times