KHADC is scheduled to introduce the bill during its autumn session on November 8
Political leaders and activists in matrilineal Meghalaya have advised the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC) to seek public opinion before introducing a heritage bill aimed at “equitable distribution of ancestral property among siblings”.
KHADC is scheduled to introduce the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Khasi Inheritance of Property Bill, 2021 during the council’s autumn session on November 8.
Congress veteran and Leader of the Opposition in KHADC, Pinshanganlang N. Siem said any new legislation relating to customs and tradition should be placed in the public domain before being introduced. He said that he would suggest this to the executive committee of the council to invite the views of the people.
“In earlier days the custom was for the khatduh, or the youngest daughter, to get the lion’s share in the ancestral or ancestral property. But things have changed, and most of the parents are now giving the share to all the siblings,” he told reporters in the state capital Shillong.
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He felt that the decision to transfer the property should be left to the parents who have become more equitable in modern times.
Michael Siem of the Maitshafrang Movement, a local NGO focused on customs, said his group has been campaigning on the issue of heritage for more than three decades. “But we have not demanded any law on this as we want the matter to be debated within the family first.
He supported public consultation on the bill as two other matrilineal communities – Garos and Jaintias – have similar customs and there is a need to enact a uniform law that is applicable beyond the Khasi Hills.
Congress leader Amparin Lyngdoh, the lone woman legislator from Khasi and Jaintia Hills districts, also supported the public consultation. He said that the rigid patriarchal principles that hinder women empowerment in the fields of rural governance and politics should also be reviewed.
Activist Angela Rangad said Meghalaya’s matrilineal system hardly empowers women as in a world that is beyond imagination. He explained that the youngest daughter does not get ownership but guardianship of the ancestral property, and this comes with responsibilities such as looking after aged parents, unmarried or destitute siblings and other members of a clan.
Studies by local NGOs have shown that 35-38% of women in Meghalaya own property, mostly owned by a clan or community. Furthermore, the actual control of the ancestral property rests in the hands of the maternal uncle of a khatduh.
As per the customs, the property of the couple without any daughter goes to the elder sister of the wife and her daughters. If the wife has no sister or sister, the property usually goes to the clan.
Meanwhile, the KHADC chief, Titostarvel Chine, said the purpose of the proposed heritage bill has been misunderstood. “It is not mandatory that all the children get equal share of the property of the parents. It depends on the will of the parents as to who will be the real heir of the property,” he said.
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