Overcoming Gender Bias in Institutions

There are two institutions in our society that require modification for the purpose of better functioning. They are functioning okay as of now, but with modification the functioning will get even better. Not only will the institutions function better, such modification will also empower a significant percent of our population more than what it is now, and the cumulative effect of such modification will have a huge bearing on the overall Naga society. The two institutions about which I shall argue for modification are Church and the Village Council.

In our society there is hardly any church that allows women to be part of the deacon board. The deacon board has been 'all male group'. There is nothing inherently wrong in having only the male as members of the deacon board provided all the male deacon members are qualified and that there is no female in the given church who is as qualified as the males members, if not better. However, if there are females in a given village/church who are as qualified as the males, it is important to bring females into the deacon board. Churches/villages which are of moderate or small size struggle to get adequate number of people who are well qualified to take leadership. And given this challenge, bringing in females can very address this predicament. In the Bible, for example, we find Phoebe as a deaconess (Roms 15.1). If early church has a deaconess, why not today even in our churches! A church consists both male and female, young and old. And having, say, two females in a team of church leadership will enable the church to minister more effectively to the church members.

Another area of change that may serve us well is to bring in women into the village council. Traditionally it has been again 'all male group'. But traditions can be changed; rules can be rewritten. And it is we who must rewrite it whenever such rewriting is required. Other people will not come and change our rules. Nor do others know when and how to bring changes. Naga women have been peacemakers for generation. Known for sympathy and honesty, when men quarrel on money matters, women can bring transparency in money management. When villages quarrel over border dispute, women can be peacemakers. In term of brain power, there is no difference between men and women. And when many educated men in the villages are working in the cities, rendering many villages shortage of qualified men to administer the village, bringing in women into village administration can make village council more efficient.

Notwithstanding the more efficient functioning of these institutions that women can contribute to, women deserve to be given the chance to work for the larger society for their own good. Any given society that ignores women ignores 50% of the citizen of the society. And when there is the capability and there is no inherent reason why actualising and flowering of such capability is absent, society must not restrain women to flourish and develop their capability. Women are allowed to become an MLA or an MP or even as Prime Minister (Indira Gandhi) or as President ( Pratibha Patil). Given that the world has gone far ahead in term of empowering women, it is high time that capable women are allowed to come into leadership team in different domain of our lives. There is no society that has expressed regrets by allowing women to serve their society with men side by side as partners.

Immovable property inheritance right for women is an area that requires more time to implement given the political matrix in the Naga areas. Considering the land ownership system at present, giving equal right to women on such issue will damage the society instead of bringing a more progressive outlook. For example, to allow a Gujarati man who married a Naga girl own land in village A in Senapati district is too much of a problem for the society at present. This is to bring more harm than good with the present system. However, one can envision our society functioning better and our women empowered to bloom if they are given room to share responsibility and work alongside men in the church as well as in the village Council.