Speech of Dr. Temsula Ao, chairperson of Nagaland State Commission for Women on International Women’s Day
The observance of International Women’s Day was mandated by the United Nations General Assembly in 1997 when it invited the member countries to proclaim March 8 every year as the UN Day for Women’s Rights and World Peace. Since then this day has been observed as such by women’s organisation all over the world. In our country also the same ritual is being carried out by all the State commission for women and by the different nodal agencies of states involved in planning and executing programmes for women’s empowerment. In following this UN mandate, the main theme for this year’s celebration is declared in advance by it. If we look at the various themes through the years, we see that the emphasis have been on gender equality, eradicating violence against women, providing equal opportunity for girls in educational pursuits and including women in decision making bodies in civil societies.
However, this year’s theme “Be bold for change” is somewhat of a departure from the focused themes of earlier years. It is broad-based and affords the freedom to each country/organisation to highlight aspects of women’s rights and empowerment issues which are most relevant to their own contexts because of the underlying reality that in spite of concerted efforts by the UN itself, women’s organisations and many other sympathisers, there has not been much noteworthy change in the status of women in many societies, especially in the developing and under-developed world. What the theme emphasizes, I think, is the admission that the changes for women as envisaged and planned in State policies and even UN agreements have not been translated into reality. Therefore, the theme may be read as both an indictment for this failure and also a reminder that it is not an impossible task if only we, both men and women approach it with a positive attitude.
For Nagaland, this topic is both ironic and challenging and I view the topic with mixed feelings because of recent events in the State where the focus initially was on the inclusion of women in Urban Local Bodies (Municipal Councils) of the State through a reservation policy (33%). The opposition to this move of the government led to tragic and angry confrontations that cost 3 precious lives and totally obfuscated the women’ rights issue to such an extent that women’s Hohos today find themselves in self-isolation and disarray. But I also believe that all is not lost because we will continue to work for equal human rights for women and eventually gain entry into decision-making bodies with or without the reservation policy.
In this context, I want to share an anecdote from my high school days. You see we had a Mathematics teacher named Mr. Sen, (never learnt his first name) who taught us both Mathematics and Additional Mathematics to who opted for that special paper. Having done only Arithmetic up to Class VI, we found the Maths paper very tough which included not only Maths but Algebra and Geometry as well. Our marks for this paper in the half-yearly examination were poor, to say the least. The system in our school was to give out the papers in class and when our marks were read out, it appeared that even the brighter girls barely crossed the pass mark which was 60%. Many girls started to cry and it was then our teacher consoled us by telling us a story about an engineer who was leading a team of engineers to lay the track for a railway line in a difficult terrain. After about half-way, they discovered a section of a hillock which they simply could not cut through even by heavy machinery. It appeared that the only way was to abandon the project which had cost so much already; not only that, his own reputation as an experienced engineer was also at stake! He did not go to work for many days and became morose and withdrawn even from his wife. Seeing his mood, his wife one day took courage and asked him what the problem was: did he quarrel with his colleagues; did his boss scold him for some failure? He did not answer for sometime but unable to bear his frustration all by himself he narrated his problem to her.
You know what her answer was? She simply laughed and said, “O is that all/ If you cannot go forward, go backward.”He was stunned and incensed by her response as he thought that she was making fun of his predicament and stormed out of the house. Sitting in the verandah for a long time mulling over her remark, he began to realize that what she said might have some merit. So he went to his study and took out the map of the terrain and after studying it began to laugh because just as his wife had said, he found that if he diverted the rail line backwards to another section of the alignment, the connection to the main line would be possible. And that is how he was able to complete the project on time.
You may have understood why I have shared this story with you; it is because out of a may be hundred other anecdotes, this one has remained with me for more than fifty years now and the wisdom of a woman’s casual response have helped me overcome many setbacks. If Naga women today find themselves in ‘disarray’ as I mentioned earlier, it does not mean that we have abandoned our struggle for equal rights. But just like going back to find a better way as in that little anecdote, we also need to retrospect where we have failed to recognize the true reality and context of our situation. We need to go back to the very heart of Naga society which is in the villages and the traditions and customs of the villages which has moulded the mindset of our patriarchs.
It is futile to expect that this age-old Naga system of patriarchy can be changed or altered overnight just because some other societies have done this, or incorporated that on the strength of some Acts or dictats from the Centre. Not going into the many-headed political implications of the situations, what I want to emphasize here is that without first relating to the psyche of our men folk, we women alone cannot bring about any meaningful change in our situation.
The first step is to acknowledge by both men and women that Naga women DO NOT have equal rights. Having said this we have to look back on our activities and decide where we have gone wrong to antagonise our men folks so that today we find ourselves almost pushed to the wall of our initial subjugation. Of course there have been some minor changes in the grassroots level of governance where some tribes have started inducting women into their councils. But only time will tell whether it is real power-sharing or just tokenism for the outside world.
But then again, we cannot expect to see overnight dislocation in the centuries-old system of governance of our villages. However, the irony is that women’s empowerment should begin from the ground level. No one can give ready-made and instant solution to the exclusionary practices we have been subjected to so far. We celebrate this one day as International Women’s Day, but as I see it, all 365 plus days of the year are women’s days because they are the mainstay and anchor for every family which for a long time left her with no time or energy to think of other concerns, especially in the rural areas.
But, with education and advances made by women in many fields, she has now been empowered and made eligible to claim her rights in political affairs too. Yet we seem to be fighting a lone battle because we have not been able to convince our men folk about the legitimacy of our struggle. What we have to do now is tom make them understand that women’s empowerment does not mean diminishing their status. Rather, it brings in a more holistic enlightenment towards building a more balanced society where both men and women can work as equals by contemplating each other’s potential and genius to build a better Nagaland.
It is not an easy task to analyze a concept like strength of women. In out context, what started out as exclusions with difference to a woman’s inferior physical prowess gradually became the norm for excluding her from jobs which required not physical strength but intellectual power. This may sound simplistic but I do believe that the demarcation for labour also became the bar to keep women out of the governance of the ancient councils of our people. That is why it is important for us to go back to our ancient customary and traditional practices to remove this fallacy from the minds of our men-folk. That will be a bold step and will test our mental strength. Being bold however, should never be equated with being aggressive and confrontational; after all, in this world God has put only two genders and it is undeniable truth of nature that we do without each other. So, why not work together for peaceful and harmonious Nagaland where everyone is given her/his due rights.
It is time for us to venture out of our shells and approach the traditional patriarchs and tell them that times have changed and that they too should introspect about the injustice embedded in customary laws and traditions regarding the status of women. We should invite them to work together to remove these archaic laws which have been perpetuated by their egoistic intransigence. Let us make them understand that when we ask for our rights, we are only trying to strengthen the fabric of our society by adding to it the strength of women for the ultimate good of all Nagas.
