SHILLONG, SEPT 29: The 2022 amendment that removed the mandatory clause from the Meghalaya Compulsory Registration of Marriage Act, 2012 has weakened the law meant to protect women deserted in unregistered marriages, the Maitshaphrang has said.
In a representation to the Chairperson of the Meghalaya State Commission for Women (MSCW), convenor Michael N Syiem sought the Commission’s intervention for immediate implementation of the Act in its original spirit.
“The Act was unanimously passed with the primary objective of addressing the increasing number of broken marriages, especially unregistered marriages, where many women with children are abandoned by their husbands without maintenance or child support,” Syiem said in the letter.
He pointed out that Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma himself had flagged the issue in the Assembly on March 11, 2021, while replying to a zero-hour notice by North Shillong MLA Adelbert Nongrum.
“It is seen that the practice of cohabitation without entering into formal marriage and registration is prevalent and this leads to high rate of desertion of women by their husbands and the women are left to fend for themselves and their children in the absence of any document to prove the marriage,” Syiem said, quoting the Chief Minister.
According to him, in the absence of a strong law, “it becomes very easy for a man to walk out of unregistered marriages especially among the Khasi-Pnar community without giving any maintenance support, leaving the abandoned mother with children susceptible to exploitation.”
Maitshaphrang said the Commission is aware of the ground reality as many abandoned and divorced women approach it for maintenance help and face hurdles due to unregistered marriages.
Citing data, Syiem said former MSCW Chairperson Phidalia Toi in her book ‘Matrilineal System in Meghalaya’ had noted that a 2016 study sponsored by the National Commission for Women and conducted by MSCW with NEHU and Martin Luther Christian University found that 13.25 per cent of women in Meghalaya are single mothers, with some households having both mother and daughter as single mothers.
“In some instances, the helpless mother or teenage daughter are forced by severe circumstances into flesh trade for survival,” he quoted Toi.
He also referred to former DGP L R Bishnoi’s observation at a state-level anti-human trafficking conference on March 24, 2023, that “social factors too contribute to human trafficking. The most prevalent social factor is broken families or single motherhood. The rate of it in Meghalaya is high compared to other states. It is because of these factors that our young boys and girls are vulnerable to trafficking.”
Syiem said the Meghalaya Compulsory Registration of Marriage (Amendment) Act, 2022 deleted the preamble stating “it is mandatory for married man and married women to compulsorily furnish a marriage certificate for all official purposes” and Section 3 stating “such marriage certificate be required for all official purposes.”
“This has completely diluted the importance of this legislation to tackle the high abandonment of women with children,” he said.
The NGO urged the Women’s Commission to push the government to re-introduce the deleted provisions by clearly defining “official purposes” on the lines of mandatory submission of ST/SC certificates, so that “the very purpose of this legislation to deal with and to a great extent solve this problem of abandonment is addressed.”
