Fighting for rights in a patriarchal Naga society
UNFREE INDIA With few women in public life, Rosemary is fighting an uphill battle to get more women in administration
Dzuvichu wears many hats. She teaches English literature at Nagaland University, is adviser to the Naga Mothers’ Association (NMA), an apex body of women in the state, and is associated with rights organisations.
She has made her presence felt in local administration in Kohima. And as president of the Kohima District Mahila Congress, she had drafted the party’s first manifesto on women.
Yet, she remains the exception. For, the norm in Nagaland remains of women not having a role in public life.
The patriarchal Naga society told Dzuvichu early in life that men call the shots and that a Naga woman, whatever her ambition, has to weave, wash clothes, cook and do chores. And, womanhood means raising a family.
Having grown up in a militarised set-up – her family lived close to an army camp in Kohima – and getting used to clashes between security forces and Naga underground groups, Dzuvichu developed a rebellious streak. She attributes her fighting spirit to her grandmother Zeliezhu, one of the first women leaders of the underground Naga National Council, and her mother Alhouu, who got into traditional apex tribal bodies that were male bastions.
“My exposure to other cultures and education beyond the confines of the state let me see positive progress elsewhere,” Dzuvichu told HT at her residence in Kohima’s High School Colony.
She spearheaded a fight to improve Nagaland’s universities and filed public interest litigations on health and education . But activism took a toll on her marriage. “My divorce steeled me into standing up for women’s rights,” she said.
Nagaland has more women voters than men, and the 2011 census said women constitute 55.75% of the state’s population. But the state has had no woman MLA with Rano M Shaiza the only MP (Lok Sabha) from 1977-1980.
Less than a decade ago, Dzuvichu and the NMA decided it was high time women in Nagaland – like everywhere else in India – got 33% reservation in urban local bodies. Patriarchs opposed it , citing customary laws of Naga tribes. Reservation, they feared, may alter social equations .
The NMA went to court in 2011. The polls were to be held in January-February 2010 but were indefinitely postponed by the state cabinet .
NGOs such as Naga Hoho, the apex tribal body, said that women’s quota violated Article 371(A) that guarantees special status to Nagaland and preservation of customary laws.
The Supreme Court finally stepped in, and in April 2016 ordered the Nagaland government to hold polls across 32 municipal and town councils with a third of the seats reserved for women.
But the government’s move to hold the polls in January-February this year sparked violence and forced TR Zeliang to quit as chief minister.
“The intimidation and damage of property belonging to women was shameful,” Dzuvichu said.
“To many outsiders, Naga society seems very attractive. Women are seen as liberated, but we struggle with patriarchy, customary laws and social practices. But these have made our women stronger and bolder ,” she said.