The State of Womenhood in Arunachal Pradesh in the Course of Modernization

Arunachal Pradesh is a land of numerous human civilizations: as many as 25 major tribes and several sub-tribes. Looking back to the early part of twentieth century when the indigenous communities were still fighting among themselves; more or less, ignorant of outside world and its technological advancement, and almost isolated from the rest of the human civilization, Arunachal of today is very much an integral part of the life of the mainstream in every sense of the word, and it’s no mean achievement; truly, people of the state deserve all the pat and praise. The state has, undoubtedly, been doing appreciably well in her quest to secure life, identity and respect to her people. Today, Arunachal Pradesh is also rushing towards the world of economic prosperity, social awakening and political modernity to keep herself abreast with the pace of the modern world.
Life is lot easier and comfortable now; food scarcity is no longer a serious problem; death rate has remarkably come down; transportation is available; communication has linked every soul; education is spreading, and so on. Consequently, awareness is growing, attitude shifting and life style changing. Yes, everything around us is changing, and we are ourselves fast blowing with the strong current of wind of change that it’s rather difficult and startling for us to make out our own past. We are also modern-human. This is a good news.
Most of the villages have no access to basic amenities of life; many places are yet to see link roads; electricity, education and medical facilities are far-cry for all, except for handful of rich and affluence; poverty, starvation and hardships abundant; ignorance, evils, superstition, and male-chauvinism persist. Life is all the same as ever. Age-old property regime, resource utilization pattern, conservation values, and socio-economic-political structure are respectively giving way to altogether new, unsustainable, unviable and complicated set of systems in the guise of modernization, which our people are inadequately proficient at. That is to say, as we roll down the rough terrain of development and progress, the social dilemma and economic anxiety are alarmingly lurking and following us at every step. This results in, I’m sure, imbalance resource allocation, non-judicious resource exploitation, and so lopsided economic progress. As it is so, we are embarking on the path to serious economic inequality and social disarray.

These stark realities haunt the state. While the former reflects the situations in scattered emerging urban areas, mostly, the district or block headquarters of the state, the latter depicts the gloomy realities of the majority of the rural areas. Certainly, the rays of change have arrived on the door of the state, but they are yet to illuminate and enlighten the rest of the state. The society is moving ahead, yet the over-all state of affairs of the state is miserably the same.

Womenfolk in our state, as elsewhere across the world, have always or mostly been subject to discrimination and subjugation by the menfolk and the community alike. Women, as a whole, have been considered as lesser-being; they were, rather viewed as an object of exploitation or commodity. While women deal the majority of the burden of work from household chores to livestock care and agricultural activities in the field, besides reproduction, this very fact is ignored, rather deliberately. Their position in the family has been meticulously and deliberately destroyed through repeated disrespect, vilification and oppression to strengthen and consolidate the position of the men. Arunachal women have not only been bearing, enduring and persevering all the hardships of natural life, but they also have accepted biased, inhumane and cowardice social-evils, predominantly male-centric, as their fate. They have learnt, over the ages, to sip this soup of poison without any protest or without any success, even if they ever dared to do so. It isn’t that our womenfolk are inherently weak and meek. It’s just that years of neglect and exploitation by menfolk and the community have made them too submissive and accordingly, voluntarily indifferent to conditions around. As a result of their submissive and voluntary indifferent attitude, they have receded further back and miseries have befallen on them with lot more cruelty.
Now, the picture is taking turn. With education, awareness and understanding of human values are spreading. Therefore, people are realizing the ill-effects of male-chauvinism and social discrimination against their own women. Menfolk are gradually becoming liberal and rational like never before. Modern views and knowledge of equality, liberty and freedom are steadily making in-roads into the realm of deep-seated male-chauvinism. This change of mind among menfolk is, however, not out of genuine conviction and commitment to give the woman community its share of position, equality and respect; this change of heart is not about generous compassion and enlightenment among menfolk, but only a reflection of circumstantial consequences. That is to say, as we see the shift in the mentality of menfolk of Arunachal, it isn’t to be misunderstood with the broadmindedness or big-heartedness of our menfolk. This new-found romance or love among menfolk for human values is a delicate association, and entirely inevitable co-incidence between progress of human mind and development of humankind or civilization.
Modernization and education system have brought about realization among women population about their strength. Women of Arunachal Pradesh are also coming forward and moving ahead, hand-in-hand with their menfolk. Their aspirations, buried for years within the depth of their hearts, are gradually arriving on the horizon of practical reality, and are impatiently flowing and steadily galloping towards ultimate accomplishment. Yes, they ridicule social compulsions on them as their fate, which are excessively tilted in favor of menfolk to sustain the dominance of men on women; they no longer prefer playing second-fiddle to their men, rather they are all set to create their own niche.

With woman empowerment round the corner of the state, women folk are tremendously enthusiastic. They are becoming ever more curious about equality, liberty, freedom, welfare, standard of living and so on. Their energy is all directed towards acquiring, even snatching, their rights: right to optimal living, right to respect and regards and the like. It’s all but obvious, if the ages of their hardships are taken into account.

In this process of change (both men’s attitude and women’s outlook to life), undesirable effects too raise their heads. In the case of women empowerment, it has been interpreted in different ways. Therefore, confusion and misunderstanding are unavoidable. This is what is exactly happening in our state. While women empowerment is a mere gimmick for various political organizations, it is a bread and butter for several NGOs, dedicated to women cause more in name than any worth of it. In addition, the womenfolk and numerous women organizations themselves are not sure enough of what it is really all about. As such, the bigger hurdle comes at this point itself. To me, it seems that Arunachal women of today (Young generation) consider women empowerment to be infinite independence and boundless freedom, which I believe is a dangerous precedence of inevitable chaos and suffering for women as a whole, not excluding more exploitation by men, and a potential threat to the very fabric of traditional tribal societal life.

In my personal opinion, women empowerment is more about opportunities and responsibilities to women at par with men. Hence, it means allowing enough space to women to develop their personality and pursue their own aspirations; their share in decision making process. They deserve not only respect and regards, but also love, care and affection.
Having said so, I must admit that life of womenfolk is more or less the same. In most of the rural areas, social taboos are as usual; of course, the tide is turning in scattered budding urban areas of Arunachal. To conclude, let me sum up the two realities of the existing womanhood in Arunachal as follows: “Likes of Ms. Jarjum Ete, Ms. Mamang Dai and Ms. Biny Maya belong to the lot of liberated modern women representing the aspirations and emerging power of evolving womanhood in Arunachal, while more than half the womenfolk like my mother are still languishing under the drudgery of male-chauvinism, who have no voice of their own, but merely moving shadows of their men.”