Shillong, Sep 28: Citing the socio-economic challenges faced by single parent households, the Maitshaphrang Movement has sought the intervention of the Meghalaya State Commission for Women (MSCW) for immediate implementation of the Meghalaya Compulsory Registration of Marriage Act 2012.
In a letter to the Chairperson of the commission, Maitshaphrang convenor Michael N Syiem said the act was unanimously passed by the Assembly to address broken marriages, especially where women with children are left without maintenance or child support in the absence of compulsory registration.
He quoted Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma’s reply in the Assembly in March 2021, that cohabitation without formal marriage and registration is prevalent and leads to high rate of desertion of women who are left to fend for themselves and their children without any document to prove marriage.
Syiem said without a strong law, it becomes easy for a man to walk out of unregistered marriages, especially among the Khasi-Pnar community, leaving the mother vulnerable to exploitation.
The letter cited a sample study sponsored by the Commission with North-Eastern Hill University and Martin Luther Christian University in 2016, referred by former Chairperson Phidalia Toi in her publication “Matrilineal System in Meghalaya”, that about 13.25 per cent of women in Meghalaya are single mothers and, in some households, both mother and daughter are single mothers. Some are forced into the sex trade for survival due to severe circumstances.
Maitshaphrang also cited former Director General of Police LR Bishnoi’s observation at a state conference on anti-human trafficking in March 2023 that broken families and single motherhood is the most prevalent social factor for trafficking in Meghalaya.
Syiem said the deletion of 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 “and such marriage certificate be required for all official purposes” by the amendment act of 2022 has diluted the law.
It appealed to the Commission to insist that the state government re-introduce the deleted provisions by specifically defining ‘official purposes’ as for the purpose of submitting Scheduled Tribe/Caste certificates, to address abandonment of women with children.
