Assembly Speaker Metbah Lyngdoh has urged the government to install a life-size statue of the first woman cabinet minister Mavis Dunn Lyngdoh, at the premises of the State Central Library to honour her achievement and service.
Lyngdoh in a letter to Chief Minister Conrad Sangma said since the State is celebrating its Golden Jubilee it is befitting to also honour Lyngdoh who was the first woman in the country to become a cabinet minister, when she was elected a member of the Assam Legislative Assembly in1937.
Born on June 4, 1906 to H. Dunn and Helibon Lyngdoh, Mavis studied at the Welsh Mission Girls’ School, Shillong, the Diocesan College and the Bethune College, Kolkata, where she obtained her BT degree. She was also the first Khasi woman to qualify to practice law from the University Law College, Guwahati.
Her political career began in 1937 when she was elected a member of the Assam Legislative Assembly as an independent candidate, the first woman to accomplish this. In 1939, Sir Mohammed Syed Saadulla invited her to join his government as a cabinet minister. She did so, becoming the first woman to attain this post at the young age of 33.
Mavis held the health portfolio and was able to open the posts of nurses in government hospitals to all trained women, whether they had learned their skills in public or private institutions.
Mavis was defeated in the elections of 1946 and largely retired from politics, but continued to be active in social work. Throughout her career she stayed away from party politics, and while this prevented her from being embroiled in the conflicts that often rose within parties, it also meant that she was confined to the sidelines of political action.
She was associated with the government of Assam after independence in an advisory capacity. Just before the end of her life she toured the West, giving lectures in the US and UK. She was tall and attractive, with a cultured taste and style and a modern way of living she never married and was the first Khasi woman to drive a car.
Her example gave independent India hope that women from marginalized communities might come forward and make their mark in public life.
