Shillong: Syngkhong Rympei Thymmai (SRT), a men’s rights group in Meghalaya has threatened to take the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council to court if Scheduled Tribe (ST) certificates aren’t issued to children who take their lineage from the father’s side.
Meghalaya is a matrilineal society and children take their mother’s surname.
The Khasis — a scheduled tribe of more than one million people in Meghalaya — are one of the last surviving matrilineal societies in the world whose lineage is traced from mother to daughter.
The SRT which has thousands of members who take their lineage from their paternal side, has claimed that several were deprived of their ST certificate because they have their surname of their father’s.
However, the SRT have been taking their surname from their father’s side for several decades now and claim to have over 20000 members in the state and across the globe.
“For the past 4-5 years many were deprived of their ST certificate because they took the surname from their father’s side. The Deputy Commissioner’s office simply keeps aside files, seeking ST certificates, if they know that the father’s surname has been adopted,” SRT President, Teibor Khongjee said.
Khongjee said the ST certificates weren’t being issued to them because the officials cited the Khasi Social Custom of Lineage) Act, 1997 passed by the Khasi HIlls District Council.
“On pursuing the matter an office order in 2020 was issued by the Social Welfare department to the DCs of West and East Khasi Hills district stating that the lineage act doesn’t prohibit issuance of ST certificate, even if someone adopts the father’s surname,” Khongjee said.
Despite the order the DC’s office continued to stop issuing ST certificates to those adopting the father’s surname. “If the issue is not resolved we would have no alternative, but to take legal recourse,” he added.
Khongjee said the SRT had apprised the Chief Minister Conrad Sangma about the issue and sought his intervention so that the certificates could be issued.
The ST certificate provides several socio-economic welfare schemes such as scholarship, exemption from paying income tax, besides the large number of other government schemes meant to uplift the living condition of the tribal community.
