Recasting Citizenship for Development - File UPI

220 B. LAKSHMI
help in the household. In the evening, the girls are visited by the boys
according to the custom of laisacharei (courting of girls). The politician’s
wife says, ‘When young boys come, I and my husband sit there itself and
we switch on the TV. This is how we discourage them. Since the girls are
in our custody, we have to take care that they study. After the household
work and studies are over, I do not mind their having laisacharei.’
E did her primary schooling with Mara as the medium of instruction
in her own village and got a third division (grade). She completed middle
school also in the village, but with Mizo as the medium, and got a second
division. In Saiha, E’s friends are only from her own village. She says,
‘Girls from the town do not want to make friends with us.’ In the classroom,
too, E sits in the second last row along with other girls from the
villages. She aspires to be a nurse. Her own family provides her with only
her school uniform. For all her other needs, she is dependent on the family
with whom she stays. Her family does not visit her frequently, nor does
she talk about her family. E wishes to take tuitions, but feels shy to ask for
money from her hosts.
E’s case reflects the solidarity among the Mara clans. In times of distress,
a person is morally bound to help their fellows. Because E’s father is dead,
her mother does not have the resources to educate her and there is no high
school in her village; E has found succour in the politician’s house in
Saiha. She does not possess either cultural or economic capital. She does
not have much motivation or enthusiasm, and the little that she has is
dampened by her circumstances. Though clan members are bound by
tribal custom to help one another in distress, other’s children do not have
the same status as one’s own children. E has to labour in return for the
food, lodging and education that she is provided with. In a politician’s
house, where innumerable visitors are common, additional working hands
are an asset. Clan solidarity, though an appreciable facet of the society,
cannot compensate adequately for the inputs that parents generally make
for their children, particularly the investment of time. The custom of
laisacharei also distracts girl students sometimes. E’s family accepts the
ends of schooling, but cannot provide the appropriate means for it. 4
Case Study: II
R belongs to the Lai tribal community and hails from a village in the Lai
Autonomous District Council Area in Lawngtlai District (earlier part of