Patriarchy rules in rest of the world, but there is a state in India where matriarchy rules. Yes, it is also known as home to the clouds, the state is Meghalaya. The word, feminist might have created several controversies, several people may find feminism offensive and consider women inferior to the male.

So, everything is opposite in this female-dominated state, compared to the male dominance in the rest of the world. In this region, men assert rights, and the age-old matrilineal system is followed by the tribal population of Garo, Khasi, and Jaintia.

In Meghalaya, women lead the family and are considered family wealth custodians. The ancestral property is usually given to the youngest daughter, as it is considered that she will stay the longest with her parents. The elder sisters are also provided with some property to make their separate homes after getting married. The husbands of the women join them.

Since the state has women’s dominance, they are provided with an enormous number of responsibilities. They are not only responsible for bread earning, but also have to rear children and manage household duties, and chores in which men also provide support.

The worst scenario in the state is that, with a great amount of spare time, men tend to get into drinking, gambling, and drug consumption. The men in Meghalaya only dominate politics.

The men get respect from the matriarchal families and those who work hand over their earnings to their mothers. The tribal law provides men with no inheritance rights, not even a substantial share of land or money from their mother as a gift. It is either given to the sister of the man, or the family of the mother after his death.

But parents have slowly realized that their sons should have an equal right to property as their daughters. Numerous youngsters in the country have stopped using their mothers’ surnames, while there are only a few men who hand over their earnings to their mothers.

It went unheard for a few years in the state. But a businessman based out in Shillong, P. Syiemlieh has come out of the opposition in his tribe and divided the property among his 11 children equally. The transport and communications minister of the state also did not think twice before dividing his property among one daughter and five sons. It happened without any objection from the daughter.

Superseding the tribal laws has only been possible with the intervention of the government in passing the law, the Self-Acquired Property Act. This law allows the individual to dispose of the property as he or she wants.

Several sociologists think that tribal men are not efficient, as they tend to suffer from an inferiority complex. In the state, men lack ambitions, as only women remain the primary preference in terms of education and clothing, while men are the secondary.