Changing gender roles and relations in food provisioning among matrilineal Khasi and patrilineal Chakhesang Indigenous rural People of North-East India

Women's position in society, gender roles, and gender division of labour affect household food security, dietary diversity, nutritional status, and well-being of all household members, especially children. Building on both primary and secondary data, this study explores gender roles and relations in food provisioning among the North-East India Indigenous matrilineal Khasi and patrilineal Chakhesang Peoples, amid societal transition. With the use of a combination of ethnographic and ethnobotanical research tools, a total number of 200 informants participated in 20 focus group discussions and 28 key informant interviews. The feminist political ecology framework was used to analyse the structural power relations influencing gender food-provisioning labour. Results show that both matrilineal and patrilineal women play equally crucial roles in agrobiodiversity management, subsistence agricultural production, and household food provisioning. However, customary laws shape different gender relations, women's status, and appreciation of women's work in the two societies. Gender roles appeared more flexible in the matrilineal society and more clearly defined in the patrilineal society, and gender relations more egalitarian among the Khasis while more hierarchical among the Chakhesangs. Household food-provisioning work and engagement in agricultural production did not seem to positively contribute to the social status of Chakhesang women, because these were expected as structural elements of the patriarchy. Current socio-cultural and economic changes in both Indigenous societies have altered the traditional food system, traditional livelihoods, and resource management practices, affecting women's role in household food provisioning and leading to the deterioration of women's status, influencing household dietary diversity, food, and nutritional security.