GUWAHATI
Meghalaya has “rediscovered” Mavis Dunn Lyngdoh more than 80 years after she became the first woman Cabinet Minister in the Indian subcontinent.
Metbah Lyngdoh, the Speaker of the State’s 60-member Assembly, has proposed a life-size statue of the former Minister to be placed prominently in the State Central Library complex in the heart of Meghalaya capital Shillong.
“It will be proper to honour Mavis Dunn Lyngdoh, who was the first woman in India to become a Cabinet Minister,” he wrote in a letter to Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma.
“The nation is remembering the unsung heroes during the celebrations to mark 75 years of independence. Mavis Dunn Lyngdoh is no less a hero and her contribution to the health sector in the region deserves recognition,” the Speaker, also the president of the United Democratic Party, said.
“She was also a role model for women from marginalised communities in independent India for making a mark in public life,” he added.
The 1906-born Mavis Dunn Lyngdoh, belonging to the matrilineal Khasi community, was made the Health Minister in the Sir Syed Mohammed Saadulla government in 1939 two years after she was elected to the Assam Legislative Assembly as an independent candidate. She was 33 when she took charge.
Pre-1947 Assam comprised much of the present-day northeast, including Meghalaya, and swathes of what came to be known as Bangladesh. Meghalaya was carved out of Assam as a full-fledged State in 1972, exactly a decade after Mavis Dunn Lyngdoh died.
One of her major contributions was to create the posts of nurses in government hospitals for all women who trained in public or private institutions. Assam had no such institutions then.
She stayed away from politics after losing the elections in 1946 but continued to be active in social work besides touring the U.K., the U.S. and other countries for lectures. Mavis Dunn Lyngdoh recorded a few firsts too. She was the first Khasi woman to qualify to practise law and the first Khasi woman to drive a car.
