Travencore Syrian Christian Succession Act - A salute to Mary Roy

As an an LIC agent I contacted a subscriber who wished to propose a policy. Well, being an Agent myself, I provided her with all the necessary advises, documents to sign and explained to her the merits and demerits of a Life Insurance. She wanted the insurance be made on her Son’s life.
Well I did exactly as she wanted.
Exactly like an enthusiastic LIC adviser, I knew the Lady also has a daughter, elder to the son and I wanted her life too got insured. She declined saying “ No, Mathew ji, she has, in any way, to be married off soon” .
What she meant, as I could guess, was that the daughter will be sent off with a dowry, a bargain will take place later on and the amount will be fixed and the girl will be sent off. Any other investment on her will be futile.
The person whom I was interacting with is a professional and learned Lady, a mother, a wife and before that she was a daughter too. This is the attitude even educated persons hold for a girl child. That too from a member of a Syrian Christian clan, for whose girls’ rights, Mary Roy fought for twenty five long years from a Magistrate Court in Kottayam to the Supreme Court of India to gain this legitimate right of the Christian girl to have equal share of her ancestral property. The Court verdict made history. The 200 odd year old Travencore Christian Succession Act was changed to include the girl child for equal right in her parental property. A fundamental right, every other Indian is guaranteed with, but the Syrian Christian women. You know what, A girl in the Syrian Christian family- prior to the verdict- was entitled for a mere 5000 Rupees or land or property worth not exceeding this amount, come what may be the property of the family. Though, the verdict had changed the law, the mindset is still rampant in the Christian Community, who preserve their wealth for the boy. Mary Roy is the founder Principal of “Copper Christi” now known as “Pallikoodam”, she also may be, if necessary, addressed as mother of Arundhati Roy “ the creator of “God of small things”.

I know a Lady, who is also one of my best friends, who gave up her marriage to take up the responsibility of her ageing mother and ill-employed brothers. I also has a person in my life, who is a very ardent critic of mine, much more than a best friend, cool-ly telling ‘boys to be’ that her parents are her responsibility and watch them vanish.