Biswajyoti Das:  A move by a tribal council in Meghalaya to reward tribeswomen who bear more than a dozen children with cash has infuriated feminists and health officials.

The Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHDAC) in Meghalaya, worried that "non-tribals" may outnumber the Khasi community in coming years, wants tribeswomen to produce more babies.

"The only way we can ensure dominance in our own land is through producing more children," Hispreachering Son Shylla, a male member of the KHDAC's chief executive, told Reuters on Friday in Meghalaya's capital, Shillong.

This had local feminists seeing red. "A woman's body is not a baby-making machine," said Hasina Kharbhih, a leading woman activist in Meghalaya.

Health experts say the council's move is dangerous. "Making a woman bear so many children is like pushing the mother and her children to virtual death," said an official of the U.N.'s children agency, UNICEF, asking not to be identified.

Tiny Meghalaya is one of the seven states in the remote northeast where fears of migration from other parts of India and neighbouring Bangladesh have helped fuel separatist revolts in which tens of thousands have died.

The KHDAC - a powerful council elected by Khasis which works with the state government on development issues and decides on customary laws of the community - has selected three women who have had more than 15 children to be "role models". It has rewarded them with 16,000 rupees ($360) each in the hope other women would follow their example, tempted by the money.

The Khasi tribe, one of the few remaining matrilineal societies in the world, make up over 60% of mountainous Meghalaya's population of around 2 million people. Khasi leaders say that, over the past 20 years, the proportion of their community as a percentage of the state's population has fallen.

"We can manage to hold sway over our land in this manner while, at the same time, there will be no bloodletting," Shylla said.

Infant mortality in India is as high as 63 deaths per 1,000 live births and 14 per cent of deaths among women of child-bearing age are due to pregnancy or childbirth. But Amelia Sohtun, a tea-stall owner, who received 16,000 rupees from the council said she was happy with her role model tag. "Children are a gift of God and he stopped giving me more at 42 years of age," said Sohtun from Rngi, a small village located on top of a hill, 30 km south of Shillong. The illiterate wife of a labourer, whose youngest is 4 years old, has 16 children.