Persisting Gender Discrimination in Land Rights

India is an agrarian society where 69% of its
population lives in rural areas. Agricultural is the main source
of livelihood for a large number of rural populations including
women. Women constitute a major component of agricultural
labor and contribute significantly to agricultural production
yet they do not enjoy significant land ownership rights.
Women's lack of ownership of productive resources such as
land weakens their bargaining capacity within the household
as well as in the public sphere. This further excludes them
from socio-political and legal institutions and they continue to
be discriminated against. Studies have shown that the land and
inheritance laws in most of the states in India are biased.
Similar situation may be seen in north eastern states where
customary laws are in practice. There is a great need to revisit
the land laws in order to remove the existing anomalies.
For women's empowerment and emancipation,
feminist movements have been gathering strength in various
parts of the world in the twentieth century. Most of these
countries have signed the Convention on the Elimination of
all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDA) -an
international treaty adopted in 1979 by the United Nations
General Assembly and expressed their concern and
commitment for establishing gender parity. To ameliorate the
condition of women, India has also taken several measures
and launched various programmes. During the ninth five year
plan, women and their land rights emerged as an important
agenda. To ensure accessibility and grant ownership of land
rights to women, the Government of India, Department of
Land Resources during the Ninth Five Year Plan (1997-2002))
issued instructions to all the states that 40% of agricultural
land settled under land reform programme should be
exclusively in the name of women. In the remaining cases,
the allotment may be joimuy ne name of husband
This programme has benefitted a large number
During Tenth Five Year Plan (2002-07)
introduced a scheme or providing Concession in reoic States
and stamp duty to women property buyers. This schen
benefitted millions of women across the states. Delhi was has
of husband and wife number of women, us states strationnas
one 2002. Later on, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat, Har
Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Unio territory of Puduche
Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand also introduced
scheme. Further, the Hindu Succession Act was amended in
2005. To make women self reliant, Andhra Pradesh
Government launched a scheme in 2009 to lease land to
women members of self help groups. However, development
models based on market-oriented strategies have remained
gender neutral and provided little space to women particularly
from tribal and dalit communities.
The present study titled "Persisting gender
discrimination in land rights" has been conducted on behalf of
the Department of Land Resources, Ministry of Rural
Development, Government of India. The objectives of the
study was to review different statutes, laws, customary laws
relating to land from a gender perspective; assess the extent,
conditions and forms of land ownership and the nature of law
(customary/formal) operational in relation to land ownership
of women and the historical background of land systems. The
present volume brought out under land reforms series contains
14 articles covering fourteen states of the Country. These
states are: Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Gujarat, Jammu & Kashmir,
Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand and tne
tribal dominated states such as Arunachal Pradesi,
Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim.
Three states namely Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Uttarakhan
which came into existence in 2000 have been studie
extensively. It would pertinent to mention that the Centre for
Rural Studies, Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of
Administration, Mussoorie had conducted a similar study in
thirteen states/UT viz. Assam, Bihar, Haryana, Himachal
Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Meghalaya,
Manipur, Orissa, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and a
union territory of Puducherry which was published by Sage
Publications in 2009 under its land reforms series.
Our attempt has been to lay down the ground work
which may be built upon by future research. We hope this
volume will be found as useful as the earlier one, by different
sections of society including policy makers, planners,
administrators, academicians, social scientists, women's
organizations, students of gender studies, non-government
organizations, researchers and will pave way for millions of
women who are denied land rights.