2-day long workshop on women land rights to commence from March 26

Odishatoday.com, 18th March, 2009

Bhubaneswar (Orissa) : Bhawanipatna based Jana Kalyan Sanstha would host a two-day long consultation meet on ‘Women Land Right in Orissa’ here at the conference hall of Nabakrushana Choudhury Centre for Development Studies from March 26 to 27, informed Bharat Bhusan Thakur, Chief Executive of the Sanstha. The Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act 2005, which came into existence on September 9, 2005, is an attempt to make land tenure laws gender-equal. The amendments are to a bill that was introduced in the Rajya Sabha in December 2004, based on the 174th Law Commission report. The report was found to be too conservative, and a grassroots movement by women’s groups and groups involved in land reform, women’s rights and human rights pushed for critical amendments. Giving women legal rights over land and property gives them economic security. It also sends out the message that daughters and sons are equally important members of the parental family. A woman is thus no longer cut off from her parental home and family once she marries. As the main food producers, women’s access to land and natural resources is a key factor in eradicating hunger and rural poverty. Ownership of house and property provides security to women to take a stand against violence, and makes it difficult for family members to throw her out of the house. Sale of houses would not be possible without the consent of the woman title-holder. The title to house and land would improve her access to credit, increase her economic worth, enhance her productivity and earning capacity and the immovable property would boost her confidence, worth and dignity. In India, the debate about women's land rights and the impact they can have on rural wealth creation and security is minimal. Women have had virtually no customary rights in land, and those that existed have been substantially eroded over time, with State policies playing a catalytic role. Modern legislation, while a step forward, has yet to establish full gender equality in law or to permeate practice. Even in places where policy has been changing, such as in Karnataka and West Bengal , implementation is slow, and patriarchal attitudes are proving more powerful than the law. Customary practices governing marriage, residence and female seclusion; intimidation and violence by male kin; biases in the functioning of official agencies, etc., variously obstruct women in claiming their legal share or functioning as independent farmers, although the nature and incidence of these factors differs cross-regionally. Orissa's inherently patriarchal mindset has not adjusted rapidly enough or questioned whether the women have rights to own the title deeds to the lands they farm. Significant gender biases persisted both in land reform legislation and in personal laws. Most of the land reform legislation was enacted during the 1980s before women’s land rights were considered worthy of policy attention. The recent Orissa Rehabilitation & Resettlement Policy, 2006 has some progressive features such as unmarried daughters/sisters more than 30 years of age should be treated as separate families. Physically challenged persons, orphans who are minors, widows and women divorcees are also to be treated as separate families. In the context of women’s role in agriculture, it would be worthwhile to discuss land rights provision for women in the Orissa Land Reforms Act. The Act allows widows, divorcees, unmarried women to lease their land for cultivation, when leasing is otherwise prohibited. Although this seems progressive, it may have two underlying presumptions a) women should be protected from cultivation, therefore, they should be allowed to lease their lands, and b) only female heads of households should have control over land, while the normal married women’s control over land is subsumed under ‘family’. Due to lack of education and awareness, women invariably do not have record of rights. One of the biggest limitations in matters of women getting the actual land rights is the lack of strict enforcement of law and strict monitoring of such empowerment process. For instance, the law says that if a family has more land than the ceiling set by the government, the surplus land is recorded in the name of the wife/daughter to avoid ceiling restrictions. Largely it has been observed that people accumulate more than the ceiling and put it in the name of the women member of the family though de facto ownership lies with the male members. “In this backdrop, it is very important for us to raise the issue and place wider debate and discussions across Orissa to provide women economic security in terms of land rights and hence this workshop,” Thakur added.