Blog 10

In a country where over righty percent of women, living in rural areas, depend on the land and agriculture only a small portion or ten percent of women actually own land.  Having land for many of these women and their families means having some security as well as providing food and some income for these families to live on. While there have been many strides made in women’s right through laws that have been passed but there is still a great deal of inequality when it comes to women being able to exercise those rights.  For women having land in their names leads to many more benefits than just having property and income, having land in their names means that women can get a residential certificate that allows the women to tap into “institutional credit” like banks loans. Having this certificate allows for tribal families in lower castes to be able to send their children to school with a mandatory caste certificate. In some areas of India, lie Orissa in the western part, there are programs that look to help people who need land, but there is no real help for women who are own their own with children. Families are eligible to receive land but single women even if they have children dependent on them are not able to receive land due to the fact that she is not considered the head of the household. In India the idea is that if a women is widowed or left on her own that she is dependent on family structures, but many women do not find themselves being taken care of by their families, they are actually seen as not having any rights to family property or income. The Hindu Succession Act of 1956 an act that maintains that women should receive a portion of the father or in-laws property but actually enacting this has proven to be very difficult. In light of this and many other issues dealing with single women’s rights to property the Women’s Support Centre has been created in some rural areas of India. Hopefully in  a country where the constitution states that women and men are equal, equal treatment between men and women will be reached.

http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2013/04/19/a-priceless-asset-for-indias-women/

Lynne E. Davis
19 April 2013
1647pm