Land rights for UP women — Changing the face of destitution

The faces of the widows who come to Varanasi to die have a story to tell to those who are prepared to listen. It's a story of destitution. ...

The faces of the widows who come to Varanasi to die have a story to tell to those who are prepared to listen. It’s a story of destitution. It happens when human beings are rendered economically powerless by social circumstance, thrown out of families and left to fend for themselves. It is to help people like these that the Uttar Pradesh Government is now considering amending Section 171 of the Zamindari Abolition Act to ensure that unmarried daughters and widows are given a fair share in their parents’ property. The government appears to have received several pleas and complaints from deserted women, particularly in the rural areas of the State. Clearly something is happening there. The old ties that made the Indian joint family a unique social safety net seem to be breaking down. Unmarried women and old widows, not surprisingly, are the ultimate victims of the disappearance of such long cherished values.

The Uttar Pradesh Zamindari Abolition and Land Reforms Act, 1950, states that when a landlord dies his interest in his holdings shall devolve first of all to the male descendant in the male line of descent in equal shares.

Others, like his widow, widowed mother, father and unmarried daughters, follow. According to this, the claims of a widow and unmarried and married daughters are preceded not only by the claims of the lineal male descendants in the male line of descent, but even their widows who have not remarried. As early as 1975, the Status of Women Committee Report had argued that such an exclusion cannot be justified on any grounds and called for its immediate removal. At long last, the State is responding to the demand. This is only to be commended.

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Indian women’s right to equal inheritance is curtailed in numerous ways, thanks to the various personal laws that govern them, including the Hindu Succession Act that was passed in 1956 after much opposition from conservative lobbies. Yet, one of the most empowering measures that can be granted to women is precisely this right to equal inheritance. Once they have this, they will be able to address the other social and political inequalities they face in a better manner. In the late 1970s, Bodhgaya in Bihar witnessed a unique peasant struggle for land. But what was particularly interesting about it was that within the broader struggle, women soon started demanding that the land that was being distributed be registered in their names as well as that of their husbands’. They perceived the connection between such ownership and their own position in society. Similar struggles have been waged in various pockets of the country like Chandwad in Maharashtra and East Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu, but the State has been generally tardy in responding to them. This is a crucial lacuna

Economists and sociologists have long argued that granting a woman her legitimate share in landed and matrimonial property can make a comprehensive difference to her status which, in turn, crucially influences the social and economic status of the nation.