All in her name

The National Advisory Councils draft of a food security bill has been deeply contested for the manner in which it seeks to deliver foodgrain to beneficiaries,and indeed on how the beneficiaries are to be identified. However,a key provision of the draft legislation,which has been cleared by a group of ministers,bears unequivocal endorsement. The ration card issued to beneficiary households will be in the name of an adult woman. To force the point,the bill stipulates that in case there is no female member of a household above the age of 18,an adult male will be designated as head of the household 8211; but upon a female member attaining turning 18,she will replace her male relative.

The council says the intervention is based on the belief that the woman is the natural custodian of food and nutritional security in the family. It is also dovetailed by other pro-women features in the bill,like prioritising licensing and management of fair price shops to women. Existing schemes aimed at nutritional security,such as mid-day meal schools,too are based on the assumption that the woman of the household is best entrusted with overseeing her familys interests.

But it would be unambitious to miss the larger potential of such a familial restructuring on official documents. As the falling child sex ratio has shown,womens empowerment has not been an automatic fallout of rising literacy and material success. Indeed,studies show abortion of female foetuses as ready an index as can be had on the status of women to be higher among women relatively well-placed along these socio-economic parameters. On its own,a ration card may not change anything. But if supported by other measures,symbolic and substantive and encompassing more than what is traditionally perceived to be the womans domain,to demonstrate that at least for the state a womans standing is equal to that of a man,it could be a valuable instrument in empowering women. To this end,inheritance rights are vital.