Defying Tradition, Women in India Embrace Property Ownership

A sizeable proportion of the Dalit rising at Una was women. (Photo Courtesy: Revati Laul, altered by The Quint)

Days before she was married 18 years ago, K Bina Devi and her sister were called to the living room of the family home where they lived with their parents and four brothers.

There, in a short ceremony witnessed by village elders, she and her sister signed a piece of paper giving up their share of the family property to their brothers. Sweets were distributed and everyone congratulated her and her sister.

The custom of haq tyag, or sacrifice of right, entails a person - usually a woman - relinquishing his or her claim on ancestral property. It is widely practised in Rajasthan despite a 2005 central law that gave women equal inheritance rights.

"Our relationship with the family will break, and people will speak ill of us," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in Chaksu village, about 30 km from Jaipur.

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Haq tyag is justified on the grounds that the father pays for his daughter's wedding, and therefore only the sons are entitled to a share of the family property.

Also, once she is married, a woman is seen as belonging to her husband's family with no claim on ancestral property.

In a bid to address the imbalance, Rajasthan and other states now offer lower rate mortgages and cheaper registration when a property is registered in the name of a woman.

<i>Haq tyag</i> is a tradition, and it is voluntary... In some cases, it may not be voluntary. But how can we check if the woman is signing willingly or not? That is why we have laws that encourage property ownership by women.

Rajendra Singh Shekhawat, Joint Secretary, Rajasthan&nbsp;

(Photo: Reuters)

No Security

One of India's poorest states, Rajasthan is known as much for its beautiful palaces and majestic forts as for its centuries-old traditions of honour and chivalry.

This is the state where the custom of sati, where widows throw themselves into their husband's funeral pyre, prevailed long after it was declared illegal in the 19th century. The law was strengthened in 1987 following the death of a young widow in Rajasthan watched by thousands.

Across India, only 13 percent of farmland is owned by women, according to census data.

Amendments in 2005 to the Hindu Succession Act, which governs matters of inheritance among Hindus, made women's inheritance rights equal to those of men.

Yet some state laws run contrary to the legislation, and in states such as Rajasthan, women are made to forgo their claims.

Haq tyag itself is rooted in misogynistic customs and traditions, particularly in villages. "It is a deep-rooted patriarchy that tells women they are okay only as long as they have the protection of a man," said Varsha Joshi, an associate professor at the Institute of Development Studies in Jaipur, who has studied property ownership among women in rural Rajasthan.

"Women have no security, no guarantee of a roof over their heads. And it is assumed they will never go against their families or go to court over being denied their right to property," she said.

(Photo: Manon Verchot)

Financially Literate

Increasingly though, women in Chaksu village and elsewhere in the Rajashtan are having to tend to the land as their husbands migrate in search of work.

With their names missing from property titles, women are often unable to take loans or access government subsidies. They are in danger of being thrown out when the husband dies, as the property then goes to the sons or the husband's brothers.

Rights activists are raising awareness of the law among women, and encouraging men to take advantage of the perks.

We have to be respectful of customs: We can’t just go tell women to claim their rights, they will be ostracised if they do... Having a financial incentive is a great way to make the men see the benefit of registering property in the name of the women.

Kavita Mishra, head of the Centre for Community Economics and Development Consultants Society

Women are also becoming more independent and financially literate. Once confined to their homes and dependent on their husbands, women in villages are running small businesses with the help of microfinance, and working in state welfare programmes that provide 100 days' employment to rural families.

"They now have bank accounts and some financial independence. That has given them the ambition and the confidence to own a home or a plot of land," said Mishra.

In Chaksu, Bina Devi belongs to a self-help group that sews camel-leather slippers for sale to a retailer in Jaipur, and helps members source loans to buy property.

It’s important that we women have something in our name. Otherwise we have no security. Things are changing. Laws give us equal rights even to own property, which we could never dream of.

K Bina Devi

(The article has been published in an arrangement with the Thompson Reuters Foundation.)