development goal for a rural women from a land owning family
Answers
Answered by
3
This online discussion aims to facilitate inclusive exchange of opinion and information on the state of land rights of women in India, the legal, institutional framework and socio-cultural factors affecting women’s equitable land tenure rights, good practices/innovations around women’s land tenure rights by Government/NGO and challenges and opportunities towards realization of gender equitable land tenure by 2030. It will analyze the status of data availability and accessibility around women land rights in India with available information from different sources along with an assessment of such sources by the participants with an aim to see if a suggestive framework for open data can be developed and made accessible to help SDG monitoring.
Secure and equitable land rights of women form some of the key indicators of the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including 5.a.1 on the proportion of total agricultural population with ownership or secure rights over agricultural land. This indicators is considered to have a potentially transformational role in the achievement of four of the 17 SDGs, including ending poverty (Goal 1), ensuring food security (Goal 2), achieving gender equality and empowering women (Goal 5), and making cities and human settlements inclusive (Goal 11). Gender equality is one of the ten core principles for implementation listed in FAO’s Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure (VGGT) of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security (the “Guidelines”; FAO, 2012).
Secure land rights of women have demonstrated enhanced agricultural productivity and building resilience among the small and marginal farmers, who constitute 75 percent of the farming community.
The Constitution of India provides equal rights to both men and women. Women’s access to land is largely through inheritance and inheritance is governed by customs, which varies across regions and States. There are various property rights regimes prevailing and the succession Acts of various religious laws, which determines women right to property and inheritance. Hindu Succession Act (Amendment), 2005, which applies to a majority of the country’s area and population, has expanded the space for enhanced women’s land rights. The fifth and sixth Scheduled areas have different customary tribal laws on women property rights and inheritance, which also varies, with specific indigenous community laws.
Over the last few years, both central and state governments have made many progressive reforms to realize the goal of secure and equitable land tenure for all. Among them, the 2005 amendment to Hindu Succession Act, 1956 (making daughters as coparceners) and implementation of Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006 (provisions of mandatory joint titling) are making significant contribution[1]. A 1985 policy directed states to give joint titles to husband and wife in transfer of assets like land and house sites through Government programmes. Of late, prioritized allocation of rights to land distributed under the land grant programs, whether jointly or in the name of women, has begun to reflect an increasing share of land for women, at least in the form of joint ownership of homestead lands[2]. Reduction of stamp duty, for the lands registered in the name of women, has encouraged women’s property ownership rights in some states like Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Delhi[3].
In India, almost a third of cultivators are woman, but they own less than 10.34 percent of land, operating 12.8 percent of holdings, as per Agriculture Census, 2010-11, while 75 percent of female workforce, largely marginal or landless, depends on agriculture for survival. The average size of women’s land holding is 0.93 ha, in comparison to 1.18 ha for male and 1.15 ha for all. The regional disparity with regards to women’s land rights was evident with the states in the southern region showing comparatively more number and area of land holdings operated by women while the situation in Northern and Eastern region states are demonstrating a poorer picture. In the last decade (2001-11), number (36.12 percentage) and area (23.45 percentage) of women’s holdings have increased, at a pace, higher than their population growth. (Choudhury et al , 2017)
Secure and equitable land rights of women form some of the key indicators of the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including 5.a.1 on the proportion of total agricultural population with ownership or secure rights over agricultural land. This indicators is considered to have a potentially transformational role in the achievement of four of the 17 SDGs, including ending poverty (Goal 1), ensuring food security (Goal 2), achieving gender equality and empowering women (Goal 5), and making cities and human settlements inclusive (Goal 11). Gender equality is one of the ten core principles for implementation listed in FAO’s Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure (VGGT) of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security (the “Guidelines”; FAO, 2012).
Secure land rights of women have demonstrated enhanced agricultural productivity and building resilience among the small and marginal farmers, who constitute 75 percent of the farming community.
The Constitution of India provides equal rights to both men and women. Women’s access to land is largely through inheritance and inheritance is governed by customs, which varies across regions and States. There are various property rights regimes prevailing and the succession Acts of various religious laws, which determines women right to property and inheritance. Hindu Succession Act (Amendment), 2005, which applies to a majority of the country’s area and population, has expanded the space for enhanced women’s land rights. The fifth and sixth Scheduled areas have different customary tribal laws on women property rights and inheritance, which also varies, with specific indigenous community laws.
Over the last few years, both central and state governments have made many progressive reforms to realize the goal of secure and equitable land tenure for all. Among them, the 2005 amendment to Hindu Succession Act, 1956 (making daughters as coparceners) and implementation of Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006 (provisions of mandatory joint titling) are making significant contribution[1]. A 1985 policy directed states to give joint titles to husband and wife in transfer of assets like land and house sites through Government programmes. Of late, prioritized allocation of rights to land distributed under the land grant programs, whether jointly or in the name of women, has begun to reflect an increasing share of land for women, at least in the form of joint ownership of homestead lands[2]. Reduction of stamp duty, for the lands registered in the name of women, has encouraged women’s property ownership rights in some states like Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Delhi[3].
In India, almost a third of cultivators are woman, but they own less than 10.34 percent of land, operating 12.8 percent of holdings, as per Agriculture Census, 2010-11, while 75 percent of female workforce, largely marginal or landless, depends on agriculture for survival. The average size of women’s land holding is 0.93 ha, in comparison to 1.18 ha for male and 1.15 ha for all. The regional disparity with regards to women’s land rights was evident with the states in the southern region showing comparatively more number and area of land holdings operated by women while the situation in Northern and Eastern region states are demonstrating a poorer picture. In the last decade (2001-11), number (36.12 percentage) and area (23.45 percentage) of women’s holdings have increased, at a pace, higher than their population growth. (Choudhury et al , 2017)
Similar questions