Thursday, March 28

My grandmother is challenging patriarchal land rights in India – I’m so proud of her | Women’s rights and gender equality


When my 67-year-old grandmother, Poli, learned that her four brothers had divided all the family land among themselves, she was furious. “When I asked my brothers to give me an equal share, they said, ‘what do you need this land for?

“’You are old, your husband is dead, your daughters are married. What will you do with it?’ They threatened to call the police on me,” she says.

So my grandmother, who lives in the city of Jammu in Indian-administered Kashmir, never attended secondary school and married at 15, took her brothers to court. “That land is as much mine as it is theirs,” she says.

Ideas over inheritance in India follow gender lines. Women grow up to 80% of India’s foodbut own 11% of its farmland.

Laws may have advanced – in 2005, the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act granted equal inheritance property rights, but some parents believe girls should not inherit because they are given a dowry when they marry.

dowries- outlawed six decades ago – continue to be paid in 95% of marriages. Others fear that land will pass to a son-in-law’s family if it is given to married daughters.

Women can come under enormous pressure to relinquish land ownership to male relatives.

Nikki, 51, a teacher, with two children and wants to be known by her first name, inherited land from her father.

“My father gave all the property to my brother except a small portion of land. I inferred that. My brother and relatives kept on humiliating me and calling me bad names. I had to give that piece of land away to stop the harassment.”

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But women like my grandmother are now taking action.

Madhu, 22, an archeology graduate, fought her uncles when they tried to deny her mother a share of Madhu’s father’s inheritance.

‘That land is as much mine as it is theirs,’ my 67-year-old grandmother, Poli, said when her four brothers split the family land between themselves. Photograph: Courtesy of Shreya Kalia

When he died, the family left the city for a village in Uttar Pradesh where her four uncles lived. They had inherited all the property and, Madhu says, “turned hostile” when her mother asked for a share of her.

“They threatened to kill us. But we stood firm. The matter was resolved in a village meeting, in the presence of the village head, after six months and we gained our share,” she says. “It was very difficult.”

One uncle argued her mother should get a smaller share because she only had one son whereas he had two.

“Our lawyer asked my mother to not include me in the property share since I am a girl. But my mom did not listen. She gave me an equal share.”

In Jhaloor, Punjab, Dalit women began a fight in 2016 to win control of land owned by the upper-caste Jatt Sikhs.

They were beaten and sexually abused for their stance while the authorities mostly turned a blind eye..

Paramjit Kaur, from the Zameen Prapti Sangharsh Committee, which supports Dalit women over land rights, says the women were “tired of verbal, physical and sexual abuse” by Jatts, who refused to relinquish land legally reserved for lower-caste communities.

“We protested for nearly a year until we gained control over the panchayati land [plots governed by village councils]. Now the Jatts are also offering to apologise,” she says.

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Their success changed how the women saw themselves. “It felt very powerful to be able to speak, because we’ve been silent for so long,” says Taran, a woman who participated in the protests.

In Gujarat, the Working Group for Women and Land Ownership (WGWLO), a network of 35 organisations, has supported around 9,000 women to secure land rights.

It was 2013 when my grandmother threw herself into this fight. Last month we drove 20 miles for the hearing but the case was postponed. “Just when the verdict is near, a bureaucratic reshuffle or transfer occurs and it gets postponed,” she says, but adds: “I’m going to get the land soon.”

We don’t know when that day will come, but I am proud my grandmother is challenging these patriarchal values.

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