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Women's Property Rights in India

Within the sphere of economic development, women's access to land ownership and inheritance of property has been identified as a key component in achieving economic and social equality, especially for developing economies such as India. Ever since India's independence from the British Empire in 1947, the Constitution of India has upheld women's equality as an essential component of governance and legislation, beginning to change laws in order to make them more equitable for women.

A significant shift in women's rights began with the Hindu Succession Inheritance Act of 1956, which made it legal (and in many cases, a requirement) for women to be able to inherit land from a male relative. Following the passing of this act, there has been an increase in women's likelihood to inherit land and own property, although the ownership of land by men and women has still not achieved equality in India due to a variety of socio-cultural, economic and historic reasons. A manifestation of this would be the existing bias in households against women, causing the current perpetuation of inequality in property ownership between men and women in India. Despite the legal changes stipulating that women have an equal right to property ownership as men, in reality, this equality is far from having being achieved. It is important to note that this discrepancy in land ownership between the genders is decreasing, with younger women in India experiencing a much higher likelihood of inheriting property than women from previous generations.

Regardless of the current existence of gender-based discrepancy in property ownership, women's increased land ownership laws have generated several significant socio-economic and psychological benefits for them, as well as for society at-large, especially in primarily agricultural communities in rural India.

The Hindu Succession Act of 1956

The Hindu Succession Act (HSA) of 1956 was an attempt by the central government to increase land ownership by women as a way to ultimately stimulate overall gender equality in the society. However, it is important to observe that this law applied only to Hindu households within the country. Prior to the passing of this law, women in Hindu households could, by law, only inherit their father or husband's property after four generations of agnatic males, and even then, only as a life interest that they would then have to pass on further to the next man in the family line. The HSA gave them the legal standing to have the right to own property on par with their male counterparts within the same household. However, it has been observed over the years that due to the cultural context and household preference in favor of men rather than women, women are still not as likely as men to have access to land ownership; due to the preferences of their elder family members, men in households are still more likely to be the ones to whom property is passed on to, despite the same legal right women have.

Impact of Women's Increased Land Ownership in Rural India

The impact of women's increased land ownership in rural Indian agricultural communities can be most significantly observed by the economics and social impact it has had on the lives of women.

Economic Impact

In most rural communities, women in most households were not aware of their right to ownership of land until there was awareness-generation created by NGO's or other governmental organizations. Once women began to own more plots of agricultural land, stipulated by the state or passed on by male family members, they also began to form women self-help groups to discuss agricultural practices and make decisions about what to do with the crop yield at the end of each season. Overall, women's increased land ownership lead to their economic independence and liberation in that they began making their own decisions about the markets they were going to sell the agricultural yield in, decisions about whether and how far they would travel to do it (between rural and urban areas) as well as an increase in their intrahousehold bargaining power due to their increased income. Women's increased incomes also result in a greater investment in income allocated towards overall healthcare and education within households in rural communities. According to studies on the intrahousehold bargaining model that studies how resources within each household are allocated between different members, women are much more likely than men to invest in the education and medical care of their children once they experience an increase in income.

Essentially, the aforementioned research finds that the economic impact of greater land ownership for women causes an increase in their incomes, which has the consequent effect of increase investment in human capital for their household unit. Additionally, women's land ownership also translates to high education and healthcare levels for the children in those communities.

In regards to gender-based differences in productivity, there is significant research to prove that there are no discrepancies in agricultural yield between plots of land cultivated by men in comparison to those cultivated by women, given that they both had the same initial endowment of resources. Further, there is numerical evidence to prove that when women own the particular plot of land they are cultivating (as opposed to cultivating land owned by a man), they are actually able to generate higher agricultural output in comparison to men with similar plot sizes. This highlights that there could be an overall increase in the total agricultural output of a community when women are granted greater access to ownership of land.

Social Impact

In addition to improving overall welfare and livelihood of communities, women's increased land ownership also generates positive social changes in their lives. Women report feeling more respected by all male members of the household following their inheritance of property. Moreover, land ownership serves as a form of security for women, especially in rural or predominantly poor communities. This security is two-fold: firstly, women report decreased incidence of domestic violence within their households once they gained ownership of land, and secondly, the act itself makes it a woman's right to be able to reside in her marital household in case she needs to leave the house owned by her husband. Both of these have implications for the protection of women in rural India from domestic violence by not only decreasing its prevalence, but also granting them assured shelter in case they wish to escape the house of their husband.