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Why is it important for women to have unmediated right to land?

Govind Kelkar

Landesa/Rural Development Institute

International Workshop on Feminist Economics in China and India11-12 November, 2013

Common knowledge on the following issues;

• The feminization of agricultural production– 84-86% of rural women work in agriculture– They work in fields largely owned by men of the

households

• Gendered system in agriculture– State level studies show that women own less tha

9% of land titles– The wage disparity – women get 60 to 70% of

male wages (with the exception of MGNREGA)

Women who would like to Inherit land• Lack of control rights to land and related assets show that

economic inequality accumulates over the life course of individuals and cripples their economic agency to manage and innovate with agricultural assets.

Social and economic justice and inclusive development

• Have women earned their right to own land?

• What do they say?

• Their voices in the past decade show their explicit demand for and appreciation of such rights

What do Women say?

• We were there in harvesting the fields. We were there in carrying ploughs and snatching arms from the zamindar’s goondas. We fought for our rights and actively participated in the land struggle. Why, when the land is distributed, do we not get our independent rights to land? (Dallit women, Basuhari, 1990)

• When the land is in the husband’s name, I am only a worker. When it is in my name, I have some position in society and my children and husband respect me. So my responsibility is much greater to my own land and I take care of my fields like my children (Nandkhora village, August 2010)

• “If I have land in my name, my son and daughter-in-law will look after me in my old age with respect and dignity for me, otherwise no,” says Santosha from Andhra Pradesh

• “If both men and women have land, they can get credit and subsidies from the government, in addition to respect from children and husband,” says Yashodamma, from Andhra Pradesh.

• “Our independent right to have land in our own names is a way to have access to other resources such as water, seeds, new technologies and bank loans,” says a woman farmer from Bundelkhand , UP.

What do Women say?

Two contradictory trends in the past decade

• Enactment of a series of progressive laws • Resilience of patriarchal social norms that

create/reinforce unfavorable conditions for women to make use of laws to overcome risk of violence

• Multilateral reports (FAO 2010-11 and World Bank 2011-12)

• Civil society organizations and women’s groups in particular

• Draft National Land Reform Policy, 2013

Benefits from plots titled in the women's names:

• Sole ownership of land by women increases their productive possibilities and livelihood that women will have access to credit, technology assistance and greater information. • With land in her independent name, she receives more respect from her husband, her children and her community.

• With land titled in her name, she is in a position to escape violence and avoid marital conflict

Benefits from plots titled in the women's names:

• Land titled in her name reduces the risk of her eviction from the marital household.• With land titled in her name she is in a position to decide on land-use priorities and prevent from selling land without her knowledge and approval.• Land titled in her name enhances her self-esteem as she is recognized as a farmer and is more likely to access institutional credit for measuring production and productivity from land.

Asset Ownership Superior• Despite policy silence, or incremental changes, such as joint

pattas, there is an official admission of the fact that asset redistribution is superior to income redistribution

• It provides basis for overcoming distortions in the functioning of markets and for restructuring gender relations, with access to economic rights, technology, health care and governance

• Capacity development is not just a technical skill; it is a combination of knowledge, skills and effective rights to own land and productive assets and thereby changing gender based power dynamics.

Incentive problem

• Progress is not linear• Incentive problem of the maximization of

production• The principal (man) as the land owner ensures

that the agent (woman) as the labourer, has an incentive to bring about the maximization of income.

• But this is not the case.• Women’s lack of decision making power and

autonomy can affect the extent and quality of work done on the farm

Incentive problem

Micro studies and anecdotal evidence throughout Asia and Africa suggest:•When women do not have unmediated right and control over their fields, they do not work as well on such plots as they do on their own plots•Several studies in recent years (ILO 2004, FAO 2004 and World bank 2011-12) point out that secure and inalienable use rights, with full control, if not full ownership, are necessary for investment in agriculture

Efficiency of Resource Use

Women’s ownership and control rights over land could lead to higher and better quality of productionFAO study: •If women had the same access to productive resources as men, they could increase yields on their farms by 20 to 30%•This could increase total agricultural output in developing countries by 2.5 to 4%•This, in turn, could reduce the number of malnourished or hungry people in the world by 12 to 17%•Women’s control over the use of household income, enables them to use it for their own well-being as well as for other household members, children in particular

Women’s Asset Ownership and reduction in violence

• Evidence from – Chenchu study in Andhra Pradesh– Prem Choudhury’s study of Haryana– Panda and Agarwal’s study of Kerala

• OECD’s index of SIGI (Social Institutions and Gender Inequality) suggests that social and legal norms, such as property rights, marital practices and liberties, affect women’s economic development.

Security of tenurial rights

• Demonization of women as witches in Jharkhand and numerous states of India, more so in forest dwelling peoples – is largely related to women’s use rights to land

• Attack on male-unsupported women or single women, by close relatives in the family

Violence against Women

• In the last four years from 195,856 cases in 2008 to 244,270 in 2012 within home and outside (underreporting, e.g murder in general crime)

• Delhi government data shows

Crime 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 upto October

15

Rape 469 507 572 706 1330

Molestation 552 601 657 727 2844

Eve-teasing 238 126 165 236 793

Kidnapping/Abduction 1655 1740 2085 2210 2906

Cruelty by husband and in-laws

1297 1410 1585 2046 2487

Dowry murder 141 143 142 134 123

Dowry Prohibition act 6 15 7 15 14

Security of tenurial rights

• Security of land rights is important for all women, married or single

• This security comes with unmediated rights, and not through joint pattas

• In the absence of unmediated rights, joint pattas may be considered provided there are partitionable and inalienable rights (the latter for 15-20 years)

Single women

• Priority to single women, while it is needed, has two problems:

– Perception of single women as ‘bechari’ (helpless) without a man. [They are very much so even within marriage or in the parental home, because of their assetless position.]

– Development attention gets limited by attention to only single women

Policy assistance

Attention to •Systematic gender sensitization workshops / trainings with agriculture ministries, rural development and land institutions, and local resource officials. They may be unaware of HSAA or other gender equity/equality measures and may lack the will to implement them.

Policy assistance

• Laws need to be strengthened by gender specific guidelines and regulations to educate local officials, including promotion incentives, with regular monitoring and evaluation measures

• Increasing women’s legal literacy and awareness about their legal rights in land, with role models to deconstruct the self-sacrificing orientation of women/girls.

Policy assistance

• Building capacities of revenue officials and Block and Tehsil level officers in implementing HSAA, rather than treating the legal measures as a private matter within the family.

Policy assistance

Need for bold, transformative changes based on recognition of

1. The changing nature of women’s productive work in agriculture and the unorganized sector

2. Productivity implications of gender asset inequality; and

3. The context specific policy change in the ownership and control rights to land and other productive assets.