Various civil society groups, on May 29, 2017, said that it was necessary for women to have property and land rights to combat patriarchy and end violence against them. At a seminar on ‘Property for Her’ in New Delhi, the groups demanded land and property rights for women.
“While the immediate aim, is to bring together all the movements and struggles being waged in different parts of the country, to secure women their rightful entitlement to land and property, we also seek to build on the struggle,” said women rights activist, Kamla Bhasin. She said the seminar was the first step, towards ensuring that the multiple voices from the ground reach the powers that be and more importantly, break the barrier of it being a women-alone issue and encourage men and boys to collaborate with and not to contest the due entitlements of women.
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The National Forum for Single Women’s Rights in a study, in 2016, among women, found that 36 per cent of the respondents were living in homes that were neither rented nor owned by them. This study was conducted in six states – Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Gujarat, Bihar and Maharashtra.
Dr Bina Agarwal, a well-known economist, said there was an urgent need to reform polity and the legal framework. A study conducted by her in 2005, had found that women owning immovable property faced significantly less physical violence, as compared to those without property. “We must reform and implement laws to enforce gender equality, increase access to property for women via the state and the market, campaign for affordable housing for women and increase data and monitoring on this issue,” she said.
