Women in Agriculture

Lesson 30 : Gender Issues In Agriculture and Allied Sectors

Gender Issues in access to resources or ownership of assets

The practice concerting property ownership and inheritance rights varies by religious groups. The mainstream Hindu traditional practice is to deny daughters rights on parents property and to give some limited rights in the husband’s property, except in smaller communities where women have fairly generous rights e.g. in south India, northeast India and among some tribal communities.

Despite the enactment of gender-just property laws, this is yet to be accepted as a social practice. Denial of property rights strongly inhibits women’s capacity to make more effective contributions besides lessening decision making power in economic matters.