LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 13:7 July 2013
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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Gender and the Challenges for Equal Property Rights –
A Study of Cuddalore District, Tamilnadu

S. Sudha, M.A., M.Phil. and T. Sudha, M.A., B.Ed., M.Phil., Ph.D.

Abstract

This paper critically examines gender and the challenges it faces relating to property rights. Women’s lack of property rights has been increasingly linked to other development-related problems including low-levels of education, hunger and poor health.

Women in every religion and legal system are now discriminated to inherit the property only on the basis of sex. When only men have rights of inheritance or family succession, women have little opportunity to improve their status or living conditions within the family and community. Equal rights to both men and women, equal share of property etc. are discussed every day in public life, newspaper and television. But the reality which bites is that these issues are still “unresolved”. The issue of lack of property rights of women is raised in public forum; it is usually understood as being the lack of legal rights. However, for poor women in rural India, customary rights may also be as important as legal rights.

Under the Hindu Succession Act of 1956, daughters were given equal rights as sons in their father’s self-earned property if the father died intestate. They, however, had no rights to ancestral property. The Rajya Sabha on August 16, 2005, passed the Hindu (Amendment) Act 2005, which is now a law and it says that any woman, irrespective of the marital status, has full right to inherit ancestral property just like a son of the family. However, as a result of certain inherent conditions which have remained in the legal system, developed out of the socio-religious-cultural norms which dictate the behaviour of men and women in society, these laws do not tend to be operative in practice. Moreover in many families’ implementation property rights with gender equality is still in discourse. Of course, Daughters, being sensitive to family traditions, do not want to make an issue of this right in their families. Sons may not be so generous in distributing the property to their sisters. In some families parents having traditional set up in their mind, do not want to share their property with girl child on par with male child. In this paper, the researchers make an attempt to examine property rights of gender in the present situation and in the context described above.

Introduction and Statement of the Problem

‘Gender’ is the social construct of sex. Unlike sexual identity, which results from the differing physiological makeup of men and women, gender identity results from the norms of behaviour imposed on men and women by culture and religion. Hence, at the start of the twenty-first century traditionalist culture and religion remain bastions of patriarchal values and practices, and both the culture defense claims and the claim of religious freedom are employed in an attempt to stem the tide of women’s equality (Bonny Ibhawoh, 2001).

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

S. Sudha, M.A., M.Phil.
Ph.D. Research Scholar
Department of Economics
Annamalai University
Annamalai Nagar-608 002
Tamilnadu
India
ssudha.phd@gmail.com

Dr. T. Sudha, M.A., B.Ed., M.Phil., Ph.D. (Corresponding Author)
Assistant Professor
Department of Economics
Annamalai University
Annamalai Nagar-608 002
Tamilnadu
India
sukeer99@gmail.com
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