Equal on paper, denied in reality: Why many Indian women still lack property rights

Ramya now has a house in her name which was bought with her own hard-earned money. Narrating the story behind her determination to register a house in her name, she said, “My father gave away our traditional house and farmland to my brother. I was not even informed when the property was transferred to his name. My relatives advised me not to break my relationship with my maternal home by seeking a share in the family property. But I decided to raise the question of equal rights over the property.”

Low ownership of assets

Except for Ramya’s mother, almost all her relatives turned against her. Her father and brother snapped ties with her. “Though my mother supported me, my father and brother stayed away. I was avoided at family occasions. Severely pained by the ostracisation, I finally decided not to move court to seek my share in the family property. But I worked hard and registered a house in my own name, because it matters to me,” said Ramya.

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Though the Hindu Succession Act, 1956, was amended in 2005 to remove gender discrimination and grant daughters equal property rights, scores of women like Ramya are still denied a share in family property. Worse still, in many cases, when they seek their legal right they are excluded from their families. In several instances, women themselves choose not to claim their share due to the fear of social ostracisation.

Recent data from the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) shows that only 13 percent of women own a house in their name. The number is even lower for land ownership, at just 8 percent. Even though women constitute half the population and play a key role in families, their ownership of assets remains very low.

Speaking to The Federal, women’s rights activist Renuka Bala said many women are misled by their families into believing they should not ask for their legal rights because their marriage was financed by the family.

“Right from birth, girl children are told that they do not truly belong to their parental home and that one day they must leave to build a family in their husband’s house. Women are made to feel they belong neither to their maternal home nor fully to their marital home. Patriarchal messages are fed from childhood. This mindset must change,” said Renuka.

She recently hosted a conference in Chennai to discuss issues faced by single mothers. She cited several cases of widows who were denied a share in property both in their maternal homes and in their husbands’ families.

Relief assistance go mostly to men

Explaining a recent pattern among her clients, advocate Mary Raja said that some women who married outside their caste or against their family’s wishes were denied a share in ancestral property.

“There was a landmark judgment by the Gujarat High Court last year concerning women’s rights under the Hindu succession law. A Patel woman who married a man from the OBC community was denied her share in ancestral property after her family excluded her. After her father’s death in 1986, her seven siblings registered their names in the property records, excluding her. But the court observed that caste cannot be used as a reason to deny a woman her rightful share in family property, whether ancestral or self-acquired by her parents. I cite similar judgments and explain to women petitioners that they can win such cases,” advocate Mary Raja told The Federal.

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Data shared during Rajya Sabha debates on direct cash transfer schemes in the agriculture sector indicates that most beneficiaries are men in many schemes, including PM-KISAN, largely because land and houses are usually registered in men’s names. When women do not have legal documents in their names, even relief assistance given to families do not reach them in the aftermath of disasters.

Many researchers have pointed out that compensation and relief programmes are typically associated with official household headship papers, bank accounts, or land ownership records, all of which disproportionately exclude women due to deeply ingrained patriarchal conventions surrounding property and identity.

Researcher Shraddha Pratapa, who assessed the relief measures distributed by the government, says, “For example, less than 10% of the women affected by the devastating Kosi floods in Bihar in 2008 received any form of disaster compensation. The underlying explanation was simple but systemic. Compensation and relief programs are usually linked to official household headship papers, bank accounts, or land ownership records, all of which disproportionately exclude women, due to deeply embedded patriarchal conventions surrounding property and identity.”

She said that women's important contributions to caregiving and agricultural labour are overlooked because legal entitlement is linked to documents that they rarely own.