Challenges and Opportunities in Land Ownership for Women in the Informal Sector in Urban Contemporary India
Author: Bipasha Baruah
Publisher:
Published: 2004
Total Pages: 62
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →While I was aware of some of the social, political and cultural underpinnings of women's inferior position in land relations and in society at large in South Asia, my research grew out of a desire to gain a more nuanced understanding of issues relating to Indian women's access to and authority over urban land and landed property. [...] While the residents of only one slum had access to formal land titles through a Government of Gujarat land distribution program, others considered quasi-legal and informal factors like the length of occupation, the size of a settlement, political patronage, the level and cohesion of community organization, support from civil society organizations, or possession of documents like ration cards and e [...] They mentioned the ability of political leaders to secure multiple stay orders on eviction notices and the eventual willingness of the municipal corporation to include the slums in the upgradation project as evidence of their security of tenure. [...] It can also mean that the position of women in landed property ownership is not necessarily an outcome of the desire to subjugate women but may well be a consequence of competition between different groups of men or of the inability of certain groups of men to acquire control over landed property. [...] But women's ability to improve their position in the intrahousehold arena has been impeded by a history of entrenching inequality in the construction of gender, in the entitlement to property and in public decision-making.