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Mahila Bhoomi Samwad Yatra, For Women’s Land and Farmers Rights: 25,000
women across the country submitted the memorandum concerned officials:
“Women play a crucial role in
agriculture and they provide agricultural labour yet they feel that
they are not FARMERS”
Vimukti in collaboration with likeminded NGOs from Raichur organized
program on women’s land Rights at Kananada Bavan, Raichur. The
objective of this program is that in most Indian families, women do
not own any property in their own names, and do not get a share of
parental property. For long, women were not supposed to have as much
share in property as men had. Property rights of women in India
remained largely an ignored and unaddressed issue. Till about
thirteen years ago –specifically, year 2005 -women stood to lose on
account of their being daughters/wives/daughters-in-law. In
September 2005, the courts declared that Indian women would have a
right to a share in property just like a man of the family did. This
yatra purports to mobilize thousands of women around their land
rights and their rights as farmers and this will culminate in a
larger national action, namely the Jan Andolan, a natonal march from
Palwal to Delhi of 25.000. If hunger and poverty is to be reduced,
then women have to be at the forefront of agriculture. Farm
productivity ad income increasese when women are empowered.
Purpose of the Mahila Bhoomi Samwad Yatra: 75% of all rural women
are involved in farm operations. India’s agricultural industry
cannot survive without the labour of 80 to100 million women. On an
average, women spend nearly 3,300 hours in the field in a crop
season as against 1,860 hours by men. They also engage in important
on-farm activities that are not solely cultivation- oriented. Tasks
many include a wide verity of activities on animal husbandry,
vegetable gardening, and collection of fodder resources, backyard
poultry and so forth.
Mahila Bhoomi Samwad Yatra
• For parental property: to advocate for women’s in heritance
right.
• For property in the marital home: to advocate for women’s name on
the title head.
• For land that is newly distributed: to advocate for women’s name
on land deed.
• For property to single women: to advocate for women to have
independent title on parental or marital property.
• For women’s access community lands: to advocate for women to have
access to community lands for grazing, group farming, collection of
minor forest produce and pisiculture.
• For women struggling against land acquisition and appropriation:
to advocate for women to resist land loss on which they have title.
• For women farmers getting loans.
• For women farmers assessing and deciding crops.
Due to weak enforcement of laws protecting them, women continue to
have little access to land and property. In fact, some of the laws
discriminate against women, when it comes to land and property
rights are concern. Therefore on 24th August 2018, fourteen
organization women representatives came together and submitted the
memorandum to Deputy Commissioner of Raichur, requesting equal
distribution of ancestral property to women also. At the same time
Nearly 25,000 women across the country submitted the memorandum to
the concern officials at various states.
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