Do Tribal Women Have Land Rights

Do Tribal Women Have
Land Rights?
Action Research to Understand the Status of Land
Rights of Tribal Women in Shahpur Block of Betul
district, Madhya Pradesh
The report captures the findings of the Action Research Study, conducted by
PRADAN, Narmada Mahila Sangh and Landesa, to understand the social norms
and state practices about tribal women’s right to land, and building capacity and
perspective.
Do Tribal Women Have Land Rights?
Action Research to Understand the Status of Land Rights of Tribal Women in Shahpur Block of Betul
district, Madhya Pradesh
Copyright © UN Women 2014
Published in India
Compiled by:
The major part of the Action Research report was written by Ashok Sircar and Sohini
Paul from Landesa. Santosh Kumar Jha and Nidhi Sharma from Landesa designed the
quantitative survey and carried out data analysis. Saheb Bhattacharyya and Mansoor
Naqvi from PRADAN were involved in designing and carrying out the Action Research,
along with Landesa. Madhu Khetan from PRADAN was involved in conceptualisation and
planning of the study and finalisation of the report..
Acknowledgements:
We thank the women leaders and community resource persons of Bhoura chapter of
Narmada Mahila Sangh, for their involvement in the Action Research.
Editorial inputs by: Sudha Shankar

Design: Mrityunjay Chatterjee
Illustrations: Soumen Bhowmick
Reproduction of this publication for educational or other non-commercial purposes is authorized,

without prior written permission, provided the source is fully acknowledged.
The opinions expressed in the report do not necessarily represent those of UN Women, United
Nations, or any of its affiliated organizations.
Printed by: Mehra Impressions

Contents
Executive Summary vii

1. Introduction 1
2. Background 2
3. Objectives of the Action Research 3
4. Action Research Strategy 5
5. Literature Review 6
5.1 Purpose and Structure
5.2 Laws and Policies Related to Land in Madhya Pradesh
5.3 Madhya Pradesh Land Revenue Code, 1959
5.4 Rights over Forest Land
5.5 State Government’s Policy on Women and Land
5.6 Previous Research on Land Issues in Madhya Pradesh
5.7 Contributions of the Present Study
6. Research Questions 17
7. Research Methodology 19
7.1 Sampling
7.2 Key Informant Interviews and FGDs
7.3 Case Studies
8. Capacity building Methodology 22

8.1 Information-Knowledge
8.2 Experience
8.3 Attitude
9. Overall Findings from the Quantitative Study 24

9.1 Demographic Characteristics
9.2 Possession of Marital Family Land and Land Records
9.3 Possession of Parental Land and Land Records
9.4 Single Women and Women of Landless Families
9.5 Awareness about Land-related Documents
9.6 Women’s Awareness of Land Rights
9.7 Women’s Inheritance Rights as Perceived by Women and Men
9.8 Women’s Right to Husband’s Land
9.9 Social Norms with Regard to Women Getting Land
9.10 Willingness of Women and Men to Honour Women’s Land Rights
iv | Do Tribal Women Have Land Rights?
9.11 Women and Men’s Awareness of Succession Processes

9.12 Women of Forest Dwelling Families
10. Qualitative Study 51

10.1 Social Norms vs. State Norms
10.2 State’s Interface with Community
10.3 State Action and the Community in Forests
11. Case Studies 55

Case 1: A deserted woman does not ask for her land rights: Ganga bai
Case 2: A small field of her own as security against poverty: Shyama bai
Case 3: Unmarried adult woman lacks status in her village: Bisaniya bai
Case 4: Sister may give up her claim if on good terms with her brother: Lalita bai
Case 5: Land-owning widows are treated with much greater respect: Gulia bai
Case 6: Name in government records but prefers to give up claim on her land: Sumantra bai
Case 7: Land in woman’s name can reduce household risk of poverty: Ramakali bai
Case 8: Staking claim to father’s land: Mangli bai
Case 9: Van Adhikar Patra provides sense of security: Kalavati bai
Case 10:Land in women’s names prevents it from being signed away: Shivkala bai
12. Summary of Findings 73

13. Recommendations and Action Ideas 75
13.1 Discussion with NMS
13.2 Action Points Articulated by NMS
13.3 Consultation with Other Stakeholders
Do Tribal Women Have Land Rights? | v
List of Tables
Chapter 5
Table 1: Legislation Governing Sale of Tribal Land
Chapter 6
Table 2: Framework for Questionnaire
Chapter 7
Table 3: Planned Coverage of Respondents
Chapter 9
Table 4: Coverage of the Survey by Type of Respondents
Table 5: Demographic Characteristics of Study Population
Table 6: Ownership and Possession of Land in Landed Marital Families
Table 7: Ownership and Possession of Land in Parental Families
Table 8: Ownership of Land by Single Women and Women of Landless Families
Table 9: Key Indicators of Awareness Level about Land
Table 10: Why Women Do Not Want Land/Do Not Get Land
Table 11: Reasons for Daughter Inheriting Parental Property
Table 12: Reasons for a Wife Having Rights to her Husband’s Land
Table 12A: Perception about Single Women’s Right to Husbands Land
Table 13: Perceptions about the Rights of Various Categories of Women to Parental Property
Table 14: Reason to Give Land to Daughters
Table 15: Awareness of Land Succession Processes and Administrative Issues
Table 16: Details of Land Owned by Forest Dwellers
Table 17: Perceived Function of FRC
Table 18: Information on the Rights of Forest Dwellers
vi | Do Tribal Women Have Land Rights?
List of Figures
Chapter 9
Figure 1: Living Arrangements of Single Women (Per cent)
Figure 2: Women of Landless Families Owning Titles to their Homesteads
Figure 3: Attitude of Women about Land Rights
Figure 4: Positive Responses to the Rights of Daughters on Parental Land (In per Cent)
Figure 5: Percentage of respondents who perceived positively about the rights of a wife on her hus-
band’s land
Figure 6: Daughters Receiving Land as Inheritance “If you have a daughter, will you give her share of
your land?”
Figure 7: Respondents who have heard about FRA
Figure 8: Source of information about FRA
Figure 9: Awareness about FRC
Figure 10: Reported Role of the Gram Sabha in the Process of Obtaining a Patta
vii
Executive Summary
Land in the rural context is the most important asset available to a family, yet women are systemati-
cally excluded from land and asset ownership and control both in their marital and parental homes.
They therefore remain vulnerable and without back-up support in case of emergencies and unfavor-
able situations. Aside from vulnerability, numerous studies have shown that ownership of assets
especially property bestows women with enhanced position and decision making space. Lack of
access of women to land arises due to societal norms and traditions of patriarchal nature. Moreover,
tribal societies are believed to have their own customs and traditions governing practices of succes-
sion and possession of land and assets. Because of this mainstream law governing inheritance of
land is not applicable to tribal societies.
With this in the background, it was decided to study and understand the practices and norms be-
ing followed in tribal societies with regard to women’s ownership of land. The study found that the
systematic exclusion of women from land ownership, which is seen in mainstream Hindu societies
is also mirrored in tribal societies. The study was undertaken in Shahpur- a tribal block in Betul dis-
trict. In Betul district, land is the biggest asset of tribal people, who are dependent on agriculture for
their livelihood. Most of the families possess land that is still not in their names because the current
generation is the second or third to inherit it, but due to many reasons the partitioning of land has not
been done in land records, thus making it even more difficult for women to claim any right on land.
The primary agenda of the action research study was to explore the relationship between land and
women, its importance in the life of women and the present status at the ground level. The need to
strengthen the overall perspective of land rights of tribal communities was imperative because tribals
are not covered under Hindu Succession Act 1956:
Section 2(2) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (1), nothing contained in this Act shall
apply to members of any Scheduled Tribe within the meaning of clause (25) of article 266 of the Con-
stitution unless the Central Government by notification in the official gazette otherwise directs.
While the HSA has by and large enlarged women’s rights in property, Scheduled Tribes have been
exempted from its application. Thus, if it is established that parties belonged to a Scheduled Tribe,
then the provisions of the Act would not apply.
The study was conducted jointly by PRADAN, Narmada Mahila Sangh (NMS) and Landesa. NMS
is an SHG federation and umbrella organization of nearly 10,700 rural women mainly belonging to
Gond and Korku tribes. The members are engaged in entrepreneurial activities in agriculture, horti-
culture and poultry. They collectively act against social evils, the most prevalent of which is violence
against women. While working on the latter they realized about the causal connect between their
deprivations and the denial of land rights. During the annual general convention of 2013, the women
decided to take up the issue of equal land rights for tribal women.
The action research study was conducted in three stages. In the first stage a detailed literature re-
view was carried out which took stock of the published studies, articles, reports, land revenue code
related to tribal women’s land rights in Madhya Pradesh. This provided the context and theoretical
base for the action research project and helped to identify the current gaps in research.
In the second phase a two-pronged strategy was adopted which included conducting systematic
research to understand the social customs and legal processes and to build capacities and perspec-
tives of women in understanding their land rights. Questionnaires for quantitative data collection
were developed with the help of some members of NMS. Data collection was done by enumerators
selected from NMS leadership from a total of 500 women and 125 men.
viii
In the third phase detailed interviews were conducted with 10 women and their stories with
regard to rights and access over land documented. Alongside, key informant interviews with Pat-
wari, Tehsildar, lawyer, NGO representatives, Sarpanch were conducted. Focused group discussions
(FGD) with men and women were conducted in both revenue and forest villages in Shahpur block.
The action research study revealed the following findings:
Women do not own land – Even though land is the most important asset in rural areas,
yet women are systematically excluded from asset ownership both in maternal and marital
homes. This makes them more vulnerable without any back-up support in case of emergen-
cies and unfavorable situations. According to the study only 5 per cent women had land
records in their names while 7 per cent had land in their possession in their marital as well as
natal homes.
Single women are more vulnerable – The study revealed that single women (never mar-
ried, deserted, abandoned, widows) may be absolutely landless i.e. not having either home-
stead or agricultural land, thus making them dependent on their relatives for shelter. Nearly
68 per cent of women of landless families reside on government land and 56 per cent of
single women either live with their parents or in-laws.
Women’s right to her husband’s land is more accepted than her right to parental land –
For women, the right to her husband’s land gives her a sense of security and they feel they
have a right over it as widows and not when they were married.
Land is not transferred in the names of current users – The study revealed that in this
region land mutation has not taken place for a few generations and that land records have not
been updated. In around 71 cases land records are in names of father-in-law, mother-in-law
and grandfathers and grandmothers-in-law. This is mostly because it entails a cumbersome
process and several visits to the tehsil office. Hence land usually remains in grandfathers’
names and not in the name of the current user. This shows that informal land sharing ar-
rangements exist between brothers in tribal society, making it more difficult for women to
claim their right to land.
Societal norms and traditions are patriarchal in nature – Even in tribal societies there is
strong resistance to the idea of land and asset ownership by women stemming from societal
norms and traditions that are patriarchal in nature. The social factor of maintaining a harmonious
relationship with natal family is a key factor for women not claiming their inheritance rights.
Lack of awareness amongst women – Land has always been considered a subject for men
and is seldom discussed with women. As such, women in general are not aware about their
land rights, have heard about only some land documents and do not have a clear idea how
lands are partitioned.
1
1 Introduction
Livelihoods enhancement strategies of government and non-government organizations have often

relied on for building employable or entrepreneurial vocational skills, provision of credit, linkages with
markets and building social capital, to hold and sustain individual and/or group efforts of women and
men. Access to land has not been a strong focus area of work for most non- government organiza-
tions engaged in issues of poverty alleviation or women’s empowerment.
PRADAN is a public service organization set up in 1983, with the objective of inducting motivated
and competent youth to work at the grass roots with rural communities. PRADAN set up a project
in Kesla block of Hoshangabad district of Madhya Pradesh in 1987. Over the years it has mobilized
women into self help groups (SHGs) in five tribal blocks of Hoshangabad and Betul districts. These
groups have also further organized themselves into an SHG Federation called the Narmada Mahila
Sangh (NMS).
Built over 12 years, NMS is an umbrella organization of nearly 10,700 rural women mainly belong-
ing to the Gond and the Korku tribes. Its women members run a number of entrepreneurial activities
in agriculture, horticulture and poultry. Most of them are bread-earners for their families, and some
of their earnings are equal to what their menfolk bring home. They also act collectively against many
social evils, the most prevalent of which is violence against women.
In Betul district, land is the biggest asset for the tribal people, who are dependent on agriculture
for their livelihood. Most of the families possess land that is still not on their names because the
current generation is the second or the third to inherit it; their grandfathers got the patta from either
the revenue department or the forest department. This report explores why the lands have not been
transferred to the names of the current users. The fact that their land is not in their names makes
women more vulnerable because they cannot claim any right to the land.
PRADAN has not worked much on the issue of land rights for women or even on the broader
issue of women’s ownership and control of assets. Despite land in the rural context being the most
important asset available to a family, women are systematically excluded from asset ownership both
in their maternal and marital homes. They, therefore, remain vulnerable and without any back-up
support in case of emergencies and unfavourable situations. However, the law is now more sup-
portive than before, with amendments in the Hindu Succession Act (HSA). The problem arises in the
form of strong resistance to the idea of asset ownership by women, stemming from societal norms
and traditions of a very patriarchal nature. A few examples set by some motivated women, in terms
of distributing their land among all the offspring, including daughters, may mark the beginning of a
change in such long-standing societal norms. The problem also arises because the Hindu Succession
Amendment Act (HSAA) is not applicable to tribal societies, which are believed to have their own
customs and traditions governing practices of succession.
It was, therefore, decided to do an intensive study of tribal communities to understand practices
and norms being followed regarding women’s ownership of land. During the course of the research,
we wanted to examine if the systematic exclusion of women from land ownership, which is seen
in mainstream Hindu societies, is also mirrored in tribal societies. Based on this, we moved forward
to understand the status of tribal women’s land rights, especially in Shahpur, a tribal block in Betul
district of Madhya Pradesh.
2
2 Background
In the course of their efforts to generate livelihoods and struggles against social evils, the leaders
of NMS have fought many battles that have taken them to the district administration, police, civil
authorities and other stakeholders. The realizations about the clear causal connect between their
deprivations and the denial of land rights came slowly to them when working on issues related to
violence against women. During the annual general convention of 2013, the women decided to take
up the issue of equal land rights for tribal women in the coming year.
Subsequent to the convention, the issue of land rights for women was discussed in the monthly
meetings of NMS. The members spoke about the status of women’s ownership of land and the
significance of women having access to land rights. At that time, they did not have a clear idea of
the legal perspective or other details. There was a mixed response from the women, some of them
were excited about the prospect of access to land rights. Women from one of the villages — Pola-
patthar — decided to take it up as an issue that they would work on.
The biggest challenge in Polapatthar, as also a general phenomenon in the area, is that land dis-
tribution has been pending for generations in almost all households; and the other is that women’s
names are not in the patta. When the women spoke about this with the men in their families, their
views were received with outrage. This was despite the fact that the women, in many cases, were
engaged in many kinds of income-enhancement activities such as poultry-rearing, promoted by
PRADAN, and which were wholly in the women’s names. The men refused to even sit in the meet-
ing called by the women. The women’s efforts in this direction, therefore, did not yield any results.
After reflection about their struggles, the women decided to build a larger understanding about their
land rights by studying the legal framework. Around this time an opportunity to work on an action
research on this subject came up from the Delhi office of the UN Women. PRADAN then spoke to
Landesa an organization working on issues of land rights, to support this process.
This is the background to the Action Research project.
3
3 Objectives of the Action

Research
Before drafting the Action Research, PRADAN, Landesa and NMS explored in depth about the areas
that need to be focussed on, keeping in mind those aspects that need detailing and their linkages
with the action—the objective of the study.
The team not only thought of what information was required but also from whom and why. The
study of land rights of women in tribal communities would be a major area of the study as also the
need to understand the importance of land in the lives of different categories of women. The need
to strengthen the overall perspective of land rights of tribal communities was imperative because
we only knew that they are not covered under HSAA and that customary practices play a key role in
land possession and control. In order to get a macro perspective, a review of all the literature on the
subject was undertaken. Interviews with stakeholders such as the patwari, the tehsildar and lawyers,
and a questionnaire-based survey were the other ways to elicit information and foster deeper under-
standing of the situation at the ground level.
We focussed on the primary agenda of the Action Research, which was ‘exploring the relation-
ship between land and women’, its importance in the life of a woman and what is the present status
at the ground level. We divided our study questionnaires into sections, namely, a woman’s percep-
tions about her land rights; her knowledge on the processes and the documents related to land; and
her attitude to land rights in her marital and parental homes. The right to property both in the marital
and parental homes were focussed upon because focussed group discussions (FGDs) in the past
revealed that there is a vast difference in all aspects in marital and parental property. Keeping this
in mind and focusing on the local context, 455 interviews were conducted with women, from both
Gond and Korku tribes (also including 40 single women), 73 respondents (either women or men)in
forest villages, and 100 men folk, from the households of some of the women respondents.
Case Study: Anita Bai of Tekripura

When we talked to Anita bai of Tekripura, a young widow with a one-year-old child, she said that after
the death of her husband, she was all alone and her living conditions were pathetic, worse than she had
ever imagined. There was very little land in the marital family and her in-laws were old and unable to help
her in managing the household; rather, they were dependent on her. We suggested that if her parental
family had land, she could ask for her share. After a lot of hesitation, she shared her fears: Would it spoil
her relationship with brothers? What would people think of her? How would relatives respond if she
were to ask for her share? Yet, because of her plight, she wanted to ask for her share. She said that if
she got the land in her name, she would be able to sell it and support herself and be in a better condition
to support her child. Until then, she had never thought of how she would take care of herself and her de-
pendents, and whether she would need any property or land. However, since she became a widow, she
has realized how important land is. She doesn’t have enough land in her marital or her parental family.
She is at a juncture where she is not sure about asking for her share of her parental land from her broth-
ers although it is very important for her.
4 | Do Tribal Women Have Land Rights?
Why is Anita bai not sure of asking for land which is her right by law? Such a situation can hap-
pen to any woman at any time; does she need to claim her share of property only when she is in a
situation of vulnerability? Seeing this and also many other cases, we realized that the importance of
land was subjective because it has a different meaning for different people. However, its importance
increases when women are in a vulnerable situation. Other related questions that arise are: Is the
right to own land important for women only when she faces such conditions? Does having no prop-
erty rights itself create and increase vulnerability? How are land rights different for different catego-
ries of women? These aspects became an important part of the study, and 40 single women were
interviewed and some case studies were conducted.
The criteria of vulnerability in this area and specifically for some categories of single women came
up for discussion. Thus, the facet of exploring the importance of land in the lives of single women
of different categories—the abandoned, the young widow, the unmarried woman, etc., in order to
check how the vulnerability of women is related to it, was also discussed.
The other important stakeholder is men, who have land rights and also possession of the land.
They were included in the research, to identify how their perceptions, attitude and knowledge impact
the issue of land rights of women. Related to the issue of land the men have three primary identities
with women - as fathers, as brothers, and as husbands.
Women from landless families were interviewed in order to know what their understanding of
land is, especially when they live in an area where most of the families have land and agriculture is
the main source of livelihood. Considering the overall population, 30 women from landless families
were also interviewed.
The objectives of the study were discussed with the community through FGDs, which were orga-
nized in two villages, one a forest village and the other a revenue village, and also with the leaders of
NMS. With this understanding of women in their local context, their attitude, awareness and percep-
tions, and based on this broad schema, the Action Research and its objectives were designed.
The objectives of the study are:
• Understand the land insecurity/security of the constituent tribal population from a
legal perspective;
• Understand the customary practices of land-holding and inheritance of the
constituent population;
• Understand, in particular, land inheritance and holding-related practices of women,
including single women or daughters only families; and
• Understand the awareness and document land awareness issues of members and
the leadership of the women’s SHG federation.
5
4 Action Research Strategy
The project had twin objectives of conducting systematic research to understand the interplay of so-
cial customs and legal processes determining women’s ownership and control of land, while simulta-
neously using research processes to build the capacity and perspectives of women in understanding
their own land rights. A two-pronged strategy was adopted in which the process of conducting the
research was laced with efforts to build the capacity of the NMS leadership on land rights issues that
affect their lives. More specifically:
a. Reconnaissance visits were made to meet the stakeholders in order to ascertain the key
informants.
b. Questionnaire areas were decided based on discussions with women from NMS. The re-
search questionnaires, samples, and the research team were finalized jointly by PRADAN
and Landesa, following discussions with NMS leaders.
c. PRADAN and Landesa jointly decided that barefoot researchers would be chosen from
the NMS leaders and, if necessary, educated persons of their families, who are connect-
ed to NMS’s work otherwise would also be co-opted. Thus, the knowledge and experi-
ence of the research would rest with the NMS leadership and within the villages.
d. The questionnaire was translated in the presence of the NMS leadership, incorporating
the language and phrases with which tribal women and men are familiar. Landesa trained
the barefoot researchers about the various land rights, rules, processes, documents, and
institutions connected to the land. At the same time, this was an opportunity to explain
how the samples were decided, for example, why the categories of landless families,
single women, and women from forest-dweller families were chosen, and other issues.
e. Pilot testing of the questionnaire was done jointly by Landesa and PRADAN along with
the barefoot researchers selected from the NMS leadership.
f. Besides this qualitative research with key informants (lawyers, patwaris, tehsildars, forest
officials) was undertaken, with a view to understand their perceptions about women’s
land rights and more specifically tribal women’s land rights.
g. Case studies of 10 women of different categories were undertaken in order to under-
stand how issues of land is situated in the lives of women in different circumstances.
h. Data collection from 500 women and 125 men was entirely managed by PRADAN along
with the barefoot researchers, who were encouraged to maintain a field diary, which
would later help them in sharing their experiences.
i. A special session was organized for the barefoot researchers and other leaders by
PRADAN and Landesa, to share their experiences of conducting research and hearing the
stories of women, who suffered because land rights were denied to them.
j. The data was analysed jointly by PRADAN and Landesa, and shared with the NMS leader-
ship.
This report records the research process, capacity-building processes, key research and capacity-
building findings and points to a set of potential actions.
6
5 Literature Review
5.1 Purpose and Structure

The literature review takes stock of the published studies, articles, reports, land revenue code and
court proceedings related to tribal women’s land rights in Madhya Pradesh. It provides the context
and a theoretical base for the present Action Research project. In doing so, the review presents the
nature and extent of the existing body of knowledge, and identifies current gaps in research, thus
providing further justification for the present study.
The legal framework is quite supportive as far as land rights of daughters and sisters are con-
cerned. Madhya Pradesh is one of the few states in India that has framed a state policy for women,
in which a section is devoted to the issue of women’s land rights. The policy acknowledges the im-
portance of ownership of land by women as a means to livelihoods and economic empowerment; it
commits that the government will seek actively to promote women’s control over land, property and
other common resources. In particular, the policy recognizes the fact that the single most important
economic factor affecting women’s position is the lack of control over property. Few women own
land in their names and fewer still control it. The ground reality, therefore, is not very different from
many other states; of the 380 families that own land in the sample, only 5 per cent women have land
records in their name and only 7 per cent of these have possession of that land in their marital fami-
lies, which is lower than the national figures. This, in itself, indicates that there is a lot of work to be
done. The statistics of women inheriting land from their parental families is worse because only 5.6
per cent of them have land in their names and only 5 per cent of these have possession of their land.
Many of them got access to land because there were only daughters in the family or got it as gifts
from their parents, who had more than enough land.
How can this scenario be changed? Can policies and laws based on the moral ground of equality
change the picture? Or does proper implementation and desired results require much more thought?
Is there need to look into customary practices and make laws accordingly or to intervene in societal
norms and practices, to change the picture?
Despite having laws for equal distribution of land and also having the political will to change the
scenario, there is no clear policy of the Government of Madhya Pradesh on landless families as in West
Bengal or Kerala. Of all the landless women we talked to, around 55 per cent were absolutely landless
and 45 per cent had less than an acre of land. None of these had got land from the government; rather,
38 per cent were living on government land that they had encroached. Although a very limited part of
the study, there is urgent need for something to be done for landless families living in rural areas.
The review has three sections. First, it highlights some of the key central and state land laws, and
delineates the key features of the Code and the Forest Rights Act (FRA) 2006 because both have
had an impact on tribal women’s land rights. It highlights some of the policies of the state govern-
ment in relation to women and land. The second section takes stock of the existing literature on the
issue of tribal women’s land rights, highlighting the customary practices and the challenges they face
in the ownership and control of land. Finally, the last section looks at the key contributions of this
study.
TLiterature Review | 7
5.2 Laws and Policies Related to Land in Madhya Pradesh

Madhya Pradesh came into existence as a state of India on 1 November 1956, as a result of reorga-
nization of states. It was formed by merging the Central Provinces and Berar, Madhya Bharat, Vind-
hya Pradesh, Bhopal princely state and Sironj area of Rajasthan. The state was divided in November
2000, as part of the Madhya Pradesh Reorganization Act, by carving out the south-eastern part of the
state to form a new state of Chhattisgarh.
With vast forests, Madhya Pradesh is geographically India’s second largest state and has a popula-
tion of about 72 million. Of the 51 districts in the state, 21 are tribal districts. There are a large num-
ber of tribal communities and about 40 per cent of the state’s inhabitants live below the poverty line
(BPL) largely in rural areas, where they subsist on tiny farm plots.
The governance of the tribal areas in India was first codified into a modern law in 1874, with the
passage of the Scheduled District Act. This Act termed the tribal areas of the country as ‘scheduled
areas.’ The Government of India Act 1935 further classified these areas into two categories—the
north-eastern tribal region (covering the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur,
and Nagaland) and other backward tribal regions spread over the rest of the country. After inde-
pendence, the tribal population was accorded special rights and protection under Article 342 of the
Indian Constitution. Tribal areas outside the north-eastern region came under the Fifth Schedule of
the Constitution. The Fifth Schedule guarantees tribal autonomy and tribal rights over land through a
Tribal Advisory Council in each state.
D.K. Ray in his article, ‘Legislative measures to protect the interest of tribals in land’1 has men-
tioned that, in Madhya Pradesh, three types of legislation have been enforced to protect the tribals in
their land. These are a) Central Provinces Land Regulation Act 1960 (still prevalent in old Mahakaush-
al region); b) The Madhya Bharat Scheduled Areas (Allotment of Transfer of Land) Regulation 1954
(still enforced in the scheduled areas of old Madhya Bharat region); and c) The Madhya Pradesh Land
Revenue Code 1959, which is applicable for all scheduled areas. Of these, the Code has been en-
acted to provide a single, uniform land legislation for the whole state. It gave the state a revenue law
in consonance with the ideas of land reform.
In the context of this study, there are three important pieces of legislation and policy documents:
a) the Code that covers land-related institutional processes in all revenue villages, b) FRA 2006, and
c) the Madhya Pradesh Women’s Policy that specifically deals with the issue of women’s land rights.
These laws and policies determine the contours of the engagement of tribal women with the state
and its various functionaries.
5.3 Madhya Pradesh Land Revenue Code 1959

The Code, which came into force on 2 October 1959, brought about uniformity in the revenue sys-
tem through a common code. Different types of ownership and occupancy tenures, which histori-
cally existed in different parts of Madhya Pradesh, were consolidated into one category, that is, a
tenure holder, or bhumiswami. A bhumiswami is the full owner of the land she/he holds, and has the
right of transfer and the right to mortgage the land.
The Code does not permit transfer of land from a tribal to a non-tribal in the areas notified by the
state government. Outside these specified areas, a member of a scheduled tribe can transfer his/her
land to a non-tribal, only with the permission of the District Collector.
1
Ashok Ranjan Basu and Satish Nijhawan (eds.), 1994, Tribal Development Administration in India, Mittal Publications, New Delhi.
The revenue code is implemented on the ground by the revenue administration. The revenue
administration maintains maps and land records, classifies the land, and records all kinds of transac-
tions on land, and the consequent changes in land classification. Most importantly, the land revenue
administration interfaces with people, including the tribals at the district and sub-district levels, in all
land matters, which is why the key personnel in the revenue administration became the key stake-
holders of this study. A description of the personnel, their functions and the key land documents
they deal with follows. The sub-district -level land revenue administration has the following person-
nel that deal with land issues:
1. Patwari: The villages of a tehsil are arranged in patwari circles by the District Collector. Each
circle has one or more patwaris appointed by the Collector. A patwari’s duties include the
following:
a. Maintaining and correcting land records;
b. Preparing a map of the abadi of each village in triplicate. One copy is kept with the
patwari, another with the patel and the third copy is deposited in the Record Room of the
district office;
c. Preparing the following land records, known as ‘subsidiary field records’, for each village
of his circle:
i. Jamabandi
ii. Jamabandi abstract
iii. Chita
iv. Kharif jinswar
v. Rabi jinswar
vi. Milan khasra
vii. Titamma milan khasra
viii. A statement of the defective or missing boundary and survey marks
d. Any person lawfully acquiring any right or interest in land shall report orally or in writing the
acquisition of such right to the patwari within six months from the date of such acquisition, and the
patwari shall at once give a written acknowledgement for such report to the person making it, in the
prescribed form.
2. Revenue Inspector (RI): An RI is responsible for the following:
a. Superintendence and inspecting the work of the patwaris in his circle;
b. Ensuring the accurate preparation and maintenance, by the patwaris, of the land records
and subsidiary field records of the villages in his circle, and of the records of farm (harvest)
prices, of rural and agricultural wages, and rural retail prices;
c. Preparing, maintaining and checking the rasid bahis (receipt books) accurately;
d. Checking the maps and registers prepared by the patwari and signing all the copies;
e. Certifying entries in which there is no dispute in the mutation register;
f. Making accurate, up-to-date entries in such statements and columns of the village
notebooks in his circle in such formats as may be prescribed; and
g. Examining every entry in the rough note book of the Record of Rights (ROR), prepared
by the patwari, who enters the particulars gathered from the record deemed to be
ROR and from such information as he can collect or from such reports that he may
receive. All persons likely to have interest in these entries shall be notified to appear on
a specified date. The RI shall read them out to all persons present. Entries admitted by
Literature Review | 9
the interested persons shall be noted in the remarks column and those disputed shall
be entered in the register of disputed cases by the RI. He shall also check any change
occurring when preparing the ROR or entries made in it on the decision of the dispute.
3. Patel: There are one or more patels for each village or group of villages. They are appointed
by the Collector. The following are the duties of a patel:
a. Collecting and paying the land revenue and cesses payable through him, and other
government duties ordered to be collected by him into the government treasury;
b. Furnishing reports regarding the state of his village at such places and times as fixed by
the Collector;
c. Preventing encroachments, as far as possible, on waste lands, public paths and
roadways in the village;
d. Preserving such stations and boundary marks erected in his village by barefoot
researchers and reporting any damage caused to such marks;
e. Keeping the village in a good sanitary condition;
f. Preventing unauthorized cutting of wood and removal of any material or other properties
belonging to the state government; and
g. Controlling and supervising the work of the kotwar, reporting his absence from duty and
also his death.
4. Kotwar: A kotwar is appointed for each village or group of villages. A kotwar has to reside
in his village; if he is in charge of more than one village, he has to reside in such village as is
appointed for his residence by the tehsildar. A kotwar has to carry out all the orders of the
patel, gram panchayat and gram sabha and report to them.
5. Tehsildar: Each tehsil has a tehsildar and one or more naib tehsildars. In addition, there
could be one or more additional tehsildars. Among other duties, the tehsildar is responsible
for mutation of land ownership in khasra. On a specified date and time, the tehsildar hears the
parties concerned and certifies the mutation entry. All original documents produced before the
tehsildar are endorsed by him. All rasid bahis are also attested by him.
In the course of dealing with the land revenue administration, the people and the staff use a few
key land documents. These are:
1. Bhoo Adhikar Evam Rin Pustika: Every bhumiswami, whose name is entered into the khasra
has to maintain a Bhoo Adhikar Avam Rin Pustika, in respect of his holdings in a village, which
is provided to him on payment of the required fee. It has two parts. Part I comprises the rights
over land-holding and the encumbrances on that holding, and Part II comprises rights over
the holding and recovery of land revenue, in respect of the holding and encumbrances on the
holding and shall contain:
a. Such entries of the khasra pertaining to a holding of a bhumiswami as may be
prescribed;
b. Particulars in respect of recovery of land revenue, government loan and non-government
loan, in respect of such holding.
2. ROR, known as khatauni or jamabandi, contains:
a. Names of all the bhumiswamis together with the survey numbers or the plot numbers
held by them and their area, irrigated or un-irrigated;
b. Names of all occupancy tenants and government lessees together with survey numbers
or plot numbers held by them and their area, irrigated or un-irrigated.
c. The rent, or land revenue, if any; and
d. The nature and extent of the respective interests of such persons and the conditions or
liabilities, if any
The ROR shall be prepared during a settlement or whenever the state government
may by notification so direct.
3. Field Map: Every village must have a map showing the boundaries of the survey number or
the plot number and the wastelands
4. Mutation in the khasra: The patwari shall maintain a register in Form E in which he shall
enter village-wise every change in ownership of land due to transfers by registered deeds,
inheritance, survivorship, bequest or lease reported to him or which comes to his notice from
intimations received from the gram panchayat or anywhere else.
5. Rasid bahi: Every bhumiswami in a village is provided with a rasid bahi in Form D. Entries
in it are made on the basis of the latest khasra and jamabandi of the year and is signed by the
patwari and attested by the tehsildar.
5.4 Rights over Forest Land

Recognizing the symbiotic relationship between tribal people and forests, the National Forest Policy
was drafted in 1988, to safeguard the customary rights and interests of the tribal people on for-
est land. To implement these provisions, the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) issued
six circulars on 18 September 1990 that decreed that the pre-1980 occupiers of forest land would
be eligible for regularization, provided the state government had evolved certain eligibility criteria
in accordance with local needs and conditions. The state governments, however, failed to imple-
ment the 1990 guidelines. Meanwhile, a Supreme Court order2 led to large-scale evictions of forest
dwellers by the forest departments of various states. This led to mass protests by tribal communi-
ties, following which the MoEF issued a supplementary guideline on 5 February 2004, to address
the issue of recognizing the legal rights of tribal communities to forest land and resources. After the
May 2004 General Elections, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government committed itself to
discontinuing the “eviction of tribal communities and other forest dwelling communities from for-
est areas.” This commitment led to the promulgation of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional
Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act 2006. It grants legal recognition to the rights of
traditional forest dwelling communities, partially correcting the injustice caused by the forest laws.
It gives the Scheduled Tribes (STs) and other traditional forest dwellers an opportunity to apply for a
title to the forest land that they had been cultivating, as on 2006. Forest land includes that which had
been used for cultivation or for collection of minor forest produce, grazing, cultural, religious or other
traditional uses. The law allows for entitlement to individual and community ownership.
The process includes filling out FRA applications, which are then discussed in the gram sabha3 to
determine the individual and/or community forest rights. The gram sabha prepares a resolution of all
the recommended claims and submits it to the Sub-district Level Committee (SDLC), which gives its
final approval. If a claim is not approved, the claimants can appeal against the decision of the gram
sabha to the SDLC.
For the first time, FRA allowed the tribal population in forest villages to claim land title. This was a
landmark legislation, especially for those tribals living in a state of total insecurity and bondage. They
2
In T.N. Godavarman vs. Union of India (Writ Petition No. 202 of 1995), the Supreme Court issued an order “restraining the Union of India
from permitting regularization of any encroachments whatsoever without leave of this Hon’ble Court.” A letter of the Inspector General
of Forests dated 3 May 2002, instructed state governments to evict ineligible encroachers and all post-1980 encroachers from forest land
in a time-bound manner. The letter referred to the Supreme Court’s order.
3
Gram sabha is a meeting of all the adults living in the area covered by a gram panchayat. Anyone who is over 18 years and who has the
right to vote is a member of the gram sabha.
lived in constant fear of eviction by the forest department because of the absence of ownership
rights over land. In comparison, the tribals of revenue villages have never lived with such insecurity.4
According to the Campaign for Survival and Dignity, based on the reports of member organiza-
tions, two primary problems have emerged in the state in relation to the implementation of FRA
2006. First is the continuing interference of the forest department in the process of the people
claiming their rights under FRA 2006. The department insists that the claimants must either pro-
duce ‘fine receipts’ (an official receipt obtained against payment of fine for possession and use of
forest land) or makes it mandatory that the claimants must be on the department’s list of ‘eligible
encroachers’ of 1994. Both these demands are brazenly illegal and amount to reducing the Act
to the earlier forest department-controlled ‘guidelines’, which did not address the issue at all. In
addition, the report alleges that the signatures of the chairpersons and secretaries of the Forest
Rights Committees (FRCs) have been taken by the department on blank ‘rejection’ forms. The de-
partment has also tried to convert Joint Forest Management Committees into Forest Rights Com-
mittees bypassing the gram sabha. Second, community rights continue to be neglected and such
claims are being discouraged. For example, when the community and individual rights forms were
distributed in Betul district, the community rights forms had the marking ‘N/A’ by government of-
ficials. There were also several instances wherein pattas were issued for far lesser area than what
was claimed, without assigning any reasons.
5.5 State Government’s Policy on Women and Land

Madhya Pradesh is one of the few states in India that has framed a state policy for women, in which
a section is devoted to the issue of women’s land rights. The policy acknowledges the importance
of women’s ownership of land as a means of livelihood and economic empowerment and commits
that the government will seek to promote women’s control over land, property and other common
resources actively. In particular, the policy recognized the fact that the single most important eco-
nomic factor affecting women’s position is their inability to get control over property because of their
gender. Only a few women own land in their names and fewer still control it. To remedy this situa-
tion, the government expressed its commitment to the following:
1. Land rights will be extended to women. This will include steps to amend the appropri-
ate laws to extend coparcenary rights to women and to enter, in all future mutations, the
names of all entitled women members of a family as bhumiswami in the land records.
Therefore, the land mutation procedure will be amended to serve notice to all the heirs of
a deceased person instead of sending the notice only to the male heirs. This will give a
chance to the woman heir to claim her share of parental or in-laws’ property.
2. All land distribution and redistribution undertaken in future by the government will be
made in the name of women, with preference for groups of poor rural women, who will
have rights to use and control the land. This will ensure that the husband cannot sell or
mortgage the land, according to his whims and fancies. This is to be implemented in
three ways: a) all land distribution and redistribution undertaken by the government will
be made in the joint names of husband and wife. b) The same mechanism is to be incor-
porated in the issuance and renewal of pattas to forest dwellers also. c) The government
has decided to give preference to women’s groups in granting river-bed/tank-bed pat-
tas for growing seasonal fruit and vegetables, thereby enabling women to increase their
income.
4
Prasad R.R. and M.P. Jahagirdar, 1993, Tribal Situation in Forest Villages—Changing Subsistence Strategies and Adaptation, NIRD, Hy-
derabad.
3. All village common lands will be vested in the joint control of the adult resident women of
the village. The gram panchayats will manage these lands on their behalf with their con-
currence, and no decision regarding the development and alienation of these lands shall
be validated without the approval of this body.
4. The government will promote the use of common lands by the women for environmen-
tal regeneration, meeting of fuel wood requirements, development of common grazing
grounds and for other productive purposes through suitable schemes.
5. In all future recruitment of patwaris, at least 30 per cent of the new entrants will be
women.
5.6 Previous Research on Land Issues in Madhya Pradesh

There are only a few studies on the land rights of women, especially tribal women, and the impact
of land ownership on their empowerment in Madhya Pradesh. One such study by B.B. Mohanty5
finds that the ST members mostly reside in the countryside and derive their livelihood by working on
the land; yet they are the most disadvantaged with respect to ownership of land. The incidence of
landlessness is pronounced among these groups, the bulk of whom are agricultural labourers with
miniscule holdings or are sharecroppers or other types of insecure tenants. Poor land ownership ac-
counts for their perpetual poverty and makes them vulnerable to social injustice and exploitation. The
condition of women with regard to land ownership is worse.
Mohanty’s conclusions find resonance with the findings of S. Galab and E. Revathi6, whose study
in Madhya Pradesh found that women contribute more than 70 per cent to agricultural activities and
yet only 6.5 per cent of them have legal ownership of any land. Women’s contribution in harvesting
is 65 per cent but a mere 28 per cent have control over the sale of the produce. Women’s owner-
ship of agricultural implements and equipment is negligible. In most tribes across eastern, central
and southern parts of India, women have no rights over land. This is despite the fact that most of
the work is done by women, whether it is in agriculture, gathering forest produce, daily wage labour,
domestic chores, child-rearing, rearing cattle/livestock, selling produce in market, etc. However, it is
the men who have full usufruct and other rights over land.
In contrast, customary practices have allowed women limited usufruct rights.7 A study by FAO8
identified certain trends in the land rights of women in tribal communities. Unlike the majority Hindu
castes, tribal women of most settled tribes do not have inheritance rights to land under customary
law. However, various social arrangements and practices have existed to provide adequate care to
women in situations of widowhood, breakdown of marriage, single women and for families that have
only daughters. The study found that a widowed woman usually acquires user rights to her hus-
band’s property as maintenance for life. On her death, the property passes into the hands of the hus-
band’s closest male relatives. Similarly, single women, unmarried women and women who return to
their parents’ house due to breakdown in marriage acquire user rights to their paternal property. In
case of families that have only daughters, the son-in-law usually inherits his wife’s paternal property
if he agrees to live in her village. Severe social sanctions for violation of these norms help in reducing
the vulnerability of women in such situations.
5
B.B. Mohanty, ‘Land Distribution among Scheduled Castes and Tribes’, Economic and Political Weekly, 36 (40), 6 October 2001.
6
Galab S. and E. Revathi, ‘Existing State Policies, Programmes, Interventions and Processes and their Impact on Women’s Access to Land’,
Centre for Economic and Social Studies, Hyderabad, December 2011. 7 ‘Adivasi Women: Situation and Struggles’, People’s March, Volume
7, No. 7, August–October 2006.
http://www.bannedthought.net/India/PeoplesMarch/PM1999-2006/archives/2006/Aug2k6/Adivasi%20Women.htm
8
‘Overview of Socio-Economic Situation of the Tribal Communities and Livelihoods in Madhya Pradesh and Bihar’, 1998, Investment
Centre Socio-economic and Production Systems (FAO), Rome, Italy.
Another study by J.J. Roy Burman9 throws light on the value of women in these tribal societies.
His study finds that tribal, or adivasi, women play a key role in their economy. They contribute to
agricultural production, gather forest produce and do wage labour wherever available, and almost
singlehandedly do the entire domestic work. Due to their important role in the agriculture-cum-
forest-based tribal economies, women are perceived as economically valued members of their
communities. This is reflected in the tradition of a bride price instead of dowry among most tribal
communities. Sometimes, when the prospective groom is not in a position to pay the bride price, he
has to render physical labour and service at the wife’s house. At times, he stays at his wife’s house
throughout his life as ‘ghar jamai’. In recent years, with a decrease in women’s economic value, the
practice of bride price is giving way to the system of dowry as in society at large. However, among
the settled agricultural tribes, traditionally, access to property rights is an area of gender inequality.
Property, particularly land, passes through male lineage and, under the customary law, women do
not have inheritance rights to land. They, however, have control over their income from the wages
they earn or the sale or processing of non-timber forest produce (NTFPs) that they collect from com-
mon lands and forests.
A study undertaken jointly by National Centre for Advocacy Studies (NCAS), Pune, and Ekta
Parishad in 2002 focussed on the issue of land reform, landlessness and land alienation in Mad-
hya Pradesh, with particular reference to dalits and adivasis. Regarding landlessness, it found that
whereas at the national level 11.5 per cent of the tribals were landless, at the state level 17.57 per
cent were landless. The study also found that 70.87 per cent of the tribal respondents had land titles
without having possession and 26.63 per cent had possession of the land without titles. This indi-
cates that, in spite of land reforms, the objective of equitable land distribution has not been met.
The study also mentioned that the situation of tribal women is worse in this context. A majority
of the beneficiaries did not get possession of the land, and those who had possession with entitle-
ment could not prevent their land from being alienated. The study concluded by saying that in spite
of legislations such as the Code, two agricultural land ceiling acts and a number of amendments, the
land reform process in the state has been very tardy. These are “mere examples of rhetoric, framed
to provide a pro-poor image and hide the feudal character of the state. The distribution of ownership
of operational holdings in rural MP since 1960–61 indicates no significant trend towards reduction of
concentration of operational holdings.”10 Another important finding of the study was the prevalence
of witch hunting. Typically, older single women owning land are labelled as witches and hounded out
(at times even killed) by male relatives to grab land. The worst sufferers are divorced women in the
age group of 55 years and above.
A comparatively recent but rising social phenomenon is the ‘Hinduisation’ of tribal society, mean-
ing the slow infiltration of Hindu social practices in tribal customs, particularly where the tribal so-
ciety is in close contact with Hindu society. Adopting Hindu practices seems to reflect an effort at
upward social mobility. Although bride price is still an important part of tribal marriage negotiations,
the practice of dowry is being increasingly adopted. Divorce and remarriage are becoming more dif-
ficult than they were earlier, and children out of wedlock are now beginning to be considered ‘illegal’.
Increasingly, tribal men prefer home-bound wives on the lines of the wives in Hindu peasant groups,
and polygamy is still prevalent. If a man is dissatisfied with his wife, he can easily throw her out of
the house. With no land in her name, this leaves her in a vulnerable position. In recent years, in their
‘hunger’ for land, male relatives forcibly occupy land where a woman has no brothers. There are
increasing cases of brothers-in-law throwing out the widows of their dead brothers. Becoming more
common also is the practice of men deserting their wives.11
9
J.J. Roy Burman, ‘Status of Tribal Women in India’, Mainstream, Volume L, No. 12, March 10, 2012.
http://www.mainstreamweekly.net/article3314.html
10
‘Land for Life—Promise and Performance of Land Reforms in Madhya Pradesh’, Study by NCAS, Pune, and Ekta Parishad, Bhopal, 2002.
11
‘Adivasi Women: Situation and Struggles’, People’s March, Volume 7, No. 7, August–October 2006
The customary practices of the tribal societies received its biggest challenge when Madhu Kish-
war, editor of the feminist magazine Manushi and a pioneer of women’s movement in India, chal-
lenged the gender discriminatory provisions of the Chotanagpur Tenancy Act 1908, which contains
special provisions for tribal society12. The provisions she and others challenged was that only descen-
dants in the male line of the original founders of the village, who had reclaimed land from the jungle,
are to be considered as raiyats and that only male heirs have a right to hold land for the purpose of
cultivation. The Supreme Court of India, in its judgment13, laid down some important principles to
uphold the rights of inheritance of tribal women. In the majority judgment, the Court refused to strike
down the provisions as violation of the right to equality, stating that this would bring chaos in the
existing state law. The Court however stated that the right to livelihood is a part of the right to life
and observed that widows would become destitute after the death of their husbands as land would
revert to the male descendants. This would violate the widow’s right to life. The court declared that
female relatives of the last male tenant could hold the land as long as they are dependent on it for
their livelihood. The minority judgment14 said, “General principles consistent with justice, equity,
fairness and good conscience contained in the Hindu Succession Act and the Indian Succession Act
would also apply to tribal communities…Women from scheduled tribes would succeed to the estate
of their parents, brothers, husbands, as heirs by intestate succession and inherit the property with a
share equal to that of a male heir with absolute rights. In case a tribal woman wants to alienate the
land she would first offer it for sale to the brother, or in his absence, to any male lineal descendent
of the family. In case they are unwilling to purchase the land, then the female would be entitled to
alienate the land to a non-tribal subject to the provisions of law applicable in the area.”
The tribals and their land are subject to another challenge—alienation. Alienation of tribal land to
non-tribals has always been part of the discussions on tribal land ownership. In the context of Mad-
hya Pradesh, several legislations govern the issues as shown in Table 1.
Table 1: Legislation Governing Sale of Tribal Land
Legislative Measures Description

Central Provinces Land
Checks the unwarranted transfer of land of STs
Alienation Act, 1916
Restricts transfer of land of ST to non-ST without
Madhya Bharat Scheduled the prior permission of the Collector by way of
Areas (Allotment and sale, mortgage, lease or otherwise. STs have been
Transfer of Land) Regulation, given fourth priority for the allotment of government
1954 (applicable to Madhya land among the landless. Freedom fighters, army
Bharat region only) personnel and SCs have been given first, second and
third priority, respectively.
Madhya Pradesh Land Provides protection to STs against alienation of their
Revenue Code 1959 lands
The most important finding is that although provisions have been made to prevent land transfer
from scheduled to non-scheduled groups in Madhya Pradesh, such transfers can be made with prior
permission from the District Collector, given the bureaucrat’s discretionary powers that also make
him very powerful. The 2002 study by NCAS and Ekta Parishad in Madhya Pradesh observed that
12
Praveer Peter, ‘Issues and Strategies regarding social security, land and livelihood resources for tribal women of Santhal Pargana
(Jharkhand) India’, Gender, Livelihoods and Resources Forum (GLRF) and Consult for Women and Land Rights (CWLR)
13
AIR 1996 5 SCC 125
14
Rakesh Shukla, ‘Succession, gender equality and customary tribal laws’, InfoChange News & Features, November 2006.
14.81 per cent of the tribals in the study area were victims of land alienation. The key factors behind
this included the illegal sale of land, manipulation of land records in favour of the dominant person
or group, faulty demarcation by the patwari in favour of vested interests, land mortgage system,
introduction of development projects, establishment of national parks, implementation of the Wildlife
Conservation Act 1972 and Forest Conservation Act 1980, and so on. The literature does not provide
any clarity as to whether tribal women are involved or not in the process of alienation, except for the
fact that land transactions are generally known to be a male domain and women are kept in the dark.
Women’s concern for land rights also cuts across the use of common land, used for grazing, and
collection of firewood, grass, fruit, roots, flowers for domestic consumption and sale. In the forest,
common land is used for gathering of minor forest produce such as tendu, sal, and mahua for pro-
cessing or sale. Whereas women gather these items, seldom are they in control of the sale, in terms
of identifying customers, negotiating price and collection of sale proceeds. The women are the
labourers whereas the men are in command when it comes to control of money.
To sum up the tribal woman’s status vis-à-vis land, four key observations can be made. There is
dearth of any focussed study on tribal women’s ownership of land, including in Madhya Pradesh.
The existing studies point out that whereas traditional tribal societies had customary mechanisms to
protect widows, unmarried or divorced women’s rights to their land, these mechanisms are giving
way increasingly to Hindu practices, making women more vulnerable. Added to this, some of the
customary practices such as labelling these women as ‘witches’, and men being the sole inheritors
of land continue to deprive women of their rights to the land. In particular, no assessment has been
carried out of the actual implementation of the women’s policy of Madhya Pradesh, which calls for
fresh studies on this matter. And finally, there have been no studies on the awareness and under-
standing of tribal women about their rights to land, and the nature of interface of the state with tribal
women in lived realities. The present study is situated in this context.
5.7 Contributions of the Present Study

This study was undertaken in Betul district, located towards the extreme southern side of Madhya
Pradesh. The district is predominantly rural, with 81 per cent of the population living in villages. Of
the total population, 39.4 per cent are STs. Historically, the district is tribal-dominated with Gond15
and Korku16 being the main tribes of the area. Fifty-four per cent of the district’s tribal population live
in four of the ten blocks of the district. Shahpur block, the study site, has 64.4 per cent tribals among
its population. Thirty-nine per cent of the area in Shahpur block is under forest. Large numbers of
tribal women collect and sell firewood from these forests for their livelihood.17
The present action research study has a twin purpose: a) to fill some of the gaps in the present lit-
erature, and b) to build knowledge in a manner that is empowering for the tribal women. Specifically,
the present study intends to understand, assess and document the following:
• The level of awareness and understanding of the tribal women on land-related laws, pro-
cesses and procedures that affect their lives
• The customary practices of the Gonds and the Korkus, specifically in relation to the land
rights of tribal women
15
Gonds are STs and are the second largest tribe in the country.
16
Korkus are STs predominantly found in three districts of Madhya Pradesh, including Betul. They are a branch of the Munda tribes and
are primarily cultivators.
17
Galab S. and E. Revathi, ‘Existing State Policies, Programmes, Interventions and Processes and their Impact on Women’s Access to Land’,
Centre for Economic and Social Studies, Hyderabad, December 2011.
• The level of awareness and practices of the key stakeholders such as the patwari, tehsil-
dar, naib tehsildar, sarpanch, forest ranger, forest guard and beat guard on issues related
to land for women
• The processes actually followed on the ground to implement Hindu succession laws and
FRA 2006
• Individual cases of women’s experiences with regard to access and control over land,
including enabling factors and the challenges faced
• The learnings from women leaders’ experiences of conducting the in-depth survey
• The capacity of tribal women leaders of NMS to address their land rights issues and to
further build it
17
6 Research Questions
Landesa and PRADAN together initially conducted a reconnaissance study to meet the women, men,
patwari, gram panchayat president, forest dwellers, and a lawyer to determine the framework of the
questionnaire. The research questions were organized in six major categories, to capture the study’s
objectives. These major categories are;
a. Knowledge of women and men about basic land documents. Four basic land documents
were selected to test this knowledge, namely, patta (or bahi patta), naksha, khasra and
khatauni. These are the commonly accessed documents that establish ownership and re-
cord of the land.
b. Awareness of women and men of the legal and administrative processes of claiming land.
Because inheritance is known to be most common way to own land, awareness of this
process was taken as the test.
c. Perspectives of women and men about women’s land rights, in order to understand differ-
ences between social norms and legal practices. Here, the opinions of women and men
about a daughter’s and a widow’s land rights were taken into consideration.
d. Awareness of forest dwellers about their land rights and access to their rights under FRA.
For forest dwellers, this meant their understanding of patta, FRA processes and role of
gram sabha, in connection with forest rights.
e. Understanding of whether land rights of landless families and single women are situated
differently vis-à-vis normal landed families and married women
f. Sensitivity of the land administrative staff/forest staff to women’s land rights issues, and
their actions in practice. This was considered in connection with the inheritance processes
of women.
From these overall research questions, Landesa prepared a framework for the questionnaires.
After discussions with PRADAN, the framework was finalized as in Table 2.
Table 2: Framework for Questionnaire

Respondent Areas of Exploration
Married women from landed 1. General information
families 2. Information about the status of landholding in parental
as well as in marital home
3. Exploring their thoughts on their right to parental land
4. Exploring their perceptions on land ownership of
different categories of women such as widows,
deserted
women, and widows not having children
5. Responses on the right of their daughters to land.
6. Their knowledge of relevant land documents
7. Knowledge of process of succession
Women from forest villages Same as above
Men from forest and Same as above
revenue villages
Women from landless 1. General information
families 2. Exploring causes of landlessness
3. Perception on women’s land rights
4. Knowledge of process of succession and land
documents
Single women 1. General information on family and land
2. Perception on women’s land rights
3. Knowledge of mutation process and land documents
19
7 Research Methodology
A total of 500 women from NMS and 125 men, husbands or other family members of these women
were asked to respond to the questionnaire. PRADAN and Landesa decided on the following sample
design.
• Four ethnic categories of families would be covered in the study, namely, the Gond,
Korku, Pradhan and Thatia.
• Families of revenue and forest villages would be covered separately.
• Women and men of landed families, landless families, widows, childless widows and
unmarried women were selected as respondents.
7.1 Sampling
For sampling, all types of families, except the non-tribal families, were included. The site of the study
was Shahpur block of Betul district. NMS is active in 14 gram panchayats of the block, having a pres-
ence in 26 villages. The selected area has 1,610 group members. Representation of members from
each panchayat and village was assured, with a few exceptions at the village level. The villages were
segregated as, primarily, revenue and forest. Revenue villages were then further segregated on the
basis of the dominant caste. A minimum threshold of five samples was determined for any category
selected within the village, in order to ensure values that could be statistically significant. The to-
tal sample from the villages, comprising all the sample categories, was based on the proportion of
group members within the village.
The number of families to be covered in each village was selected on the basis of the size of that
village. The study was focussed on the tribals of Shahpur block in Betul district; these were loca-
tions in which PRADAN was already engaged. Shahpur block has 70 villages and PRADAN works in
around 50 villages. After determining the villages where the survey would be conducted according
to the various criteria, the respondent families were selected on a random basis. The basic principles
followed for sampling were:
• The sample size for each category was in proportion to their share in the population.
• Of the total number of samples, 40 and 30 interviews were planned for single women
and landless families, respectively,
• The samples were then stratified. The first order of stratification was based on forest and
revenue villages.
• The second level of stratification was done on the basis of sub-castes such as Gond,
Korku and Pradhan. However, because the total number of Pradhan families was very
few, it was decided to interview them as part of the qualitative research.
Table 3: Planned Coverage of Respondents*

No. Categories of Respondents Samples
1 Women from land-owning families of the Gond tribe 330
2 Women from land-owning families of the Korku tribe 50
3 Men from land-owning families 100
4 Women from forest villages 50
5 Men from forest villages 25
6 Single women 40
7 Women from landless families 30
Total 625
*For the purpose of this research, landed families were defined as those owning agricultural land; landless families were
defined as those without ownership of agriculture land; and single women are those women who are either widowed, or
deserted, or never married (unmarried women above 35 years of age), or divorced, or separated.
7.2 Key Informant Interviews and Focus Group Discussions (FGDs)

One output of the reconnaissance study was to determine the key informants and FGD participants.
The following were identified:
• Tehsildar: S/he is the quasi-judicial and administrative representative of the state to de-
liver ownership rights and land records, and is responsible for implementing the law on
land in his tehsil.
• Patwari: S/he is the first (and, sometimes, the second point) of contact for villagers to
interact with a representative of the land administration. He is also the document keeper
for village records.
• Kotwar: S/he is the first point of contact for the villagers with someone from the state.
• Ranger or Deputy Ranger: S/he is the custodian of the forest area to which he is appoint-
ed.
• President/Secretary of Gram Panchayat: Madhya Pradesh had a system of endorsement
of the legal heirs’ list by the gram sabha, which was discontinued in 2013.
• Village elders: Usually men who play a pivotal role in deciding family disputes.
FGDs were conducted with tribal women of landed families, women forest dwellers, and the men
in revenue villages and forests.
7.3 Case Studies

The research documented 10 case studies in the form of human interest stories of women.
PRADAN and Landesa jointly decided that the case studies should reflect the social dynamics and
context in which women get land in tribal societies; understanding the interplay of social norms in
contrast to norms of the state in a woman’s life in denying and providing her land rights; and the
challenge she faces even when she has land. The following case stories have been documented:
• A deserted woman, who does not want to claim her land rights
• A widow, who survives because she inherited land
• A single woman, who struggles as a mere worker on her family land
Research Methodology | 21
• A forest dweller, who makes use of the Van Adhikar Patra

• A woman fighting her brothers for her share of land
• A woman who shares her land with her step-brother
• A woman who got her share of the land share from her mother because she takes care of
her mother
• A harmonious relationship between a sister and brother, based on equality
• A woman for whom right to land is not a priority
• A woman who continues to suffer even after she owns land
22
8 Capacity-Building
Methodology
Capacity-building of the NMS leadership was carried out along with the field research. The three
cardinal dimensions of capacity-building were enhancing information and knowledge of the tribal
women, immersion into actual experience, and gaining an understanding of the attitudes of the
tribals regarding women’s land rights. Women usually suffer from three major deficits in land is-
sues—lack of information and knowledge of the state’s institutional processes, lack of experience
in various land insecurity situations of women, including single and landless women and women of
forest dweller families, lack of understanding on issues related to secure land tenure (title, name in
government records, possession), conflict between social norms and state norms, and other issues.
Finally, women need to understand how their own attitudes reflect their submission to social norms
even after knowing that these norms work against women.
Capacity-building closely followed the research process. Presented here are the methodologies
that connect more closely with any one or more of the three cardinal dimensions mentioned above.
8.1 Information-Knowledge
Landesa and PRADAN jointly worked with the NMS leadership as well as the barefoot researchers
to enhance the information-and-knowledge base to conduct the research. The NMS leadership and
the field barefoot researchers were given an overall orientation of land-related documents and their
relevance, succession-related processes, social norms of inheritance, and forest land-related law at a
three-day training workshop. During the training workshop, the participants were also oriented about
the quantitative questionnaire and how to do the survey. At the same time, the words and phrases
used in the questionnaire (which was translated into Hindi from English) were verified in order to
ensure that the correct terms were being used. The workshop also included discussions on the
concepts of single woman, landless women, homestead-less woman, mutation and partition of land,
and difference between the Van Adhikar Patra and other pattas.
8.2 Experience
PRADAN and Landesa also planned the survey in a manner that each surveyor meets women of
landed, landless and homestead-less families, single women, and men and women of forest-dwell-
ing families. The idea was to expose each surveyor to all possible situations. In practice, however,
this could not be fully adhered to. This experience was important because the barefoot researchers
experienced how different life situations are for different categories of people.
The barefoot researchers came together and shared their experiences of conducting the survey,
the challenges faced in getting information from women regarding their land rights, the difficulties of
handling the men present at home at the time of survey, the experiences of hearing about the suf-
fering of many of the women and, in the process, identifying those women members of NMS suf-
Capacity-Building Methodology | 23
fering most due to lack of access to land rights. The experience sharing session had some of these
women, who spoke of their own challenges in securing land rights. As the barefoot researchers and
a few others spoke about their experiences, other leaders, who were not part of the survey team,
also spoke of how they saw these challenges in their own lives and in the lives of others they know.
8.3 Attitude
Understanding the attitude of women and men has been a core agenda in field research. A section in
the questionnaire was dedicated to understanding the attitude and actual practice. The intent was to
make the barefoot researchers understand how attitude and practice are intricately interlinked, and
also how a positive attitude on the part of men (brother, father, husband, father-in-law) and mother-
in-law may not actually lead to positive practice. This section also helped the barefoot researchers
and the leaders of NMS to reflect on their own attitudes and behaviour when it comes to women’s
right to land.
The reflections, following the sharing of experiences session, on the attitudes and behaviour of
women highlighted the criticality of taking a collective call of facilitating change in the attitudes of the
NMS leaders themselves because many of them carry the same patriarchal mind-set. Several mem-
bers re-iterated that change had to come from within the NMS leaders.
24
9 Overall Findings from the

Quantitative Study
The study used quantitative and qualitative techniques for data collection. Case studies were used to
capture the finer nuances of certain pertinent issues related to study objectives. Table 4 presents a
summary of the types of respondents included in the study.
Table 4: Coverage of the Survey by Type of Respondents
Category of the Respondents No.

Women belonging to land-owning families* 386
Women belonging to landless families* 29
Single women* 40
Forest dwellers (women and men) 73
Male members of the families 100
* Women and men respondents in this study were selected from the same household.
In most cases, men were the husbands of the women included in the survey. The total
number of respondents interviewed in the study was 628 (women and men) selected
from 500 households.
Overall Findings from the Quantitative Study | 25
9.1 Demographic Characteristics
Table 5. Demographic Characteristics of Study Population*
Background Characteristics Women of Women of Single Forest Men

Landed Landless- Women Dwellers (%)
Families Families (%) (%)**
(%) (%)
N 386 29 40 73 100
Age (in Years)
18–25 13.2 3.4 13.0 8.2 8
25–35 42.2 65.5 80.0 50.7 43
35–50 37.0 27.6 7.0 32.9 38
50 and above 7.5 3.4 0 8.2 10
Education
Illiterate 78.5 72.4 68.0 71.2 43
Primary 11.7 20.7 10.0 15.1 26
Up to 10 years 9.0 6.9 22.0 11.0 26
Marital Status
Married 94.6 82.8 - 95.9 100
Married but abandoned 0 6.9 12.5 0 0
Single (never married) 0 0 10.0 0 0
Divorced 0 0 7.5 0 0
Widowed 5.4 10.3 7.5 4.1 0
Separated - - 62.5 - -
Relationship to Head of Household
Head of the household 8.0 10.3 - 35.6 83
Spouse 79.3 86.2 - 58.9 0
Daughter-in-law/Son-in-law/
12.5 3.4 - 5.5 17
Daughter/Son
Social Category
ST 99.7 100.0 100.0 100.0 100
Caste
Gond 86.0 100.0 74.4 43.0 85
Korku 10.4 0 15.4 56.0 15
Pradhan 3.4 0 7.7 1.0 0
*Only the pre-dominant responses are shown, so the sum would not make it 100%.
** Forest dwellers include 50 women and 23 men.
- Data for the category not collected.
The demographic profile of the study population is presented in Table 5. Almost all the respondents
were STs and a majority among them were Gonds. The age-wise stratification of the respondents
shows that a majority are in the productive age segment of 25 to 50 years. Further, among the mar-
ried women, the percentage of women older than 50 years is substantially low. Whereas this may
raise an expectation of the demographic dividend that more women in the sample would be literate,
the actual data does not show that. Seventy per cent of the women were found to be unlettered. If
primary level education is added to the criteria, the figure is 90 per cent. Most (~90 per cent) of the
women respondents are married. The data endorses the prevalent social norm of male dominance
and reveals that a mere 8 per cent of the women from land-owning families head their household;
however, the situation is more encouraging among the forest dwellers, wherein around 35 per cent
of the households are headed by women. Some of the striking features that a detailed examina-
tion of the demographic data reveals are: a) A very high percentage of the single women are sepa-
rated/divorced—(almost 70 per cent) and abandoned (12.5 per cent), b) The man is the head of the
household only in 59 per cent of the forest-dwelling families, in contrast to 80 per cent and more in
the revenue villages, and c) The percentage of single women living either with parents or in-laws is
nearly 40 per cent, a very high occurrence. Overall, the demographic assessment of the study partici-
pants reveals a male-dominated society with high incidence of illiteracy (almost a third of the women
respondents and half of the male respondents are unlettered). Caste distribution is skewed acutely
to the Gond caste for the entire study group except for forest dwellers. A large proportion of respon-
dents in forest villages were Korkus (56 per cent) unlike in other categories, in which the proportion
of Korkus is only 10 or 15 per cent and a majority are Gonds.
Surprisingly, the single women interviewed were younger (93 per cent below 35 years) and prob-
ably because of this, they were more literate (22 per cent up to Class X) as opposed to 9 or 7 per
cent in other categories. One may argue that because they are better educated, they seem more
equipped and willing to assert themselves. However, it remains a question that can be explored in
future research. Data on the living arrangements of single women gives further insights about their
profiles and coping mechanisms. A little over one-third of the single women were living independent-
ly at the time of survey, and another 20 per cent reported living with their sons/daughters. Consider-
ing the fact that 93 per cent of the women were younger than 35 years, it can be easily concluded
that these women were living on their own and were not economically supported by their marital or
parental family members; in fact, they were supporting their nuclear family. Looking further into the
living arrangements reveals that as compared to the marital family, support from the parental family
is stronger because 23 per cent of the women were living with their parents and 5 per cent were liv-
ing with either a brother or a sister as compared to only 18 per cent living with the in-laws.
All these women are single; however, it is important to understand their marital status in order
to clearly portray their social conditions and coping mechanisms. A large number of single women
(62.5 per cent) are ‘separated’—neither formally divorced nor widowed—which signifies not only the
relative ‘freedom’ of women in a tribal society but also the vulnerable position that these women are
in. They are neither eligible to claim benefits as ‘divorcees’ nor do they have access to the safety
mechanisms of staying within a ‘household’.
Figure 1: Living Arrangements of Single Women (Percent)

Living with
brother/sister, 5
Living with son/
daughter, 20
Living independently, 35
Living with
in-laws, 18 Living with
parents, 23
9.2 Possession of Marital Family Land and Land Records

Ownership of land can be termed secure only if the person has valid documents, her/his name is
in the government records and the land is in her/his possession. In case of women, this is all the
more important because of the vulnerabilities associated. Hence, women need to have at least basic
knowledge about ownership, possession and the necessary documents. In order to gauge how
much women know about land ownership, information was collected about family land, ownership
and possession by women belonging to families owning some cultivable land. Table 6 presents data
on land-holdings, records and possession, as reported by women of landed families in revenue vil-
lages. Another objective for conducting the survey was to find out whose names are mentioned in
the land records and who has possession of land, and to broadly assess the share of women.
An analysis of the data revealed that the percentage of women with land records in their names
and who were in possession of the land was about 5 and 7 per cent, respectively; in case of their
spouses, the percentage was 41 and 68, respectively—a difference of 27 per cent. Although fathers-
in-law had land records in their names in 48 per cent of the cases, just about 36 per cent of them
actually had possession of the land. Similarly, despite the fact that 15 per cent of the mothers-in-law
had land records in their names, only 6 per cent of them had possession of the land. On the other
hand, although only 20 per cent of the brothers-in-law had land records in their names, in practice, 39
per cent of the cases were in possession of land. This probably reflects the informal land-sharing ar-
rangements in tribal society between brothers. Interestingly, however, unlike the general belief that
women are ignorant and do not have any knowledge about land-related matters, only in about 2 per
cent of the cases did the women say they were not aware about whose names were in the records
and only 1 per cent of the cases were the women not aware about who possessed the land. The ac-
curateness of their knowledge may be debated but their responses indicate keen interest. They did
know about who was in possession of the land because they actively operated on that piece of land.
However, the possession seems to be clearly tilted in favour of male members even though they
may not have legal titles to all those lands. The other critical aspect of land records and possession is
that, in a large number of cases, the records were not updated. Land records in the names of fathers
and mothers-in-law, and grandfathers and grandmothers-in-laws combined are a staggering 71 per
cent. And 51 per cent of these were in possession of the land—quite a high figure, indeed. In most
cases, evidently, land records and even possession of the land is still with the earlier generations.
Interestingly 20 women had land in their names but a higher number (26) were in possession of
land. This needs to be explored further in future studies. Another phenomenon which is puzzling is
that, in a large number of cases, brothers-in-law were in possession of the land (150) but only in 79
cases did the land records have their names. This probably reflects informal land-sharing arrange-
ments in the tribal society between brothers (assuming that brother-in-law refers to the husband’s
brother).
Table 6. Ownership and Possession of Land in Landed Marital Families*

Background Characteristics Marital Family Land
N Per cent
N 386
Families with cultivable land (n = 386)
Yes 382 99
No 4 1
Average size of land owned (n = 382)**
Average no. of plots 2.95
Average size of land-holding (in acres) 6.21
Average area of land cultivated (in acres) 3.96
Name in land records ***
Self 20 5
Spouse 157 41
Father-in-law 184 48
Mother-in-law 56 15
Grandmother-in-law 5 1
Grandfather-in-law 27 7
Brother-in-law 79 20
Sister-in-law 16 4
Don’t know 8 2
Other 23 6
Possessor of land***
Self 26 7
Spouse 261 68
Father-in-law 139 36
Mother-in-law 25 6
Grandmother-in-law 1 0
Grandfather-in-law 19 5
Brother-in-law 150 39
Sister-in-law 2 1
Don’t know 2 1
Other 20 5
**Missing entries have been included in the calculations as missing and not included in the denominator for making
the calculations.
***Multiple choice questions, hence each option has complete n as denominator.
9.3 Possession of Parental Land and Land Records

As in the above section, a similar exercise was conducted for information about parental land. Table
7 presents the data on land-holdings, land records and possession of land as reported by the women
of landed families in revenue villages. The main aim was to find out in whose name the land records
were, who had possession of the land, and the share of women in this regard. We also aimed at
understanding the relationship between these two variables, that is, are the percentage of people
with records in their names more or less the same as those in possession of the land? Although the
picture of the parental land of these women looks very similar, there is indeed some dissimilarity.
Besides presenting the data in the tabular form, we will aim at forming a similarity-dissimilarity inter-
pretation of the data here.
What was similar was that both in parental as well as marital families only in about 5 per cent of
the cases did the women have land records and possession in their own names. In 50 per cent of
the cases, a woman’s father had land records in his name whereas possession of the land was lim-
ited to about 44 per cent.
The dissimilarity was in the case of brothers. Whereas 40.6 per cent of the brothers had records
in their names, 61 per cent of them had possession of the parental land. This apparent dissimilar-
ity can be explained by the fact that the brothers are in possession of their own in addition to their
sisters’ (one of those sisters was a respondent) land as well. Moreover, in about 77 per cent of the
cases, the land records were in the names of father-mother-grandmother-and-grandfather combined
whereas the possession of same category of people was about 60 per cent, which is significantly
less. As observed in the case of marital families, women are largely aware about ownership and pos-
session in their parental families too.
Table 7. Ownership and Possession of Land in Parental Families*

Background Characteristics Landed Women
N Percent
N 386
Women’s parents having cultivable land
Yes 357 92.0
No 29 8.0
Average size of land owned (n = 357)**
Average no. of plots 3.22
Average units of land 1.24
Average value of land 9.41
Average units cultivated 1.22
Average value cultivated 6.68
Name in the land record***
Self 20 5.6
Spouse 1 0.3
Father 178 49.9
Mother 62 17.4
Brother 145 40.6
Sister 29 8.1
Grandfather 26 7.3
Grandmother 9 2.5
Don’t know 11 3.1
Other 40 11.2
Possessor of the land***
Self 18 5.0
Spouse 4 1.1
Father 158 44.3
Mother 40 11.2
Brother 220 61.6
Sister 20 5.6
Grandfather 14 3.9
Grandmother 5 1.4
Don’t know 3 0.8
Other 40 11.2
**Missing entries have been included in the calculations as missing and not included in the denominator for making
the calculations.
***Multiple choice questions, hence each option has complete n as denominator.
9.4 Single Women and Women of Landless Families
Single women in this study include unmarried women, those who had been deserted, or abandoned,
and widows with or without children. Landless families mean those that do not have any agricultural
land but may have homestead land. Many of the landless families in our sample had homestead
land. This section discusses the land ownership status of single women and women from landless
families.
Single women, on the other hand, may be absolutely landless because they may not even have
their own homesteads and may be dependent on relatives for shelter too. We asked them about
the ownership of homestead land, to find out whether the plots are in their names or in the names
of others in either their marital or natal families. Forty-six per cent of the single women and 55 per
cent of the women of landless families reported not owning homestead land—not themselves and
not their families. The immediate follow-up question then was where do they reside? Sixty-eight per
cent of the women of landless families said they resided on government land, and 56 per cent of the
single women said they either lived with their parents or their in-laws. The total sample size of this
sub-category (those single women and women of landless families not owning any homestead land)
is only 16 each.
Those having homesteads, which belonged to them or their families, were asked if they had the
land title or land records for the homestead land. Thirty-seven per cent of the single women and
Figure 2: Women of Landless Families Owning Titles to their Homesteads
Homestead
Homestead
with title
without title
46%
54%
54 per cent of the women of landless families said they had no titles for that land. Of the 19 single
women interviewed, six lived on encroached land, two had land donated by someone, and eight had
inherited the land. These are cases, in which it is likely that the land is not titled to their names. Also,
looking at the data of women of landless families, of the eight women reporting, six had inherited
land and two had land donated to them. For those who had inherited the land from their families
and who did not have the title in their names, the most probable reason is that the mutation had not
been done. For those who got land by donation, it is quite likely that there is no title for these lands.
Again, we would like to issue a caveat by saying that the numbers surveyed are very few, so these
values indicate trends.
Table 8. Ownership of Land by Single Women and Women of Landless Families*

Characteristics Single Women Women from Land-
less Families
N Percent N Percent
N 40 29
Own homestead
Yes 19 54 13 45
No 16 46 16 55
Place of stay if no homestead available n = 16 n = 16
On government land 2 13 11 69
On encroached private land 1 6 0 0
On someone’s land 1 6 2 13
With parents 4 25 0 0
With in-laws 5 31 0 0
With brother/sister 2 13 0 0
On gifted land 0 0 1 6
No response 1 6 2 13
Possession of patta for homestead n = 19 n = 13
Yes 12 63 6 46
No 7 37 7 54
Source of getting homestead n = 19 n = 27**
Inherited 8 42 6 21
Purchased 3 16 1 3
Donated 2 11 2 7
Government 0 0 5 17
Encroached land regularized 6 32 13 45
Demanded land from government n = 40 n = 29
Yes 1 2.5 6 21
No 35 87.5 23 79
No response 4 10 0 0
*Only the pre-dominant responses are shown, so the sum would not make it 100.
** Includes all the respondents of the landless category, encroachers also included in the denominator even if they did not consider
homestead to be of their own
9.5 Awareness about Land-related Documents
Awareness is the first step to empowerment. Awareness about land-related documents does not
indicate ownership but is definitely a big leap towards the claiming of one’s rights. It equips women
with the information required to realise their rights. Table 9 presents data that helped gain under-
standing of the awareness of land-related documents among various respondent groups. Four most
often used land documents, namely, patta, naksha, khasra and khatauni, were used to test the
awareness of the respondents. There was a striking difference in the awareness of women and of
men, that is, 18 per cent difference about patta, 30–38 per cent about khasra, 18–31 per cent about
naksha, and about 2.7 per cent only about khatauni. In all cases, the men were more aware and
had more information than the women. To the question, “Have you have seen any of these docu-
ments?” the difference in answers varied from 25 to 44 per cent, in favour of men. What did the
women and the men know of these documents? Could they provide a correct or near-correct defini-
tion/function of these documents? The men provided the most accurate answers in comparison to
the women. These findings are not surprising and can be attributed to the fact that, in patriarchal
Indian societies, land is considered a male subject. Gender has traditionally dictated the norms, ac-
cording to which women were not considered receivers of land or property and, hence, kept away
from matters related to land.
Table 9. Key Indicators of Awareness Level about Land*

Indicators Women from Women from Single Men
Landed Families Landless Women (%)
(%) Families (%)
(%)
N 386 29 40 100
Had heard about documents for ownership proof**
Patta/Bahi patta 82.6 80.0 72.5 100
Khasra 18.4 20.0 12.5 49
Khatauni 1.3 0 0.0 4
Naksha 19.7 30.0 17.5 48
Don’t know any 16.8 20.0 27.5 0
Had seen at least one of these documents
Yes 74.6 75.9 57.5 99
No 24.9 24.1 40.0 1
Know the importance of patta/bahi patta
It is proof of ownership 49.5 62.1 55.0 86
It is proof location of the land 23.3 20.7 27.5 27
It is proof of inheritance 11.4 3.4 6
Don’t know 24.9 27.6 30.0 3
Know the importance of khasra
Government record of ownership and
4.1 0 2.5 8
changes in it
The plot number of my land 24.9 27.6 25.0 58
Don’t know 59.8 69.0 72.5 33
Know the importance of naksha
Sketch diagram of the plot as per govern-
10.4 0 2.5 20
ment record
Diagram of the land 39.6 44.8 30.0 54
Don’t know 54.9 55.2 67.5 28
Know the meaning of kistbandi khasra/khatauni
The government document that records
1.6 0 0 2
details of land taxes
The proof of ownership of land 1.3 0 0 4
Record of land of the entire village 2.1 0 0 0
Don’t know 94.3 100.0 100.0 93
*Only the pre-dominant responses are shown, so the sum would not make it 100 per cent.
**Multiple choice questions; hence each option has complete n as denominator.
9.6 Women’s Awareness of Land Rights
The earlier sections give us an idea about women’s ownership of homestead and the family’s culti-
vable land. This section deals with the attitude of women (those from landed families, landless fami-
lies and single women) to a woman’s right to the family land. The questions asked were designed
to understand their opinion about their right to inheritance of land. Figure 3 and Table 10 present the
data on women’s opinion on the right to inherit land. The respondents were questioned about what
women wanted in view of land rights. The first question was whether the women (of all categories—
landed families, landless families, and single) wanted a share of their parental land. Between 22 and
31 per cent of these women said yes they did want a share—22 per cent were women of landed
families and 31 per cent were single women. Significantly, 73 per cent of the women of landless
families and 68 per cent of single women did not want a share of their parental land. When asked for
the reason, four significantly distinct answers emerged. “I do not want to sour the relationship with
my brother,” said 33 per cent; “My father’s land is very small,” said 25 per cent; “If I ask, my sisters
will ask as well” said 14 per cent; and “I am doing well, I do not need it” said 10 per cent. Thus, the
social factor of maintaining a harmonious relationship with the parental family was the key factor in
women not claiming inheritance rights.
Figure 3: Attitude of Women about Land Rights

Women from Landed Women from Land- Single Women (n =
Families (n = 386) less Families (n = 29) 40)
Yes Yes
Yes
22% 27%
31%
No No No
78% 73% 69%
Table 10. Why Women Do Not Want Land/Do Not Get Land*
Women from Women from Single Women
Landed Families Landless (%)
(%) Families (%) (n = 40)
(n = 386) (n = 29)
I do not want to sour my relationship 33.7 37.9 37.1
with my brothers
I am doing well, I do not need it 10.1 3.4 0.0
My father’s land is very small 25.4 6.9 5.7
If I ask, my other sisters may/will 14.5 10.3 25.7
ask too
I did not claim it. 36.3 48.3 22.9
*Only the pre-dominant responses are shown, so the sum would not make it 100%. Multiple choice questions;
hence each option has complete n as denominator.
9.7 Women’s Inheritance Rights as Perceived by Women and Men

In order to ensure equal inheritance rights for women in India, the central government has enacted
the HSA and its amendment. The HSA 1956 covers inheritance and succession of the property of
Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains, and the rights of women to inherit the agricultural land of their
parents and husbands. Despite these legal provisions, social practices and cultural norms have
remained the same with no significant changes favouring women’s access to land and property.
The right of a daughter to her parents’ property is yet to be considered a norm in Indian society. To
understand the perceptions of women and men on this issue, we asked a set of questions related to
their perceptions, the key variables of which are presented in Table 11. With regard to a daughter’s
right to parental land, both women (67 per cent) and men (61 per cent) said, “Yes”; it was signifi-
cantly higher among single women and women of landless families, at 83 and 83 per cent, respec-
tively. Although the reasons for this varied, the most important was, “Daughters and sons have
equal rights on parental land,” followed by, “Daughters have legal rights.” It is clear from this analy-
sis that although a majority of women and men did respond positively about the rights of a daughter,
they had a long way to go in making this perception a norm. Worth noticing too is fact that the equal-
ity of sons and daughters was mentioned as a primary reason for daughters to inherit land whereas
the legal right was a secondary reason for inheritance.
Figure 4: Positive Responses to the Rights of Daughters on Parental Land (in percent)
85
83 83
67
61
Landed Landless Single Men Forest

women women women dwellers
Table 11. Reasons for Daughter Inheriting Parental Property*

Women Women from Single Men Forest
from Landed Landless Women (%) Dwellers
Families Families (%) (n=100) (%)
(%) (%) (n=40) (n=73)
(n=386) (n=29)
Daughters have legal rights 15.7 27.6 25.0 31.0 32.9
Both daughters and sons 46.7 69.0 57.5 47.0 78.1
have equal inheritance rights
Daughters can inherit if there 13.4 17.2 7.5 9.0 13.7
are no brothers
Daughters should inherit only 7.1 10.3 10.0 2.0 6.8
if they are not financially well-
off
*Only the pre-dominant responses are shown, so the sum would not make it 100%. Multiple choice questions; hence, each option has
complete n as denominator.
9.8 Women’s Right to Husband’s Land

By and large, a woman’s right to her husband’s land is a more acceptable phenomenon as compared
to her right on parental land (Table 12). Questions related to a wife’s right to her husband’s land
were asked to all the respondents, which yielded the following results. Ninety-four per cent of the
women and 99 per cent of the men replied in the affirmative, that is, a wife does have right over her
husband’s land. However, their reasons were varied. Whereas 80 per cent of the men said it was
the social norm, 35–55 per cent of them believed, “It’s her legal right” whereas 43–72 per cent said,
“It gives her security.” Interestingly, women considered land not as a right but as a security for their
future. There was significant difference of opinion among the various categories of women.
Figure 5: Percentage of respondents who perceived positively about the rights of a wife on her
husband’s land
Landed women 95
Landless women 100
Single women 100
Men 99
Forest dwellers 97
Women in India do not have the right to marital property because India currently lacks the con-
cept of co-ownership of marital property. As a result of this lack of co-ownership by both spouses of
property acquired during marriage, women cannot claim ownership over household land, unless the
family decides to purchase or transfer land in her name or she inherits a portion of the family land.
Table 12. Reasons for a Wife Having Rights to her Husband’s Land*
Women from Women from Single Men(%) Forest
Landed Fami- Landless Fami- Women Dwellers
lies (%) lies (%) (%) (%)
It is her legal right 35.2 55.2 40.0 37.0 65.8
It is a social norm 8.8 10.3 7.5 80.0 15.1
It can give her security 43.8 72.4 62.5 3.0 63.0
*Only the pre-dominant responses are shown, so the sum would not make it 100%. Multiple choice question; hence, each
option has complete n as denominator.
The next question was a more specific one on widows’ rights. The answers tallied very closely
with the previous question on women’s perception of rights to their husband’s land. This meant
that women only thought of their rights as widows, and not when they were married. A few ques-
tions on widowhood revealed a new dimension. The right of widows in the specific contexts of
‘young childless’, ‘young widow with child’, and ‘young widow who does not remarry’ threw up
very different responses (Table 12A). The likelihood of a childless young widow getting a share of
her husband’s land was fairly small—14 to 30 per cent women said “yes” whereas only 9 per cent
men concurred. If a widow does not remarry, the percentage goes up—25 to 51 per cent of women
Table 12A. Perception about Single Women’s Right to Husbands Land*

Women from Women from Single Men Forest
Landed Landless Women (%) Dwellers
Families (%) Families (%) (%) (%)
386 29 40 73 100
Widow’s right to husband’s land
Yes 97.7 100.0 100.0 98.0 100.0
No 2.3 0 0 2.0 0
Reasons for widow’s right
It is her legal right 28.8 24.1 42.5 53.0 47.9
It is a social norm 12.4 3.4 2.5 60.0 11.0
It will give her security 41.5 82.8 70.0 0 71.2
Right of young, childless widows
Yes 14.5 13.8 30.0 9.0 16.4
Yes, only if she does not remarry 33.4 51.7 25.0 61.0 56.2
Yes, only if her in-laws decide to 6.0 3.4 2.5 27.0 9.6
give
No 42.0 27.6 40.0 0 19.2
Don’t know 4.4 3.4 5.0 0 1.4
Right of young widow with a
child
Yes 71.2 79.3 87.5 98.0 71.2
Yes, only if her in-laws decide to 5.4 6.9 12.5 1.0 15.1
give
Yes, only operational rights 18.9 13.8 0 0 15.1
No 0.5 0 0 0 0
Right of deserted woman
Yes 42.5 55.2 67.5 75.0 30.1
Yes, only if her in-laws decide to 2.8 3.4 10.0 18.0 0
give
Yes, if she is living with her child 55.2 37.9 10.0 0 67.1
No 4.4 3.4 5.0 0 2.7
Don’t know 1.6 0 2.5 6.0 0
*Only the pre-dominant responses are shown, so the sum would not make it 100%
and 61 per cent of men. The highest likelihood of a young widow getting a share in her husband’s
land was if she had a child—71 to 79 per cent of women and 98 per cent of the men concurred.
Table 12A also indicates an important issue, that is, that women and men recognize legal rights but
when it comes to practice, social norms dominate. The recognition of a legal right does not trans-
late into action in the family.
One of the important foci was the responses of 40 single women, of different categories such as
unmarried, abandoned, destitute and young widows because each identity is perceived differently
in society. The study covered the perceptions of the larger society about the land rights of single
women as well as their perceptions about their own rights. Clearly, a widow with a child has more
chances of getting her right to land, indicating that tribal society is open to providing the woman with
land rights in order to protect the interests of her offspring but not to the widow as an individual.
This was the same for destitute and abandoned women. And is true for other categories of single
women too. Questions related to unmarried women’s right to parental land yielded a unanimous af-
firmative response to the extent of 87 to 90 per cent by both men and women. Similarly, for daugh-
ters-only families, the right of daughters to parental property was found to be universally accepted.
When a daughter is unmarried and there are little chances of her getting married, tribal society sees
her as belonging to the family of parents. However, during the course of documenting individual
case studies, unmarried women in parental homes were found to be living in vulnerable and pathetic
conditions and were totally at the mercy of the male members.
Overall, the study shows a conditional acceptance of women’s access to land. Women are not
viewed as individuals with the rights to own land but were allowed to, in certain situations, ‘hold
land’ temporarily as unmarried women, as mothers of young children, and as wives.
9.9 Social Norms with Regard to Women Getting Land

Table 13 captures the data on the social norms in specific contexts when there is greater acceptance
by the tribal society of women’s land rights. A question on an unmarried woman’s right to paren-
tal land yielded a unanimous affirmative answer to the extent of 87 to 90 per cent of women of all
categories and men. Similarly, for daughters-only families, the right of all daughters was found to
be universally recognized as was for married women staying in parents’ house along with husband.
Although the results show a unanimous acknowledgment of women’s right to parental property, it is
interesting to see how conditionality has changed the opinion about inheritance, underlining the fact
that land right is seen as security for women in need and not as a legal right.
Table 13. Perceptions about the Rights of Various Categories of Women to

Parental Property*
Women from Women from Single Men Forest
Landed Families Landless Families Women (%) Dwellers
(%) (%) (%) (%)
N 386 29 40 73 100
Unmarried women
Yes 86.8 96.6 95.0 90.0 97.3
No 8.8 3.4 5.0 6.0 1.4
Don’t know 4.4 0 0 0 1.4
Unmarried women with no brothers
Yes 98.2 100.0 100.0 99.0 100.0
No 0.8 0 0 0 0
Don’t know 1.0 0 0 1.0 0
Woman staying at her parent’s place with her husband
Yes 89.4 93.1 95.0 95.0 95.9
No 7.0 6.9 5.0 5.0 1.4
Don’t know 3.6 0 0 0 2.7
9.10 Willingness of Women and Men to Honour Women’s Land Rights

In order to test the actual practice and willingness of the people to exercise women’s land rights, a
real situation was presented to the respondents. Table 14 captures what women and men want to
do with the land they have. This question was asked to all categories of women and men, irrespec-
tive of them being in possession of any land and having any land records to their names. On the
willingness to giving a share of the land to daughters, the respondents were almost equally divided
across all categories. To the question, “Why do you want to give land your daughter?” 70 per cent
said that they wanted to honour their daughters’ legal rights. Whereas these could be politically cor-
rect answers, two specific answers were significant, in which 15 per cent of the women said they
would give a share of the land to their daughters only if there were no son in the family, and anoth-
er 17% said they would do so if the daughters were not well-off after their marriage. Interestingly,
nearly 84 per cent of the men said they would give a share of the land to their daughters because
it is their legal right. Considering the other responses of men, this was, quite likely, a socially desir-
able answer.
Figure 6: Daughters Receiving Land as Inheritance “If you have a daughter, will
you give her share of your land?”
Women from Landed Single Women Men
Families
No Yes No Yes
No Yes
48% 52% 43% 57%
49% 51%
Table 14. Reason to Give Land to Daughters*

Women from Single Men
Landed Families Women (%)
(%)
(%)
Daughters have legal rights 23.4 23.8 49.0
Both daughters and sons have equal inheritance rights 46.8 47.6 84.3
If there is no son 15.6 4.8 7.8
If she is not financially well-off 17.5 0 5.9
If she has crossed marriageable age and is unmarried 1.3 0 0
If she stays back with us with her husband 7.8 0 0
*Only the pre-dominant responses are shown, so the sum would not make it 100%. Multiple choice question; hence, each
option has complete n as denominator.
In order to capture the customary practices related to rights to land, focused group discussions
(FGDs) were conducted in addition to posing specific questions during surveys that would indicate
the perceptions of the people. Although, these revealed that men were very clear that daughters do
not have any rights to parental property, the women responded very differently in the FGDs. They
were inclined to be more positive about the law and the equal land distribution policy. During the
discussions, many of the women focussed on the merits of having access to land rights by relating
it to the vulnerability of women whereas the men were more focussed on concerns such as societal
practices and about land use when a woman gets married and moves away because then she would
‘belong’ to the other family.
All the men in the group were against HSAA and were very disappointed with the revenue depart-
ment because it was not distributing any land without giving it to daughters. In case a woman wants
to give up their share of land by signing a Haq-Tyag-Nama or to gift land to her brothers, a stamp
duty of 4 per cent has to be paid. This 4 per cent is usually paid by the brothers. The men stated that
this was one of the reasons that prevented them from distributing land to daughters or sisters in
spite of the fact that they know that if land is in a woman’s name, they can avail of and benefit from
certain government subsidy schemes. The same question, when put to the women’s group, threw
up mixed responses. Some believed asking their brothers for their share was against tradition and
would sour their relationship whereas some believed that they were entitled to it because women
are equal to men. The latter seemed to be a result of the work done on awareness about gender
discrimination and equality by PRADAN through training programmes over the years. Most of the
women were in favour of the law and wanted to change the picture. Surprisingly, however, most of
them also said that it would be better if the law covers the rights of women to their husband’s land
because this would give them a measure of security.
To the question, “Do daughters have rights to parental land?” a majority of the women and men
of landed families answered in the affirmative, that is, 66 and 61 per cent, respectively. This was
significantly higher among single women and women of landless families, at 82.8 and 82.5 per cent,
respectively, indicating that women who were comparatively better off were less in favour of equal
land rights, and points to its relation to vulnerability. There was stronger and near universal unanimity
among women and men on the issue of women’s land rights to their husband’s land. Although 94
per cent women and 99 per cent men were in favour of this, their reasons were divided. Whereas
80 per cent of the men said it was the social norm, the women were divided between, “It’s her legal
right” (35–55 per cent) and “it gives her security” (43 to 72 per cent).
Clearly customary practices are different for married women and for daughters and sisters. The
research revealed an unspoken, basic principle of land succession, transfer and distribution of keep-
ing land inside the family, which itself restricted formal access to the land in a woman’s name.
During FGDs, men voiced their concern of land going outside their families if they were to give it to
daughters. In many cases, when there is no son in a family, it adopts a boy from a brother’s family,
who inherits the land just so that it remains within the family. This is a very common practice in the
tribal society here.
As is evident, patriarchy plays an important role in keeping women away from the land. Although
51 per cent of the women and 57 per cent of the men said that they would give share of the land to
their daughters in response to a direct ‘yes/no’ question, this may be a compulsion to be politically
correct because the reality indicates otherwise.
Customary practices do not recognize the need for formal entitlement of land in a woman’s name
as an individual. Men, and even many women, regarded women as either related to the father,
then the husband and finally the son; as an individual she had no identity; this is evident by people’s
responses that a woman needed land only if she were alone and had no one to take care of her;
otherwise there was no need. This reveals gender discrimination and practices that make women
‘pathetic’ figures.
Another viewpoint that emerged in FGDs was that land is linked to agriculture and giving land
to women, who stay usually with their in-laws, could affect agriculture. Some opined that gifts and
dowry are the rights of women in their parental homes but not the right to a share of the property.
A daughter is perceived as belonging to another family whereas the land belonged to ‘us’; the re-
sponsibility of parents is to give their daughter in marriage with suitable gifts and dowry, and not to
consider her right to parental land because she would, in any case, be part of someone else’s home.
Such a view springs from the patriarchal societal structure and the norms related to it. Also, this
view is reinforced when the request for a share in the land of parents is perceived as bad practice
and against societal norms. Many of them think that it is against their values, thereby approving of
the patriarchal mind-set. Thus, customary practice, stimulated by patriarchy, plays a key role in keep-
ing women distant from the land and her legal right.
9.11 Women and Men’s Awareness of the Succession Processes

Awareness of the process of succession is crucial to the inheritance of family land. In order to
ensure that women are treated as equal beneficiaries of inheritance, they need to have basic knowl-
edge about the processes involved. This, besides being necessary to claim their rights, is an impor-
tant step towards attaining equity for women. As seen earlier, men performed much better when it
came to awareness about land-related documents; essentially because land is considered a subject
for men, it is seldom discussed with women. Women had not even heard about the documents and
had no idea about how land is divided in the family. Neither as wife nor as daughter does a woman
know how land is transferred to the following generations. Table 15 shows data depicting the level
of awareness of women and men on the detailed steps of the succession process. First, the per-
centage of women and men who did not know appeared quite significant—35 to 52 per cent of
women, and 29 per cent of men. Of these, the awareness of single women and women of landless
families was relatively high at 52 and 48 per cent, respectively. The possible explanation for this can
be that these women may have seen or experienced the partition or division of land in the family as
a result of succession. Second, the knowledge of the process is clearly limited to three key steps,
a) The patwari/kotwar prepares a legal heir list after talking to the members of the family of the
deceased person. This is known to about 27 to 40 per cent of the women, and about 38 per cent of
the men, b) The patwari sends the legal heirs list to the tehsildar—known to 14 to 20 per cent of the
women, and about 20 per cent of the men, and c) the tehsildar gives notices to all claimants—known
to about 7 to 13 per cent of the women, and 11 per cent of the men. Other key processes are
known to even lesser percentage of women and men. A possible reason for greater awareness of
the first two steps may be the fact that the involvement of the beneficiary is more in the initial steps
whereas the latter steps are carried out by revenue officials.
The awareness of the respondents on three important processes and documents-related informa-
tion was tested, namely, a) the process of talking to the widow about the legal heirs; b) the aware-
ness of inclusion of the daughter’s name in village records, and c) the inclusion of a widow’s name
in the legal heirs list. The pattern seems the same—about 30–35 per cent said they did not know,
and about 50–59 per cent replied in the affirmative. Although we cannot be certain, the trend does
show that women’s representation in the process is quite low. A very important and striking issue
is the fact that 90 per cent of the single women reported that the list of legal heirs does not include
the name of widow of the deceased member of the family. Interestingly, a majority of these women
were married but had been deserted. Another important finding is that 61 per cent men reported that
they do not know if the list of legal heirs included the name of the widow of the deceased member
of their families. It is very surprising that men, who have a very high understanding of land-related
documents and processes, claim ignorance of this issue.
Table 15: Awareness of Land Succession Processes and Administrative Issues*

Women from Single Men
Landless Women (%)
Families (%)
(%)
N 29 40 100
Steps in the Land Succession Process**
After death, the patwari/kotwar/patel comes and 37.9 27.5 38.0
collects names of legal heirs.
The patwari places the heirs list in the gram sabha. 0 2.5 0
The gram sabha endorses the list, and the sarpanch 0 7.5 2.0
stamps it.
A panchnama is prepared and the village elders en- 6.9 12.5 25.0
dorse it.
The patwari then sends the list to the tehsildar. 20.7 17.5 20.0
The tehsildar gives notices to all legal heirs to attend 6.9 12.5 11.0
a hearing.
The tehsildar gives his judgement after hearing all 10.3 15.0 16.0
sides.
A new patta is issued, and a new khatauni/khasra is 3.4 0 3.0
prepared for all the heirs.
If anyone says s/he does not want land, their share of 0 0 0
land is given to other siblings.
Don’t know 48.3 52.5 29.0
Patwari/Kotwar/Patel comes to prepare the list of legal heirs; do they talk to the
widow?
Yes 55.2 42.5 56.0
No 13.8 22.5 12.0
Don’t know 31.0 35.0 32.0
Names of daughters also to be included in the list of
legal heirs
Yes 51.7 40.0 59.0
No 10.3 25.0 11.0
Don’t know 37.9 35.0 30.0
List of legal heirs include the name of widow of the deceased member of the family
Yes 58.6 7.5 4.0
No 10.3 90.0 30.0
Don’t know 31.0 2.5 61.0
**Multiple choice question; hence, each option has complete n as denominator
Table 15 shows that women are less aware about land rights, possession, and land documents
than men, which is hardly a surprise, considering their social norms.
Questions on the process of succession indicate also their awareness of the legal framework,
which can affect their claim-making ability.
Questions on mutation/land succession processes clearly point to a pattern. First, the percent-
age of women and men who did not know appeared quite significant, that is, 35 to 52 per cent for
women (similar to how the women had from the landed, the landless and single women catego-
ries) and 29 per cent of men. The awareness of single women and women of landless families
among these is relatively high at 52 and 48 per cent, respectively. Second, the knowledge of the
process is clearly limited to three key steps; a) The patwari/kotwar comes and prepares a legal heir
list after talking to the members of the family of the deceased person. This is known to about 27
to 40 per cent of women, and about 38 per cent of men. b) The patwari sends the legal heir list to
the tehsildar—this was known to 14 to 20 per cent of the women, and about 20 per cent of the
men. c) The tehsildar gives notices to all claimants—this was known to just about 7 to 13 per cent
of the women, and 11 per cent of the men. Other key processes are known to even lesser per-
centages of women and men.
Also tested was the awareness of three important processes and documents-related informa-
tion. a) The process of talking to the widow about the legal heirs. b) The inclusion of the daughter’s
name in village records. c) If the widow’s name is included in the legal heirs list. The patterns of the
answers seemed the same; about 30–35 per cent said they did not know, and about 50–59 per cent
replied in the affirmative.
Clearly there is a strong need of awareness in women about laws and policies, and their imple-
mentation if social norms were to be changed.
9.12 Women of Forest-dwelling Families

The survey was conducted with 50 women and 23 men from forest-dwelling households, who were
interviewed for the study. Only those men whose wives had been selected for study were inter-
viewed. Information was collected about land and related aspects, to understand land ownership
and access, and their perceptions on this. Table 16 presents data on land ownership among these
families along with some information on the availability of land records. All the families of these
women and men had some cultivable land. The questions attempted to understand the nature of
these holdings and their rights on it. Forty-four per cent respondents reported reduction in the size of
cultivable land holding. Of those who reported a reduction, four-fifths said that they even possessed
land documents for the land that they no longer have access to. For the current land holdings that
this group of 73 forest dwellers have been cultivating, 89 per cent have the documents for the land.
The land records are largely in their own names (61.5 per cent) or in the names of their spouses (52
per cent). Interestingly, a forest patta is usually given only as a joint patta, that is, it has the names of
two people, the husband and the wife. Nevertheless, the survey revealed that the people are un-
aware of this fact.
Forest Rights Act and Forest Rights Committee: FRA and the Forest Rights Committee (FRC) are
two important bodies that govern and formalize administrative issues related to forest land. Informa-
tion about FRA among these groups of forest dwellers was low—only 38 per cent of the respon-
dents had ever heard about FRA. Table 17 presents data on the source of information about FRA
among this group. For a large majority (61 per cent), the source of information about FRA was the
Table 16: Details of Land Owned by Forest Dwellers*

N Percent
Families having cultivable land (n = 73)
Yes 73 100
No 0 0
Families reporting reduction in the size of cultivable land (n = 73)
Yes 32 43.8
No 41 56.2
Families in possession of documents for land reported to be lost (n = 32)
Yes 26 81.0
No 6 19.0
Families in possession of documents for cultivable land (n =
73)
Yes 65 89.0
No 7 11.0
Name in the land record** (n = 65)
Self 40 61.5
Spouse 34 52.3
Father-in-law/Father 11 16.9
Mother-in-law/Mother 11 16.9
Brother-in-law/Brother 3 4.6
Sister-in-law/Sister 4 6.2
Other 24 36.9
Families having demarcated land (n = 70)
Yes 60 82.2
No 10 13.7
**Multiple choice question, hence each option has complete n as denominator.
gram sabha. On the other hand, knowledge about FRC was high, with 70 per cent forest dwellers
having heard about FRC. Among these, a very large majority (96 per cent) reported that they had an
FRC in their village. Three-fourths of the respondents saw the role of FRC as “a joint committee of
villagers and forest officials.” The next common perception, reported by 27.5 per cent of the respon-
dents, was that FRC verifies the application for patta. This analysis reveals that the gram sabha has
emerged as one of the most important platforms, both for disseminating information and for carrying
out most of the processes related to obtaining a secure title for the land.
Figure 7: Respondents who Figure 8: Source of information about FRA

have heard about FRA
Forest officials came 14.3
in the village
Heard in a radio 3.6

Yes program/TV
No
62% 38% My fellow villagers 14.3
told me about it
Heard in the Gram 60.7

Sabha meeting
Figure 9: Awareness about FRC

Heard about FRC Presence of FRC in the Village
Don’t know No 2%
No 2%
30%
Yes Yes
70% 96%
Table 17: Perceived Function of FRC*

It is a joint committee of villagers and forest officials. 74.5
It is a committee of gram sabha, formed only by villagers. 11.8
It works under the gram sabha. 25.5
It protects the forest rights of people in a forest village. 13.7
It verifies the applications for patta. 27.5
It verifies the community work (making roads, wells, nurseries) done 5.9
by the forest department.
It is a committee of villagers only. 13.7
*Only the pre-dominant responses are shown, so the sum would not make it 100%. Multiple choice question; hence,
each option has complete n as denominator.
Figure 10: Reported Role of the Gram Sabha in the Process of Obtaining a Patta
78
72
61
Source of Filled Submission of

Application Application Application
Form
Table 18: Information on the Rights of Forest Dwellers*

Options Forest Dwellers
N Percent
Rights of an individual on forest land and produce** (n = 73)
I have the right on the place I live (house/homestead). 51 69.9
I can only cultivate the land to produce crops. 51 69.9
I can collect NTFP from this land and sell it. 19 26.0
I can build infrastructure on this land to enhance productivity. 17 23.3
I can take loan from credit cooperative societies using the land
19 26.0
document.
Rights/Entitlements your community has on forest land/produce and
other resources** (n = 73)
I can collect minor produce such as leaves and fruits from the forest. 63 86.3
I can use water from any water source. 27 37.0
I can protect the forest area around us. 25 34.2
**Multiple choice question; hence, each option has complete n as denominator
Rights of Forest dwellers: Forest dwellers have rights to the forest and its produce at two levels: as
individuals and as communities. These vary from the collection of forest produce to the entitlement
to the patta of the land. However, a forest dweller can enjoy her/his right only if she/he is aware of
this. The study elicited the level of awareness of forest dwellers on two levels—individual rights to
forest land and produce, and the rights/entitlements that the community as a whole had on forest
land/produce and other resources. Table 18 presents the responses to these questions. At an indi-
vidual rights level, a majority of forest dwellers identified two rights, “The right to the place I live”
(70 per cent) and the right “cultivate the land to produce crops” (70 per cent). When asked about
the rights the community has as a whole on forest land and produce, 86 per cent of the respondents
said that they could collect minor produce such as leaves and fruit from the forest.
51
10 Qualitative Study
A qualitative study was conducted by interviewing key stakeholders, through in-depth interviews of
selected women for presenting case studies, and FGDs with women and men in revenue and forest
villages. The slant of the qualitative study was to understand the processes of interface between the
representatives of the state with the women and the men, and how that interface has determined
the outcomes as far as women’s land rights are concerned. The qualitative study also intended to
delve more into understanding the conflicts between social norms and norms of the state, and in
what way the state norms, which are typically assumed to be based on equity and fairness, are able
to overcome social norms that typically are assumed to be unfair and unequal to women. The find-
ings are reported here.
10.1 Social Context in which Women get Access to Land

There is no doubt that the tribal society of Gonds and Korkus follows a set of social norms that are
somewhat close to Hindu cultural norms. Land being a prime immovable property passes down over
generations through sons and grandsons. The land rights of women are recognized by the commu-
nity only in specific social contexts. From FGDs as well as from in-depth interviews of women, the
social contexts when a woman is likely to receive land could be identified. These social contexts are
irrespective of whether it is revenue land or forest land, and are culturally determined among tribal
traditions. The dominant social norms are:
• When there is no son in the family, the daughters are likely to inherit land from their par-
ents. The proportion of land share among the daughters is a function of various conditions
such as the economic condition of a particular daughter, ghar-jamai, the daughter who looks
after the ailing parents, etc. There is no universal social norm on the quantum of the land
share.
• When there are sons and daughters in a family, the default condition is that the sons will
get their share of the parental land and the daughters would not. In case the parents decide
to have a ghar-jamai, that daughter is likely to get a share of the land, however unequal that
might be.
• Even when there are sons and daughters in the family, if one of the daughters takes up
the responsibility of looking after her parents in their old age, the daughter is likely to get a
share of the land. It could even be an equal share of land to her brothers.
• In case land is purchased by the husband or the father-in-law, it is likely that they buy the
land in the name of their married daughter or the daughter-in-law, to avoid crossing the land
ceiling or to access more government benefits.
• A widow, who loses her husband in her old age, is likely to get a share of the land, along
with her sons. The quantum of land is likely to be less than that of the sons.
• A young childless widow, who loses her husband at her young age, usually would not get
any share in the land. In case she does not remarry and continues to stay at her in-law’s
house, she is likely to get a small share of land.
• A young widow with a child, who loses her husband at a young age, is likely to get a small
share of land from her father-in-law.
• In certain cases, a daughter may get a share of land from her father or mother if she has a
step brother, born out of an earlier marriage of one of her parents having land.
Whereas the likelihood of women receiving land can be predicted with some certainty, the quan-
tum of land a woman will get is clearly not predictable. That seemed to be a function of a number of
factors, including the reactions of brothers or sons (particularly in case of a widow), the need of the
woman as assessed by her father or mother, the ability of the woman to claim her share, and other
such factors.
Another important characteristic in the context of land rights is the distinction between what is
socially legitimate and what is legitimate under law. The cases described above are situations when
a woman would legitimately say that I have got a land share, and others would recognize it. In con-
trast, it does not necessarily reflect that the woman in question has land documents in her name,
and the land is in her possession—the two requirements of legitimacy by the state.
This distinction appeared in individual conversations and during FGDs. When asked specifically
about documents and possession, it was clear in a number of cases that the woman did not have the
documents in her name and/or that she was not in possession of the land. The respondents were
clearly speaking of the social legitimacy of their land rights whereas it might often fail the test of the
state’s legitimacy.
The situation in forests deserves specific attention. The legal right of forest dwellers to land was
only recognized by the state as late as in 2006, with its actual realization starting not earlier than
2009. Before that, all forest dwellers were landless and ‘encroachers’ in the eyes of law. All these
forest dweller families were paying a penalty for illegal occupation and the receipt of that payment,
the forest dwellers were led to believe, was the evidence of their possession of land. The legal pro-
cess of mutation and partition, a standard process in revenue land did not exist in forests. Therefore,
social norms operated without any conflict with any state norms in the forest lands.
The list of specific situations in which a woman is likely get land, as mentioned earlier, is very con-
textual, and is determined mostly by patriarchal practices. These patriarchal practices have become
the social norms within the tribal communities. In contrast, the state’s norms are context neutral:
in all situations, no matter what the situation is for a particular family, the state norm dictates equal
division of land share among men and women. Placing this contrast on the table actually poses a
very important practical question. Should social interventions be planned in the framework of context
Qualitative Study | 53
neutral equality or should the intervention be planned to enhance equity in land in more contextual
way? In practice, this would mean, should NMS think of a blanket intervention to demand equal land
rights for women under any circumstances, or should NMS be working on demanding land rights for
women in a more incremental way examining the local context of each woman in question? This is a
call that has to be addressed jointly by PRADAN and NMS.
10.2 State’s Interface with Community

The Code, as amended from time to time, has recognized women’s equal right to agricultural land
at par with men. The Indian state also has recognized a Hindu woman’s equal rights to land under
succession, in the absence of a will. Our research showed that the land administration’s process of
determining legal heirs has not changed, but a significant development is that the daughters’ and
wife’s names as legal heirs, irrespective of their context, are now included in the land records and
in the village register. This was corroborated by women, men and the land administration officials
almost without any exception.
The contrast, however, is with women, who know much less about changes that actually are ben-
eficial for them. This is because land officials continue to interface only with sons, or brothers of the
late husband of the woman concerned; on a positive note, however, land officials do talk to widows
in a good number of cases when they are collecting the names of the legal heirs.
The stakeholders, on being asked specifically what norms the state followed with tribal women
and men when they dealt with property rights in connection with inheritance and partition, said that
the patwaris and tehsildars uniformly follow HSA and the Code, and do not, in normal circumstances,
recognize traditional customs and social norms of the tribals. Tribal society knows this well and does
not expect state officials to follow their societal norms. In case, tribal families seek mutation, they
accept state rules. However, one reason tribal families are reluctant to partition a mutated land is
that they have to agree to give a share of the land to their sisters because the sisters’ names are
typically included in land records, after the parent owning the land died. In case the sisters are willing
to forfeit their rights to their share of land in favour of their brothers, the law requires that the sisters
sign a Haq-Tyag-Nama (Rights forfeiting affidavit) and register that document by paying 4 per cent
stamp duty. This works as a disincentive for partitioning the land; therefore, one finds that brothers
are often in possession of far more land than they have the documents for. Widows too do not have
land partitioned for this reason.
One compromise solution seems to be happening although it is difficult to ascertain the scale of
it. The patwaris and tehsildars often advise the brothers and the sons to agree to part with a token
share of the land in favour of their sisters or mother, and thus avoiding paying 4 per cent stamp duty
and the complexities of registering the Haq-Tyag-Nama. Both the patwari and the tehsildar acknowl-
edged this although the tehsildar was quick to point out that it was illegal. The patwari however
showed us village records and the bahi pattas, in which such token land-sharing with sisters had
indeed happened. Needless to say, the solution emerged as a local state practice, and was clearly
and specifically intended to reinforce and provide the state’s legitimacy about the brothers’ rights to
land over their sisters.
A third practice that Madhya Pradesh introduced long ago was withdrawn, with effect from
July 2013. The practice was to make the process of determining the legal heirs more transparent
by requiring patwaris to declare the legal heirs list at the gram sabha and seek the gram sabha’s
endorsement. The procedure of calling the gram sabha when someone dies and a legal heirs list
being made was not being followed in practice. Therefore, it was difficult to decide if it was a good
practice or not.
Yet another practice of the state that incentivized the purchase of land by women (or in the name
of women) by providing a discount of 30 per cent on stamp duty was also withdrawn in 2012. There
is clear evidence that this was being used by families when buying land; however, it was not clear as
to whether this had any positive impact on women.
10.3 State Action and the Community in Forests

The interviews of and FGDs with the forest dwellers revealed that the implementation of FRA 2006
for these forest dwellers leaves much scope for improvement and correction. Almost all the forest
dwellers said the following:
a. They had a patta now;
b. They knew that it was a joint patta;
c. The patta also mentions the names of ‘dependents’;
d. Some of the respondents said their sons, living separately, were not included in the patta,
and that they had not yet got a patta for their family;
e. All the forest dwellers said that the land area shown in the patta was significantly less than
what they had in possession earlier. Some of them even said, they were still in possession
of some land for which they did not have a patta;
f. A significant number of forest dwellers said that they were not part of the measurement
process, which took place during a short programme organised by the Forest Department
and were not prepared for it; and
g. The forest dwellers said they were vaguely aware of FRC; many of them thought that the
forest management committee and FRC are the same body.
The formal process of inheritance did not exist with regard to forest land because the land was
never owned by forest dwellers. That process will start once the patta holder dies and the legal heirs
start asking for their share. However, right at the start, an important legal flaw was created by the
administration, which showed sons, daughters and daughter-in-laws to be dependents; it did not fol-
low a legal heir approach in identifying family members.
55
11 Case Studies
Case 1: A deserted woman does not ask for her right to land - Ganga bai
One of the reasons for the economic, social and political subordination of women in India is their lack
of effective rights in property, especially land. This is necessary for more equal gender relations, both
within and outside the household. The situation is worse for single women, who could be abandoned,
deserted, separated, divorced, unmarried or widowed. Low-income single women comprise the most
vulnerable 10 per cent of the entire female population in the country. According to the 2001 Census,
there are 36 million single women, which include only legally divorced and separated women and
widows. Abandoned or unmarried women remain outside government’s policy and welfare schemes
and struggle to live life with dignity. If they live with any relative, they are not eligible for ration cards,
job cards or BPL cards. More importantly, they also face problems in accessing property rights, which
includes access to land. Here is the story of Ganga bai, who was deserted by her husband and is now
living with one of her brothers.
Ganga Bai, 35, lives in Dodramohar village, Bhoura gram panchayat with her mother, daughter,
younger brother Ram Das and his family, that is, her sister-in-law and their three children, two sons
and a daughter. Her father died a year earlier. Her elder brother lives in another house in the same
village with his family. Ganga bai has three other sisters, who live with their marital families in nearby
villages. Her daughter, Preeti, is 11 years old.
Ganga bai returned to her parents’ house, around 11 years earlier, with her two-and-a-half-year-old
daughter when she was pregnant with her second child, Preeti. She was married to a man named
Govind at a very young age. However, ever since she got married, she faced a lot of violence at
home and was frequently abused and beaten up by her husband and parents-in-law, which increased
after she gave birth to a baby girl. The situation became worse after her husband brought another
woman home one day and started living with her in the same house. Luckily for her, the gram
panchayat sarpanch came to her rescue and asked her to leave the village and return to her parents’
village because he feared that if she continued to stay in her marital home, they would probably beat
her to death. He gave her some money and helped her to return to her natal village, Dodramohar.
This is not the story of a Hindu or a Muslim woman, where domestic violence is more often a
norm than an exception for married women. Ganga Bai belongs to the Pradhan sub-tribe of the Gond
tribe. Among the several tribal practices, polygamy, domestic violence and denial of property rights
to women form three cardinal societal behaviours of Gond and Korku men. Whereas several com-
munity practices of these tribes substantially differ from the mainstream Hindu and other communi-
ties, an uncanny similarity prevails about how communities deny women their property rights. Like
in Hindu and other communities, these tribal women are systematically denied land rights in inheri-
tance from natal and marital families. Ganga bai’s case is not only of abuse and domestic violence,
her story assumes greater significance as her dignity and freedom as a human being were further
compromised by her acceptance that property rights were only meant for men.
Her elder daughter did not survive because of the lack of medication and healthcare facilities. In
the meanwhile, Ganga gave birth to her second daughter, Preeti, at her brother’s house. Govind from
whom she is not legally divorced, did not bother to keep in touch with her and visited her only once
when her daughter was 8 years old.
For all practical purposes, she is a single mother. For a living, Ganga works with her brother in his
field, growing maize, lentils and other crops. Further, due to PRADAN’s efforts, Ganga, like many
other women in the area, is the owner of a poultry shed where she has 400 chicks, from which she
gets an annual income of about Rs 15,000. She built this poultry shed with the help of a local coop-
erative called Kesla Poultry Cooperative Society, whose staff trained her in poultry farming. They also
gave her a grant of Rs 30,000 to build a poultry shed. She has truly survived the shock and trauma of
an abusive marriage.
Ganga bai recognizes that her existence has two key determinants—successful poultry farming,
and the shelter given to her by her younger brother and his family. Her natal family has about 10
Case Studies | 57
acres of land which is yet to be partitioned or divided among her father and his five brothers. How-
ever, each family cultivates their portions of the land. Ganga bai and her brother farm their patch of
land, which is non-irrigated. She does this in exchange for the shelter provided to her by her younger
brother, with whom she has a very good relationship. She is aware of the fact that every woman has
a right to her parents land and property: “Baap ka haq milna chahiye (Daughters should get a share
of their father’s land).” But in spite of knowing this, she would rather have her brothers get her share
of parental land. She will never stake her claim because she does not want to spoil the good relation-
ship that she has with her brothers, especially with Ram Das her younger brother, who has assured
her that he would build a separate house for her later on.
Ganga bai also remembers that when she was married to Govind, they together had bought 50
decimals of land at Rs 5,000. She had mortgaged her jewellery in order to buy the land. Her husband
was a furniture maker and she used to help him in his work. The land was registered in Govind’s
name, who had visited the tehsil office for registration and mutation. She could not go with Govind
to the tehsil office because she had a small baby to look after at home. Luckily for her, she got her
jewellery back. She said, “When we bought the land together, I had no idea that he would leave me
one day….” implying that she regrets that she had not insisted that the land should have been on
her name as well.
Torn between an abusive and eventually broken marriage and a sheltered life as an aide to her
brother’s family, Ganga bai today recognizes the importance of land rights as a basic means of a dig-
nified and secure life. When we met Ganga bai, she was clearly a changed person, who earned her
own living, made all efforts to get her daughter educated, participated in activities of the cooperative
and the self-help group she belonged to, but stopped short of acting on her rights enshrined in law;
for her, the mutually agreed arrangement with her brother was enough for the rest of her life.
Ganga bai’s case highlights the fact that, in rural India today, abandoned women remain outside
government’s policy and welfare schemes. Unlike widows, they are not eligible for pensions and
have no financial support whatsoever. Having been deserted by their husband and in-laws, they usu-
ally do not ask for maintenance, with most of the marital property remaining in the name of husband
or father-in-law. This is because in India there are no laws for the division of marital property when
a separation or divorce takes place. Usually the husband gets all the movable and immovable as-
sets of the household, resulting in an unfair and discriminatory situation for the wife, who has no
legal rights to any of the assets that she also helped to acquire, as has been the case with Ganga
bai. As a result, these women are left with no farm land, no property and usually no marital home.
They are dependent on their relationships with male family members for their economic security, as
a result of which many rely on their brothers and usually end up working as agricultural labourers on
the farms of their brothers, who are seen as the owners of the land. Single abandoned women’ are
increasingly being recognised in many government schemes and programmes. Census also counts
‘female headed households’ which has included many for the first time in Census 2011.
Case 2: A small field of her own as security against poverty - Shyama bai
The death of a husband can spell doom for a widow because it threatens her psychological and physi-
cal well-being. However, this can be overcome to a large extent if she has access to and control over
land, which is crucial for a family’s well-being and food security. This is Shyama bai’s story.
Shyama bai is a feisty woman in her early fifties, who lives in Polapatthar village in Salimet gram
panchayat. She looks happy and content and is proud of her newly built brick home, one of the few
pucca houses in the village. She has two sons and three daughters. Her elder son is married with
two children, and her younger son, who is 18 years old, is still studying in school whereas all her
three daughters are married. Though Shyama bai is financially well-off today, she has seen hard days
and has struggled to bring up her five children after she lost her husband, Ram Kishore, 15 years ago
after a cerebral stroke and paralysis. All her children had to leave school as she could no longer afford
their studies. Ram Kishore used to work as a truck driver till he suffered a paralytic attack and was
bedridden for 6–7 months before he died.
Luckily for her, her father had given her two acres of land in Polapatthar village when she had got
married 25 years back because at that time her in-laws had no land. After her marriage, she contin-
ued staying with her parents along with her husband, who stayed as ghar jamai. Her other sisters,
however, did not get any land. Her elder brother was unhappy about her being given land and did
not speak with her for three years. The rest of the land was given to her brothers. After her father’s
death, her mother came to live with her and stayed for 7 years till her mother died. The land was ini-
tially in Shyama’s husband’s name. After his death, her name was included in the Bhu adhikar avam
rin pustika, along with the names of her two sons and three daughters.
This piece of land helped to sustain her and her family during the difficult period after her hus-
band’s demise, highlighting the fact that ownership and control of assets are the greatest protection
for widows from deprivation. She said, “Agar zameen nahin hoti to basne mein mushkil hoti (If I
did not have this land, life would have been very difficult),” She cultivates it along with her son and
grows maize, tuvar (split gram) and sesame on her land. She gets food for about four months of the
year from this piece of land which is 3 km away from her house. As a land owner, Shyama knew she
could avail of a number of benefits and she did try and succeeded to a large extent. She has piped
Case Studies | 59
irrigation facilities in her land and also benefitted from many government schemes. For example, she
has a ration card, gets Rs 300 per month as widow pension, and has a savings account with Punjab
National Bank, where her pension gets deposited. When she is not working on her own land, she
works as an agricultural labourer in villages close to Itarsi. However, with the advent of combine har-
vesters in these parts, much of the farming has become mechanized. She also has a job card under
MGNREGA. As an agricultural labourer, she gets paid Rs 146 per day. All these were possible be-
cause, she has land, which gave her a permanent address, a source of income, and most importantly
for her, a clear sense of security.
The social norm and understanding of that norm by the community fundamentally differs from
that of the state. Although Shyama consistently said that she got the land from her father, on spe-
cific enquiry we learnt that the title of the land was given to her husband, and not to Shyama. Social
norms dictate that, in case of ghar jamai, he could get the land from the bride’s father as dowry, with
the understanding that after his death or in case of separation, the wife would have sole ownership
on the land. The condition is also that he will not sell this land. The state practice on the other hand
dictates that a widow will inherit her husband’s land along with their sons and daughters at par; she
does not have any sole right on her husband’s land. And, on divorce, the woman is entitled to her
husband’s property as decided by court.
Shyama bai was lucky in more ways than one. Though Shyama bai lives in her natal village, the
land on which her house is built was bought by her father-in-law for Rs 400. He used to work as a
gang-man with the Indian railways and was posted at Polapatthar. He purchased land for his only
son, thinking that his son would one day inherit that land. After her parents died, Shyama bai shifted
to her father-in-law’s house along with her family. In 2011, she re-built the old house that had been
built by her in-laws, with the help of a grant of Rs 45,000 under the Indira Awas Yojana; Rs 10,000
loan from her SHG and Rs 10,000 from relatives. Her son-in-law being a mason helped to build the
house for her and also made the bricks used in construction. Her house is perhaps one of the few
brick houses in the village with 4 rooms and a kitchen. It has a front and backyard and is situated op-
posite the anganwadi centre and is quite close to the national highway. She is keen to start a poultry
farm in the space next to her house where the old house of her in-laws used to be and which she
had broken down when she built her new house.
With a piece of homestead land, a pucca house and a two acre irrigated crop land, Shyama bai,
has survived the shock of death of her husband, and overcome the challenges of raising her family of
five children.
The role of other social institutions cannot be underestimated. For example, Shyama bai has been
a long-standing member of Saraswati SHG, a leader of the SHG cluster, and an active member of
the NMS, an association of tribal women promoted and nurtured by PRADAN. These have certainly
contributed to Shyama bai’s life in several ways—access to information, savings-credit, collective ac-
tion, individual and collective courage, and enhancing her agency. Whereas the land provided her the
economic and social base, the other social institutions provided her with skills, access, courage and
agency; as a result, Shyama bai’s life has definitely changed for the better.
Shyama bai’s experiences emphasize the fact that right to land, especially in poor households,
reduces the household’s risk of poverty and destitution. For households headed by women with no
adult male support, the link between direct access to land and physical well-being needs no empha-
sis. Her case favours the argument that women should have independent access to economic re-
sources such as land because it serves as a security against poverty—a means to meet basic needs.
Case 3: Unmarried adult woman lacks status in her village - Bisaniya bai
What is the social norm of inheritance for an unmarried woman in tribal society? We discussed this
issue with Bisaniya bai of Kundi village. Bisaniya Bai looks much older than her age. Her hair has
turned white and her face has wrinkled with time. Unlike most other women of her age in her vil-
lage, there is one distinguishing factor about her—she was never married, which is exceptionally rare
in rural India.
She lives in a small mud hut behind her sister’s house. She is the youngest of her siblings and has
two brothers and a sister. Her elder brother, Inder Pal, has two children whereas the younger brother
Johari Lal has four children. Her sister Savitri has three sons. After her elder brother’s wife died due
to illness, she took up the responsibility of looking after his two children, a son and a daughter. Her
parents did not get her married because they did not find a suitable match for her and they did not
want her to get married to an alcoholic.
Bisaniya’s family owns land in Kundi village; neither she nor her sister is aware of how much land
they have, however. She knows that the land is in her elder brother’s name and the land documents
are with him. Here again, the social custom and state norms are in conflict. Tribal society accepts
partition of the land, and recognizes the brothers as owners of two separate plots, whereas the state
would recognize only Inder Pal as the sole owner.
Having no family to look after, Bisaniya works on her brother’s land, where she does the weeding,
sowing, reaping, harvesting and all other farming-related work that is usually done by women. Dur-
ing the off-season, she works for daily wages in road construction or any other manual labour that is
available. She gets about Rs 150 per day whenever she works as agricultural labourer or in non-farm
work. Her brother gives her a share of the produce for her sustenance from the land on which she
works.
Bisaniya bai has never felt the need to own land because she had been brought up with the idea
that land is always owned by men. Having spent her life working on her brother’s farm, she thought
that because her brother had children, the land will finally belong to them. In spite of toiling hard on
her family land, she has no control over the income generated from the land that she cultivates. She
is totally dependent on her brother for economic security.
Case Studies | 61
Her elder brother Inder Pal has remarried and lives as a ghar jamai in his wife’s house in Tawa
Nagar along with his son from the first marriage. Inder Pal visits Kundi once in 15 days to enquire
about her as well as to visit his land. Her other brother, although in Kundi, has not bothered to keep
in touch with his two sisters Savitri and Bisaniya bai. He owns and cultivates his own piece of land.
Bisaniya bai’s case shows that despite her performing all agricultural tasks except ploughing and
marketing, she does not have any rights over her family land, even though she has not married. Even
her usufruct rights to land are limited and are subject to decisions of her elder brother. In effect,
she has been reduced to the status of a mere worker on her family land and is being provided basic
maintenance. Her case reflects the fact that an unmarried adult woman belongs to no recognized
social category and consequently lacks a definite status in her home village or in the wider local com-
munity. She is counted as part of her brother’s family rather than seen as a separate family, even
though she lives on her own.
For Bisaniya, life moves around her labour in the field and searching for enough work at other times.
Her major decisions in life are still in the hands of her elder brother. The dominance of social norms en-
sures that she thinks and behaves exactly the same way the norms are set. Modern institutions such as
the state and the civil society are still struggling to penetrate these norms so deeply rooted in rural India.
Case 4: Sister may give up her claim to be on good terms with her brother - Lalita bai
The greatest likelihood of daughters inheriting land and property is still in families with no sons, and
usually involving matrilocal post-marital residence. However, in case of patrilocal residence and living at
a distance after marriage, daughters are often hesitant to take their share.
Whereas the law provides for ownership of land to women at par with men, society has retained
and reinforced its own norms of ownership that are extremely contextual to women. The principle
of this norm is that men will always have priority over women in land ownership, with certain excep-
tions and exemptions. One such exception is the case of ghar jamai, as seen earlier. Another excep-
tion is when there are only daughters in a family. There are other nuanced relationships in the shar-
ing of land that operates within the societal norms almost like private norms.
Lalita bai’s is a case in point. She is from Dendupura village of Shahpur block. She lives with
her husband (Rampal), two sons (Rohit and Roshan), her father-in-law (Ram Singh), mother-in-law
(Manglo bai), and Manglo bai’s father, Pyare. She also has two sisters-in-law and 2 brothers-in-law
living in the same house—none of them being married as yet. The house and the land that the fam-
ily owned belong to Pyare because Ram Singh was a ‘ghar jamai’; he had no land when he had got
married. The family, at one point in time, used to own 42 acres of land but due to encroachments,
they are now left with only 7 acres, cultivated by her husband and father-in-law. They grow mainly
chana, wheat, maize, and rice and soya bean. Lalita too works in the field and does most of the sow-
ing, weeding, harvesting and other farming activities, as part of her domestic duty. However, Lalita
knows that the land belongs to her mother-in-law. She does not clearly understand that in the eyes
of the state, this is not the case. For her, social norms are supreme. She also believes that part of
her domestic duty is to labour with her husband in the field.
However, when it comes to Lalita’s parental land, things are indeed different. Being the only
daughter of her parents, Suganti bai and Buddu, she inherited land from her mother in her natal vil-
lage Malwar, some 20 km away in Ghoradungri block of Betul district. Suganti bai was married earlier
to someone in Ratibandar with whom she had a son, Punesh and a daughter. Buddu died when
Lalita was 15 years old. Today, her mother lives with Punesh in Malwar.
Her mother and step-brother Punesh cultivate 4 acres of land; of these, 2 acres belong to Lalita
and the land documents, namely, the Bhu adhikar avam rin pustika is in her name. Her step-brother
has repeatedly told her to keep this document with her and also to come and work on her land.
Lalita, on the other hand, is not too keen to take her share of land or keep the Bhu pustika with her.
She feels uncomfortable taking a portion of the small land away from her brother because farming is
his only means of livelihood and he has three children to raise. Moreover, her post-marital residence
was far from her natal village; this makes it very difficult for her to go and work on her own land.
Punesh regularly sends her 2–3 quintals of rice and wheat after every harvest. Lalita is very fond of
her brother and knows that he looks after her mother. However, during summer every year, she vis-
its her natal village to pluck mahua fruits from the 10 trees that are on her land. The trees yield about
2 quintals of mahua, which she sells for Rs 1200–1500 per quintal. She decides how to spend the
income she earns from this—usually it is spent on the education of her children, her young brothers
and sisters-in law, who are still studying in school, and in buying food for her family.
Lalita, however, said that in case she has any financial difficult or feels the need to ask for her
share of land, she would definitely do so. She said, “Land is very important for women, especially for
widows and deserted women, because they need to have a place to live and bring up their children.”
For Lalita, it’s a nuanced social relationship with her step-brother Punesh, based on mutual land
ownership. Both Lalita and Punesh are aware of their respective ownership rights, and try to honour it
to some extent. Punesh sends her a part of the produce from the land and does not mind if she keeps
her land documents with her or when Lalita collects mahua fruit from her own land to earn some
money.
Whereas the social norm accepts that, in case there are only daughters in a family, the daughter
will inherit the agricultural land; in this case, there is no conflict between social norms and the norms
of the state; what the inheritance would entail for all practical purposes, would be contextual to the
woman. This case shows that even though women are eligible to receive their share of parental
land, not all of them do so. Women’s chances of inheriting are weakened if they reside outside their
natal village, that is, the greater the distance of the marital home from the natal home, the higher the
chances of women being hesitant or not wanting to claim their share of land. In Lalita’s case, she
has clearly entered into a share cropping arrangement with her brother while retaining the rights to
the produce of the trees to herself. In the hypothetical scenario, if she did not have any brother, she
would have had to either sell that land or give it on lease to a lessee. In this case, the presence of a
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brother whom she trusts has helped her adapt social norms to her practical favour.
Case 5: Land owning widows are treated with much greater respect - Gulia bai
A complex pattern of land ownership emerges in tribal societies; land ownership has to be adjust-
ed and defined within polygamous relationships. The Gond society in the villages of Shahpur block
has evolved its own ways, as is evident in Gulia bai’s land ownership and inheritance. It describes
how within the existing social norms, adjustments are possible, and that there is indeed scope for
social mediation at a local level, to make land rights for women more equal.
Gulia bai is a resident of Raipur village, which is one of the larger villages with around 400–450
families. She is an elderly widow, who lives in a small two-room mud house at the centre of the vil-
lage, next to the primary and secondary schools. She got married at a very young age to Bishram and
had three daughters Saroj, Sakun, and Sunita. She lost her husband about 14 years ago, when her
daughters were still in school. As a widowed mother and as the sole supporter of her off-spring, Gu-
lia bai was forced to withdraw her children from school and press them into work, to earn a living for
the family. Bishram had been married earlier and had two sons, Barelal and Dhanaram. Barelal lives
in a hut adjacent to hers and Dhanaram lives in another house slightly away. Gulia bai’s grandson,
Rabi (Barelal’s son from his first wife) lives with her.
However, unlike many widows from low-income rural families, who are either disowned by their
relatives or are thrown out of their homes because of land and inheritance disputes, Gulia bai did not
face these problems. This was probably due to the fact that she has 5 acres of land (in three patches
of 2.5, 1 and 1.5 acres) registered in her name by her husband while he was still alive. So not only
is she operating as the household head but she is also the legal owner of the land. Of this, she has
given one acre to her eldest daughter Saroj and the rest is being cultivated by her two step-sons.
She has divided the land into four parts: in her name, Saroj’s name and in the names of her two step
sons—Barelal and Dhanaram. According to Gulia bai who is unlettered, she gave the most fertile
piece of land to Saroj because this is the only parcel of land which has a well. Gulia bai realises that
her ownership of land helped bring up her three young girls after her husband’s demise. She said, “If
I did not have land, I would have had to work as a labourer all my life to bring up my children.” Land
ownership helped Gulia bai overcome two common challenges that widows in India generally face:
loss of social status and reduced economic circumstances.
Saroj, Gulia bai’s eldest daughter, is 23 years old and is the mother of a six-month-old baby boy.
She was only 10 years old when her father died. In fact, the day he died, Saroj and her younger sister
Sakun were away at Ghati gaon where their parents had sent them to work as construction labour-
ers along with other people from the village. Abject poverty had forced the two girls to give up their
studies to work on road construction because they needed money to buy soya bean seeds for their
fields. She got to know about her father’s death only after they returned home after a few weeks. At
that time, her step-brothers did not help them much, leaving young Saroj to bring up her two sisters
and to look after her grieving mother, who had become an alcoholic after her husband’s death. She
decided to give up her studies and work in their fields and on others’ fields, and whenever possible
go out to work in nearby towns and villages. She got her two sisters married and was the last to get
married last year. Initially, she was reluctant to marry because she feared that there would be no one
to look after her aging mother.
Today, Saroj is happily married to Mahendra Singh Uike, who is very supportive of her and helps
her in cultivating her mother’s and her share of land in her natal village. Her two sisters, Sunita and
Sakun, also regularly send money and things to their mother. Saroj has realized the importance of
land in a woman’s life, especially widows who have only daughters and no sons. She said, “During
difficult times after my father’s death, having land gave me courage to bear the responsibilities of
looking after my mother and younger sisters. We need a little bit of land to live on and to earn a bit of
money for household expenses.”
Gulia bai’s case explains the fact that land-owning widows, who live with their adult sons or
step-sons, are treated with much greater respect and consideration than those who are landless and
economically dependent.
Case 6: Name in government records but prefers to give up claim on her land-Sumantra bai
Land rights activists and policy makers all over the world ask for clear ownership rights of women,
as in women’s names in the title deed and possession of the land so women feel empowered and
can take decisions, applying her agency. We explored this aspect of ownership with Sumantra bai
of Dodramohar village, Bhoura gram panchayat. She has her name in the land records of her father’s
land, who partitioned it among all his six daughters and two sons during his lifetime. This land is in
her natal village, Sukhtawa, where her parents currently live with their two sons and their families.
All six daughters, including Sumantra, live in their marital homes. Her father owns 8 acres of land and
he has included the names of all successors—his wife, six daughters and two sons in the bahi patta,
or land records.
But Sumantra has other priorities in life. She has to look after a large household, comprising her
husband, three daughters, a son, a daughter-in-law, a grandson, mother-in-law and her elder brother-
in-law, who is a widower with no children. Her eldest daughter, Mamta, is married whereas the
younger daughters, Premila and Sangeeta, are still studying in school. Mamta has been sent back to
her parents’ house by her mother-in-law when she did not bear children in spite of being married for
more than three years. Mamta and her husband have been living with Sumantra for the last one year.
Besides running this big household, Sumantra also runs a poultry farm that she built behind her
house. She started the poultry-rearing 15 years back and today she raises 800 chickens at a time,
six times a year, from which she earns around Rs 30,000 annually. She has painstakingly built the
poultry shed, for which she took loan of Rs 5000/ from her sister and Rs 9000 from the Shiv Mahila
Samiti SHG, of which she is a member. The asbestos sheets for the roof and the wire mesh for the
enclosure was provided by PRADAN. Sumantra bai and all other women, who engage in poultry
farming, are helped by the Kesla Poultry Samiti (KPS), which provides standardized raw material,
daily feed for chicken (there is a feed mill at PRADAN’s campus at Sukhtawa, managed by KPS),
does immunization and treatment of birds and buys the hens from the women once they grow.
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Poultry-rearing is her main productive engagement. In addition, she supports her husband to till their
1.5 acres of land. Her asset, however, also includes her land share of about an acre in her father’s
land in Sukhtawa village.
About the land that she legally owns in her natal village, Sumantra said although she was fully
aware of the fact she is the legal owner of her share of the land, she would not take physical
control of it until her brothers offer it to her. She said, “I will take my share of land only when my
brothers willingly give it. I will not stake my claim otherwise.” She further said that her father had,
on a number of occasions, asked her to cultivate her piece of land. However, she is too preoc-
cupied with her poultry farm to make time for other work. Her husband too does not want her to
take physical control of her land. It is one piece of land that is being tilled by her brothers. Suman-
tra never asked for any share of produce from her land plot, and the brothers have not offered it
either. Sumantra does not clearly know though that the Indian legal system is focussed on posses-
sion as one of the key determinants of ownership. In legal terms, it is said, “Title follows posses-
sion, and record follows the title.” This means, with continued possession, her brothers’ legal
claim on that land is slowly getting stronger.
Sumantra bai understands the importance of women’s ownership of land and assets because
of her own experiences of being owner of the poultry shed, which is her family’s regular source of
income. She has realized that land is a productive, wealth-creating and life-sustaining asset. She
feels that women should have land in their name so that they have a place of residence where they
can bring up their children. In other words, it provides a sense of identity and rootedness within the
village. She believes that sons and daughters are equal and have equal share in land and property.
Case 7: Land in woman’s name can reduce household’s risk of poverty - Ramkali bai
Our search for cases where women of the Gond and Korku tribal communities of Shahpur block
have got land ownership took us to Powerjhanda, a picturesque village nestled among the rolling hills
and plains, about 12 km off the National Highway 69, the main arterial road in this part of Madhya
Pradesh. We met Ramkali bai, 45, in her field located at the edge of this village alongside a rivulet
that acts as the irrigation source for her fields. On the other side of the rivulet is the Semarpura vil-
lage, which along with four other villages (Jamnagari, Jamundhana, Shahrpani, Powarjhnada), consti-
tutes Powarjhanda gram panchayat.
Ramkali bai does not belong to Semarpura village; in fact, it takes her nearly an hour to walk to her
field. This is the 2.5 acre land that was given to her by her father. The land is in her possession, and
fortunately her name is also on the khasra, khatauni and Bahi patta.
So is this the perfect case of a woman having clear and comprehensive land rights? Ramkali bai
got married at a young age to Laltu, who after his marriage came to live with his in-laws in Power-
jhanda village as ghar jamai. Ramkali was the youngest of three sisters and had a younger brother
Krishna. When she got married, Krishna was very young, her father’s health was deteriorating and
her mother had died. So, in order to look after and cultivate his fields, Ramkali’s husband was made
a ghar jamai and land was given to her. This was her father’s decision and her mother too had
wanted that her youngest daughter gets a share of the land. Her eldest sister, Rauni bai, and second
sister (who died a few years back) were not given any land. The day Ramkali got married, her brother
Krishna too got married to Phulwanti bai.
Ramkali’s father had 5 acres of land, of which Ramkali and Laltu cultivate 2.5 acres and the rest
are with her brother Krishna. This land was bought by their grandfather. Ramkali’s husband Laltu ac-
cepts that the 2.5 acre land they till to make a living is owned by his wife. He has checked this in the
land records, and clearly remembers, “I have seen her name in the khasra and naksha when I had to
get a caste certificate made. I saw it in the patwari’s office.” When we asked about the Bahi patta,
the de-facto title deed, we realized that it is with Krishna. However, both Ramkali and Laltu add that
Krishna knows that she owns and possesses this 2.5 acres of land and Krishna only tills his own
portion. The Bahi patta for the 5 acre land has three names—Ramkali’s, Rauni bai’s and Krishna’s.
However, when partition takes place, the land will be divided equally between Krishna and Ramkali.
Ramkali was proud to share with us how she and her husband had made the land highly produc-
tive. They grow paddy, maize, wheat, gram, and vegetables such as tomato, cauliflower, onion,
broad beans and aubergine. In fact, the vegetable production has been the result of her association
with PRADAN, which taught her how to rotate crops, produce vegetables, and other high return
items. They bought a diesel pump to irrigate the fields. Together, they decide what to grow on the
fields. After keeping some of the produce for consumption at home, the rest is usually sold in the
local markets of Bhoura and Shahpur or in Hoshangabad. Ramkali said they usually earn Rs 10,000
to 20,000 from vegetable cultivation. This was not the case about a decade back when they did not
grow vegetables. They had to migrate for work but according to Laltu, “Ab hume bahar nahi jaana
parta hai mazdoori karne ke liye. (We do not have to migrate now for work anymore).” Their life has
certainly changed for the better due to the land they own and the food crops that they produce on it.
Ramkali also has 10 decimals of bari land (homestead) held jointly with her brother Krishna. The
land records show both their names. Krishna has his own 1.5 acre bari land that has his house plus
vegetable garden as well. Krishna, however also has a share of his family’s ancestral land, which
although has not been divided, yet informally he is cultivating 6 acres of land.
Ramkali said that there is no tension between her brother and her because she was working
independently on the land. In fact, Krishna, who works as an ajeevika mitra, or community resource
person (CRP), in agriculture for PRADAN, has been instrumental in making Ramkali and Laltu learn all
the techniques of crop management. Krishna accepts the partition and it is evident that the commu-
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nity accepts it too. Ramakali and Krishna have accepted each other’s exclusive ownership of their re-
spective plots of land and still maintain harmonious relations with each other. This is not exceptional.
The social norm seems to be clear that brothers do have to accept the share of land given to their
sisters by their father under special circumstances. There could be various special circumstances
such as the one where the land is orally partitioned by their father at the time of bringing a ghar
jamai. In such a case, brothers would not resent or oppose women’s land rights. They would accept
this social norm and move forward. It’s difficult to ascertain if Krishna is following the norm set by
the state that made Ramkali legally an equal owner of her parental land, or he is following the social
norm that sets his expected behaviour in this case. Nevertheless, he is doing what is socially and
legally legitimate.
Ramkali’s case is an interesting pointer to the fact that whereas norms set by the state are
straightforward, blanket and non-contextual, social norms of inheritance, partition and ownership are
extremely contextual and adaptive to the local situation within the overall patriarchal framework. It
appears that moving towards greater equality for women would also require a contextual approach
within the overall framework of law.
Case 8: Staking claim to father’s land - Mangli bai

Most tribal families depend on wage labour to eke out a living. Dependence on wage labour is much
higher in villages away from forests when food from their own lands is not available. Wage work is
done both within the village and in neighbouring towns. Within the village, there is mostly agricultural
work; outside, usually work is on construction sites as unskilled construction labour. For women,
productive work comprises a mix of agriculture, gathering NTFP and wage labour. This was the case
for Mangli bai too till she realized the need to own a piece of land and initiated the process to ask for a
share of land from her brothers.
When we met Mangli Bai, we did not realize that her story is that of a prolonged fight against her
own brothers, who denied her a share of their parental land. Mangli Bai, a resident of Powerjhanda
village, is 65 years old, lives with her husband, a daughter, younger son, daughter-in-law and her
grandchild. Her elder son is in the Indian Army and currently posted in Delhi whereas Mangli bai’s
daughter lives in her marital home in Sukhtawa village. Mangli is lucky, her elder son has built her a
brick house with two rooms and a kitchen, in which one room is always kept reserved for him, and
the other room is used by the rest of the family. The house is built on a government land (locally
referred to as chote ghaas ki zameen). Three years ago, that is, before this house was built on her
insistence, they used to live in a mud house with a thatched bamboo roof. All her family members
work as agricultural workers in others fields. They have encroached on a 1.5 acres of land in the for-
est where they grow chana (lentil) and paddy in Jamunkhodri village. Being on encroached land, Hari,
her husband, has to guard the land constantly; so he has made a small hut and lives there most of
the time. Mangli and Hari are trying to get the Van Adhikar Patra for the land.
Mangli’s case did not follow social norms. Even though, her husband Hari Singh came to live with
her as a ghar jamai, she did not inherit any parental land. Hari Singh, however, has 5 acres of parental
land in Banjardhar village, which is now jointly held by his three brothers, including Hari. His parents
died when he was very young and he used to graze animals in his native village. It is quite probable,
that because they had no guardian to look after them, Hari, the youngest, got married to become a
ghar jamai so that his life becomes stable. Hari’s parental land is not partitioned as yet. Mangli bai
visits her in-laws village to cultivate the land and during festivals.
Mangli bai and her husband do not own any agricultural land. Although she lives in her natal vil-
lage, she did not inherit any land or property from her parents. She has two brothers and a sister.
Her elder brother, who died a few years back, has four sons whereas the younger brother has three
sons. Her father had 5 acres of land, which was partitioned equally between her two brothers. In
addition, her elder brother had also bought about 3–4 acres land. The study revealed that among the
settled agricultural tribes, gender inequality still persists in relation to ownership of land and prop-
erty. Land usually passes through the male lineage and, under customary law, women do not have
inheritance rights to land. This was the case with Mangli bai too. Being landless and property-less,
Mangli bai today has realized the value and importance of owning agricultural land. Aware of the fact
that daughters too, like sons, have a share of their family land, she is determined to get her share of
land from her brothers. When her father was alive, she used to cultivate 3–4 decimals of his land and
grew lentils (tuvar) and sesame seeds (tilli). She also looked after him in his old age. However, after
Case Studies | 69
his death, she gave up farming that piece of land and instead has been leasing land on a sharecrop-
ping basis. In case of leased land, if she provides the seeds and fertilizers, she gets to keep two-third
of the produce, if not she gets one-third of the total output.
In 2013, she approached the tehsil office with an application to claim her share of land, that is,
one-third of the total land because she had been informed by a clerk in the tehsil office that, as per
law, men and women have equal inheritance rights to agricultural land. She was also informed that
in order for her to get her share, she needed the consent of her brothers and all three would have to
visit the tehsil office together. She then asked her village patwari to help with partitioning the land so
that she could get her share. She, however, faces a lot of resistance from her eldest brother and his
four sons whereas the younger brother is willing to give her, her share of land.
She has realized that if she had land in her name, she would be respected more by her children as
well as others in her village. “Hamare paas zameen hai to izzat hain—nahi to kaun itna gulami karega
(If we have land, we have respect—else how long do we slave for others)?” Her elder daughter-in-
law hardly ever visits her and she knows this might change if she becomes a landowner. Land de-
fines social status in the village, and it structures relationships both within and outside households.
Having worked as a landless agricultural worker all her life, she realizes that land is economically
empowering and that it confers direct economic benefits because it is a source of production and
income and is collateral for financial and credit services.
Case 9: Van Adhikar Patra provides sense of security - Kalavati bai

Owning land and having a secure title deed gives both tangible and intangible benefits such as use of
land for farming, collateral for credit and increased income. The intangible benefits include a sense of
empowerment because women with a secure land title experience economic and psychological security.
Kalavati bai, 63, lives in Bara Dhana mohalla in Handipani village, one of the 92 forest villages in
Betul district. The village is inhabited by Korkus primarily, with 360 households. It is 10 km from
Bhoura, the closest market on National Highway 69. The other Korku-dominated villages are more
remote and farther away from the highway. Handipani is one of the three villages that make up the
gram panchayat, the others being Kuppa and Sonadai.
Kalavati bai lives with her younger son Paras Ram, daughter-in-law Premvati and two grand-
sons. Kalavati’s middle son’s (he died a few years back) widow, Malti, and her two daughters also
live with her. Kalavati’s husband died about five years ago. Her eldest son, Chait Ram, and his
family live separately in the same village. Kalavati is the head of the household. Paras Ram is a dai-
ly wage earner, works with the forest department as a casual labour, and gets about 8–10 days of
work every month. Malti cooks the mid-day meal in a nearby school, and gets a salary of Rs 1,000
per month.
Before the implementation of the FRA Act, most households in this village cultivated about 15–20
acres of land each. As such, forest dwellers (mainly tribal) had usufruct rights in forest villages,
where a 15-year lease was granted to them by the state Forest Department because the ownership
rights were held by the latter. It is only when forest villages are converted into revenue villages that
the lessees acquired bhumiswami rights. Many areas, as per the Indian Forest Act 1927, were often
declared as ‘government forests’, without any record of who lived there and what land they were
using. Forest dwellers have no legal right either to their homes or land; owing to this, many were
subjected to harassment, eviction, etc., on being considered encroachers in their own homes. FRA
granted legal recognition to the rights of traditional forest dwelling communities, partially correcting
the injustice caused by the forest laws. One of the key features of FRA is that it provides title rights,
in the form of Van Adhikar Patra, that is, ownership of land, that is being farmed by tribal or forest
dwellers as on 13 December 2005, subject to a maximum of 4 ha. The ownership is for the lands be-
ing farmed and no new lands are given.
Kalavati bai today is the legal owner of 3.345 ha of land in her village and she has a copy of the
Van Adhikar Patra that was given to her in 2010; it is on her name first and then her husband Pen-
chu’s name. Although unlettered, she is aware of what is written on the title. With help from the
others present, she told us that the title also had the names of her two sons—Surat Ram (who
died about 2–3 years back), her younger son Paras Ram and Malti her daughter-in-law, Surat Ram’s
widow. Her elder son lives separately and his land is yet to be measured in order for him to get the
Van Adhikar Patra. The certificate mentions that she has a total of 3.345 ha, which is in five plots. Of
the five, she cultivates the talab vala khet and bari vala khet; the rest has been left fallow due to lack
of water. In the former, wheat is cultivated whereas they grow lentils (chana), chillies and brinjals
on the bari zameen, or homestead land. The family of eight members consumes 4–5 quintals of
wheat and vegetables. She also has 10 mahua trees and two jamun trees on her land and a well, the
water of which is used to irrigate the land in winters when water is available (thandi ka kua). During
summer, the wells run dry. She sells approximately 405 quintals of mahua for about Rs 10,000. The
certificate of land ownership has given her a sense of security as well as access to several benefits.
When asked how she got the certificate, Kalavati could not recall the formation of FRC in her vil-
lage; instead, she remembers that they had been informed by the gaon kotwar about a meeting be-
ing organized by the Forest Ranger (commonly referred to as ‘Deputy Saab’ by the villagers) where
each of them whose land had been measured were given a Van Adhikar Patra.
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She said that the Van Adhikar Patra is very important because it is not only proof of her land
ownership but it helps her get entitlements such as fertilizers and seeds from the government.
She said “Jab bhi zaroorat hain to patta jama karke khad lete hain. Patta hain to khad mila aur gehu
boye. Patta aur zameen hume haq deta hain. (Whenever we need it, we deposit the certificate and
collect the fertilizer. Because we have the patta, we get the fertilizer and sow wheat. The patta
and our land give us our rights.)” She informed us that she has the photocopy of the document
because the original certificate is with the cooperative society for procuring the fertilizer. She
needs to pay Rs 4,000–5000 to the society for the fertilizer, after which she would get the certifi-
cate back.
On being asked if she would partition the land among her sons, she replied that the Van Adhikar
Patra has given her a sense of confidence and she has decided she will not give the land to her
children as long as she is alive because she knows that as she grows older, the land will provide her
with food and shelter. She proudly told us, “Kaiko denge….hume kaun khilayega? Na beta na beti.
(Why should I give the land? Who will feed me then? Neither my son nor my daughter).”
Case 10: Land in women’s names prevents it from being signed away - Shivkala bai
Shivkala bai of Dendupura village works hard on her farm to repay the money she owes to the bank
to get back her bahi patta given to the bank as collateral. She and her husband together own 8 acres
of land, of which 4 acres are in her name and the rest in her husband’s name. Even though she owns
4 acres of land, she could not prevent Balmat, her husband, from mortgaging a part of it to the bank
for a loan of Rs 20,000, to buy a tractor. Although Balmat bought the tractor, he could not repay the
loan and had to return the tractor to the bank. The depreciated value of the tractor was not enough to
pay back the loan in its entirety with interest. As a result, Shivkala’s bahi patta is still mortgaged with
the bank. She also told us that Balmat had, in one of his drunken states, sold off 1 acre of his land to
a neighbour because he needed money to pay for his liquor.
Shivkala knows that she made a mistake in letting her husband buy the tractor by mortgaging
her own land ownership document. Shivkala trusted her husband because he took the initiative to
divide their 8 acres of land into two, and made Shivkala the owner of 4 acres. She said, by doing so,
they could get grants under the Kapildhara scheme from MNREGA for digging wells on her land and
on Balmat’s land. MNREGA grants for wells are given to small and marginal farmers owning land of
0.4–2 ha. It’s a specialized assistance, in which one can dig a well on land owned by him/her and get
paid for the days she/he works on digging the well. The idea is to create private economic assets for
poor SC/STs as well as provide them with a source of income. The well has improved the irrigation in
her field. Moreover, with PRADAN’s support, Shivkala has adopted progressive farming techniques
to make her small farms provide good yield. She grows tomatoes, chilies, peas, aubergine and other
vegetables, which not only provide her and her family with food and nutrition but also the additional
income. She sells the vegetables either at the Bhoura market or in the local village market. The
money earned is usually spent on buying food, spices such as jeera, turmeric powder, salt, oil, garlic,
tea leaves, washing powder, clothes for herself and her children. The wheat and gram, which also
grows on her fields, are not sold but consumed at home.
Shivkala is well aware of the fact that she is entitled to her share in her parental land. Shivkala’s
father owns 40 acres of land in her natal village Gurari, which is not too far from her marital village.
Shivkala’s father wanted to divide the land equally among all his 8 children—4 sons and 4 daugh-
ters. After her father’s death, her eldest brother Ramesh refused to give her a share of the land. In
fact, he was so upset with his father that he had once beaten his father up because he wanted to
give land to his daughters. Shivkala tried to enter into a conversation with her brother, but he did not
budge. Today, she has reluctantly given up the thought of claiming her share of land from her broth-
ers Ramesh, Ram Das and Shyam Kishore.
Shivkala is the owner of 4 acres of land given to her from her marital home and the notional
owner of 5 acres of land from her natal family. Nothing can be more ideal for her in terms of property
rights. However, patriarchal norms and forces deny her enjoyment of her rights. At her parental end,
the patriarchal force operates through her elder brother, who simply refuses to give her possession.
A common problem affecting farmers is that they often sign away the title to their land as collateral.
Knowing this and her husband’s addiction to alcohol, and the experience of her husband signing
away a piece of their land, Shivkala bai has today realized that it is important that the land should be
in women’s names.
73
12 Summary of Findings
The action research study which focused on exploring the relationship between land and women;
its importance in the life of women and the present status of tribal women’s land rights revealed the
following:
Women do not own land — Even though land is the most important asset in rural areas, yet
women are systematically excluded from asset ownership both in maternal and marital homes. They
therefore remain vulnerable without any back-up support in case of emergencies and unfavorable
situations. The study showed that only 5 per cent women had land records in their names while 7
per cent had land in their possession in their marital as well as parental homes. The study revealed
that in the case of parental land, 40.6 per cent of brothers had records in their names, while 61 per
cent had possession of land. This explains the fact that the brothers are in possession of their own
plus their sisters’ land as well.
However the social contexts when women are likely to receive land are: a) when there is no son,
then daughters are likely to inherit; b) when parents decide to have ghar-jamai, then daughter might
get her share of land; c) if daughter looks after parents in their old age she is likely to get land even if
she has brothers; d) to avoid crossing the land ceiling or to access government benefits land can be
purchased in the name of daughter or daughter-in –law; e) widow is likely to inherit along with sons;
f)young widow with child is likely to get share of land.
Single women are more vulnerable — The study revealed that single women (never married,
deserted, abandoned, widows) may be absolutely landless i.e. not having either homestead or ag-
ricultural land. Hence they are dependent on relatives for shelter. 46 per cent of single women and
55 per cent of women of landless families reported not owning homestead land. A majority of them
- nearly 68 per cent of women of landless families reside on government land, and 56 per cent of
single women either live with their parents or in-laws.
Women’s right to her husband’s land is more accepted than her right to parental land — Wom-
en’s right to her husband’s land is a more acceptable phenomenon as compared to her right on parental
land. For women it gives them a sense of security for future while for men it is the social norm. In addi-
tion women felt that they have rights over husband’s land as widows and not when they were married.
Land is not transferred in the names of current users — The study revealed that in this region
land mutation has not taken place for a few generations and that land records have not been up-
dated. In around 71 per cent cases land records are in the names of father-in- law, mother-in-law and
grandfathers and grandmother-in- law. This is mostly because it entails a cumbersome process and
several visits to the tehsil office. As such transfer of land is generally not done by the successors,
hence land remains usually in the grandfathers’ names and not in the name of the current user. This
reflects the fact that informal land sharing arrangements exist between brothers in tribal society. This
makes it more vulnerable for women to claim their right to land.
Societal norms and traditions are patriarchal in nature — There is a strong resistance to the
idea of land and asset ownership by women stemming from societal norms and traditions of a very
patriarchal nature. The social factor of maintaining a harmonious relationship with the parental family
is a key factor in women not claiming inheritance rights. The study revealed that about 73 percent
women from landless families and 68 per cent of single women did not want a share of their paren-
tal land. The main reasons cited were- not to sour relations with brother; father’s land is not much;
other sisters will stake their claim too; and do not need to as financially well off.
Supportive legal framework for women’s land rights — Laws such as Hindu Succession Amend-
ment Act and the Madhya Pradesh Land Revenue Code have recognized women’s equal right to ag-
ricultural land at par with men. The former has recognized Hindu women’s equal rights to land under
succession, in the absence of a will.
Lack of awareness amongst women about the different ways in which they can access their
land rights — Land has always been considered a subject for men and is seldom discussed with
women. As such women in general are not aware about their land rights, have not heard about the
land-related documents and have no idea about how land is divided in the family. Neither as wife nor
as daughter does she know how land is transferred to the next generation.
75
13 Recommendations and
Action Ideas
The findings of the study were examined two levels of discussions, to arrive at some broad recom-
mendations for working on women’s land right issues and also to articulate some concrete actions
steps for NMS to engage with the women in its operational areas.
13.1 Discussion with NMS

At the first stage, Landesa and PRADAN jointly conducted a one-and-a-half day sharing session with
the NMS leadership.
The sharing event had four components built into it. First, Landesa shared the data analysis in a
manner that is comprehensible to the women of NMS. Second, the NMS leaders discussed their
thoughts on the findings among themselves. Third, a few women shared their own life experiences,
and fourth, the barefoot researchers shared their own experiences and learning. A participatory exer-
cise to determine NMS’s action plan followed the sharing.
Sharing of Women Researchers’ Experiences

The women and men barefoot researchers, who conducted the field survey, shared their personal
experiences of interacting with the respondents. Their experiences can be summarized as follows.
• Most often, the barefoot researchers had to face the respondents’ question of whether the
survey would be of any benefit to them or not. The women and men respondents clearly
had expectations from the survey. Also some of the respondents were fearful of any hid-
den intent such as land acquisition behind the survey. The barefoot researchers had to
overcome this first challenge by talking and interacting with them, explaining the purpose
of the survey, and also that the survey is actually not for any external agency but for NMS
itself. That helped in developing mutual trust.
• A clearly distinguishable behaviour was that when the barefoot researchers asked the men
if they would give a share of the land to their daughters, they replied on their own whereas
when the women were asked the same question, they often looked at the husbands or
brothers for the answer.
• One surveyor discovered that a male respondent had actually deceived his sister into sign-
ing the No Objection Certificate, forfeiting her right to land. On probing, the barefoot re-
searchers understood that the woman had no idea then what she had signed off.
• When the barefoot researchers asked questions on land documents, possession, partition,
mutation, the respondents started asking for more information on these issues. At the end
of the survey, the barefoot researchers often had to take time and explain these issues.
• Through the process of the survey, the barefoot researchers and many of the respondents
became aware of the land documents, mutation and partition processes, as well as devel-
oped clarity on social norms.
• Many respondents did not believe that women have a right to the land of the husband or
the parents.
• Some women respondents said that if they had to claim their rights as daughters, their
sisters-in-laws (husband’s sisters) would also have the same claims. The women respon-
dents did not like the idea.
• The barefoot researchers discovered that single women are more vulnerable and really
have no place of their own. They live sub-human existences.
• A surveyor said the women of forest dwellers families often are not aware of FRCs, they
are more aware of forest protection committees, which were promoted by the forest de-
partment in the late nineties.
• A surveyor said that some women are willing to demand land for themselves but are reluc-
tant to give a share of their land to their daughters.
13.2 Action Points Articulated by NMS

The concrete action steps, as deliberated by the participants, can be summarized here.
• Initiating a mass awareness generation programme for NMS members, using various tools
such as theatre groups and FGDs.
• Initiating work with single women, who are in the most vulnerable position, for their land
rights; NMS representatives decided to identify such families in their respective villages.
• Identifying families willing for land distribution, and facilitating the process by helping them
access the services of the revenue department.
• Engaging with officials of the revenue department and the forest department, and hasten-
ing the process of land distribution after understanding the legal provisions.
Recommendations and Action Ideas | 77
• Working closely with similar CSOs and CBOs by creating a network.

• In the wake of the coming panchayat elections some participants suggested that we should
make this an agenda in the panchayat elections. In view of the reservation of seats for tribal
communities, a large number of people who get elected are also in a space where they can
play a role in influencing traditional practices and customs.
• Women reflected that they are still linking the issue of their land ownership to their identi-
ties – as wives primarily or as daughters – but why not just as women – irrespective of their
identities – women need to also have ownership rights over property.
• The stakeholder consultation also vocalized its disturbance over the increasing phenom-
enon of displacement of tribal communities through large projects or industrialization the
brunt of which is borne by women.
More importantly, NMS representatives felt the need for more deliberations on this issue across
its tiers, at various public forums and also at the household level.
13.3 Consultation with Other Stakeholders

At the second level, the findings of the research programme were taken up with various CSOs, lead-
ers of tribal communities, PRI representatives and CBOs, especially women federations of nearby
districts. The basic objective of the event was to facilitate the emergence of a network of like-mind-
ed individuals and organizations to work on the issue of women’s land rights by triggering debate
and deliberations on societal beliefs, individual stances and legal provisions toward women’s land
rights. The entire discussion was positioned within the larger perspective of ‘issues of land rights of
tribal communities’.
A two-day workshop that began on 22 September 2014 was divided into two segments. In the
first, the findings of the research were presented and discussed in the plenary. In the second, mem-
bers brainstormed on the issue in small groups.
In the first part, the entire day was spent in discussions around the findings of research. The dis-
cussion highlights are as following:
• The tribal community traditionally never had the notion of private property, evident in the
fact that applications for holding land from tribal areas were fewer. Tribals believed and
practised the common property law. Their relationship with the land considerably reflects
upon related areas, one of it is ownership of land. So, the issue needs to be considered
keeping in mind the cultural context and the beliefs of tribal community.
• A very important factor is of social security, which leads to status in society. This social
security is provided by family relationships and the reason for not demanding land is that
the family is the unit that provides social security and support. In this context, women’s
demand for land will have an immediate impact on this social support system, for example,
in the Arrack Andolan of Andhra Pradesh, the strength of women’s collective fight against
their families was that any woman standing against her family had the support of all the
women in the village for the same cause and in same situation. Society has to somewhere
take responsibility of giving that ‘social security’ in question; women collectives such as
NMS have a major role to play in this.
• The question of the use of land if a woman is married to someone in a faraway place was
also raised but the majority of the participants found this to be a reason to deny women her
property rights.
• The group also flagged its concern about land not being partitioned for the last one or two
generations, which is a serious impediment toward women’s land right.
In the second part of the workshop, on the second day, four sub-groups were formed. They dis-
cussed the following topics.
• Why are there so many conditions when it comes to giving land/property to women and
what roles can women’s collectives such as NMS play in this situation?
• The state laws and customs are different; what should be the stance of organizations work-
ing on the issue of women’s land right? Should the uniform civil code (UCC) be applicable
instead of personal laws, especially when there are discriminatory practices in personal
laws?
The sub-groups ideated some action steps as well as some broad recommendations, summarized
here.
A. Sensitizing community and duty bearers and influencing formulation of laws
The foremost need is to sensitize society at large about women’s right to land. All the four
groups suggested this. Women, men and the government need to be sensitized. Men
should also be included in this process of thinking about the future of their daughters and
sisters. Officials in the revenue department need to have a gender-sensitive approach in
their work. When the government formulates and passes laws, the process should follow a
participatory approach, wherein the local people, especially women, contribute to the law-
making process. Group discussions highlighted that there has been serious lack of commu-
nication between the state and the people when formulating laws. The group also realized
that the space for dialogue needs to have a strong presence of women; without special
focus, this will not happen. Women’s organizations such as NMS were also considered
important stakeholders in this process.
B. Capacity building and awareness

The groups suggested that there should be legal awareness programmes for all, with a
special emphasis on the younger generation so that awareness, understanding and sen-
sitivity to the issue is built early and the young are in alignment with the changes. Next in
importance is the transmission of knowledge about the law among women while simulta-
neously building the capacity of federation leaders to take up the issue of land rights, based
on them having accurate knowledge of these.
C. Advocacy for better laws and system

One suggestion was that, after marriage, the property of both is merged followed by own-
ership of the property as a couple—a system similar to that in western countries.
Also, the groups suggested that there was great need for forming groups or collectives
of women that will network with like-minded individuals and organizations, which, in turn,
will act as pressure groups to pursue different agenda at various levels.
D. Implementation and support structure for implementation

There are many loopholes in implementing HSAA although it is supportive of women. Also,
there is lack of clarity in terms of responsibilities of different departments at the state level.
For this, there is need to create a support structure.

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Executive Summary vii

8. Capacity building Methodology 22

9. Overall Findings from the Quantitative Study 24

9.11 Women and Men’s Awareness of Succession Processes

10. Qualitative Study 51

11. Case Studies 55

12. Summary of Findings 73

Livelihoods enhancement strategies of government and non-government organizations have often

3 Objectives of the Action

Case Study: Anita Bai of Tekripura

4 Action Research Strategy

5.1 Purpose and Structure

5.2 Laws and Policies Related to Land in Madhya Pradesh

5.3 Madhya Pradesh Land Revenue Code 1959

5.4 Rights over Forest Land

5.5 State Government’s Policy on Women and Land

5.6 Previous Research on Land Issues in Madhya Pradesh

Legislative Measures Description

5.7 Contributions of the Present Study

Table 2: Framework for Questionnaire

Table 3: Planned Coverage of Respondents*

7.2 Key Informant Interviews and Focus Group Discussions (FGDs)

7.3 Case Studies

• A forest dweller, who makes use of the Van Adhikar Patra

9 Overall Findings from the

Table 4: Coverage of the Survey by Type of Respondents

Category of the Respondents No.

9.1 Demographic Characteristics

Table 5. Demographic Characteristics of Study Population*

Background Characteristics Women of Women of Single Forest Men

Figure 1: Living Arrangements of Single Women (Percent)

9.2 Possession of Marital Family Land and Land Records

Table 6. Ownership and Possession of Land in Landed Marital Families*

9.3 Possession of Parental Land and Land Records

Table 7. Ownership and Possession of Land in Parental Families*

9.4 Single Women and Women of Landless Families

Figure 2: Women of Landless Families Owning Titles to their Homesteads

Table 8. Ownership of Land by Single Women and Women of Landless Families*

9.5 Awareness about Land-related Documents

Table 9. Key Indicators of Awareness Level about Land*

9.6 Women’s Awareness of Land Rights

Figure 3: Attitude of Women about Land Rights

9.7 Women’s Inheritance Rights as Perceived by Women and Men

Landed Landless Single Men Forest

Table 11. Reasons for Daughter Inheriting Parental Property*

9.8 Women’s Right to Husband’s Land

Landless women 100

Single women 100

Table 12A. Perception about Single Women’s Right to Husbands Land*

9.9 Social Norms with Regard to Women Getting Land

Table 13. Perceptions about the Rights of Various Categories of Women to

9.10 Willingness of Women and Men to Honour Women’s Land Rights

Table 14. Reason to Give Land to Daughters*

9.11 Women and Men’s Awareness of the Succession Processes