Mangalore: Yawning Gender Inequality on Ownership of Property in State

Pics: Spoorthi Ullal
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore

Mangalore, Nov 24: A one day legal workshop on Women and Property Rights was held at Prajna Counseling Centre on Wednesday November 23.

The workshop has been a part of the Karnataka Household Asset Survey (KHAS) project of the Centre for Public Policy, Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore and was organized by Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore in association with Prajna Counseling Centre in the city.

The day-long workshop included sessions on overview of gender, law and legal literacy issues, inheritance and succession legislation and problem solving through group discussions. Participants were also given an overview about KHAS project and the basic objective of the workshop and the participants discussed threadbare all the issues concerned.

Suchthra J Y, a member of the group that conducted the survey for the Centre for Public Policy, IIM, Bangalore giving information about the project stated that the project “In Her Name: Measuring the Gender Asset Gap” sponsored by the External Affairs Ministry of Government of Netherlands is a study undertaken in Equador, Ghana and India. In India the survey has been undertaken in Karnataka under the title Karnataka Household Asset Survey 2010-11. The survey which began in 2010 is based on the survey of 4110families in the state and is an effort to quantify the exact percentage of gender based possession of property and assets.

The main thrust of the survey she said has been on the possession of land by men vs women, how they acquire possession of property and ownership of property by women vis-à-vis decision taking role of women. She also pointed out that the survey clearly indicated that the ownership of land was three times more among men as compared to women and a higher percentage of ownership among women was noticed only with regard to possession of jewelry. She also stated that the survey substantiated the widely accepted fact of the prevailing gender bias against women with regard to possession of property and helped to quantify it so as to get a clear picture of the bias.

Advocate Soumya Bhat who moderated the discussions of the day talked about the importance of law and its proper use by women and said the workshop has been an effort to create awareness on this front. She opined that women are not making use of the law to assert their position which is the main cause of their being subjugated to all sorts of violence and discrimination and continue to suffer as a result of this lethargic attitude. “In the name of love, family and society women continue to suffer all sorts of injustice and that is why the gender bias continues to exist in all its ugly form”, she asserted. With regard to possession of ancestral property she said that the marital status of women does not alter the position of her share of property.

Group discussions and problem solving exercises were given to participants to assess their legal knowledge and to know their reaction and response to a particular problem when faced with in their day to day life.

Earlier Prof Hilda Rayappa, director of Prajna counseling centre who welcomed the gathering pointed out the huge gap between men and women when it comes to ownership of land, assets, household consumer articles and other possessions. She also expressed her happiness about the changed perception of women to assert their position as more and more women are coming forward to seek counseling and help to overcome their marital problem arising out of domestic problems.