Gender Justice Vis-À-Vis Property Rights Of Daughter Under Hindu Succession Law
- IJLLR Journal
- 52 minutes ago
- 2 min read
Vandita Sharma, Teaching at The Law School, University of Jammu, India
ABSTRACT
Hindu women have been discriminated since time immemorial in all spheres of life. This fact is well known that property rights have a profound impact on the national economy still disparity in property rights pertaining to gender, spells from ancient times. Gender analysis of Hindu law relating to a woman’s access to property within the home reveals a consistent pattern of subordination of women’s economic interests. While enjoying the formal status of equality at law, in essence, a woman remains economically dependent on her parents, husband, or children from birth until death. The legislative reforms have perpetuated a myth that Indian women occupy a high status in Indian society. The reality is, however, that legislation has not improved everyday life for the majority of women as bulk of Indian women are illiterate and hold little or no property in their name. Economically, socially and politically, women remain at the lowest strata of society in India. Women empowerment, equal rights to both men and women, equal share of property, etc., are some of the issues which we discuss every day, in life, newspaper and on television. But the reality which bites is that these issues are still “unresolved”. The methodology for the research has been carried out on legal propositions by way of analysing the existing statutory provisions and cases by applying the reasoning power. The research involves analysis of case law, arranging, ordering and systematising legal propositions by rational deduction. The present research paper tries to analyse the property rights of Hindu women and highlight that how the position of Hindu daughter vis-à-vis her property rights has been ameliorated from Shastras to present era. It also points out some of the lacunas that still remain to be filled in order to achieve gender just property laws. It is concluded that it is time that India breaks free from the obsolete, patriarchal norms and give the woman her due. More gender sensitive property laws should be drafted, so that justice and equity may prevail over the archaic chauvinistic ideals. This will not only redeem the position of the Indian family structure in the eyes of the world but will also make it a more happy composition of contended individuals.
Keywords: Women, gender, justice, empowerment, succession
