Ankita Amarnath Kamath & Aamnaya Jagannath Mishra, National Law University Odisha, Cuttack
ABSTRACT
Women’s land and property rights are intrinsically linked to their empowerment in society. From ensuring food security and a constant source of income to reducing the incidence of domestic violence and HIV, women’s property and land ownership rights are indispensable to securing their right to equality. Over the years, women’s property rights in India have gradually progressed with the introduction of gender sensitive legal reforms. This article seeks to analyze the evolution of Hindu women’s property rights in India through the prism of Hindu customary and personal laws. In this context, the authors discuss the legislative developments in Hindu law since 1937 to the present that have attempted to accord an equal status to Hindu women with respect to property ownership and the lacunae existing therein. Further, with the aid of contemporary case laws, the authors also analyze judicial interpretations on major points of contention that arose in the wake of these legal reforms. However, it has been observed that these positive changes have largely remained confined to statutes and failed to achieve desired results at the ground-level owing to gaps in their implementation. Through this article, the authors explore the existing socio-cultural norms and patriarchal traditions deep-rooted in the Indian societal fabric even today that have prevented large scale implementation of these legal reforms. In order to bridge this gap between the law and its implementation, the authors provide suggestions emphasizing on the need to initiate social reform as a sine qua non for realizing the full implementation of the existing legal reforms.
