Uttarakhand to give land ownership rights to women working in their husband’s fields

The Uttarakhand government is planning to give land ownership rights to women who work in their husband’s fields by amending the Uttarakhand Zameendari Abolition and Land Reforms Act, chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat said on Tuesday.

Rawat said the move was aimed to facilitate the women who are working in fields owned by their husbands especially in the hilly areas of the state.

So far in Uttarakhand, land ownership rights are transferred to men in the family which are then passed on to their sons. The government has been planning to introduce it for the daughters and now it is also mulling the same for wives.

“Traditionally in the hilly areas, men and their wives are involved in the farming on their land. However, men are largely involved in just heavy labour intensive work like ploughing of field and remaining about 90% farming related works are done by their wives only. Despite that they don’t have any ownership of that piece of land but their husbands,” said Rawat.

“Due to this, if any woman wants to take some loan for any farming related work on the field, they are denied because they don’t have the ownership of the land. Once this amendment is introduced in the aforementioned Act, they will also have the ownership rights of the land along with their husbands and take loan,” he said.

The chief minister said: “Till now it is somewhat unfair, that despite doing the maximum work in fields, they don’t have any ownership of the land. Once they are also given the ownership, it will also make them more self-dependent and help in women empowerment in the state.”