A study on women’s rights and opportunities conducted in 30 low and middle income countries (LMIC) including India has shown that rural and indigenous women lack sufficient legal protection. The report, titled ‘Power and Potential’ and published by Rights and Resources Initiative, surveyed women belonging to “Scheduled Tribe and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers” communities in the country.
Among the key implications of the study is that most of the surveyed countries lacked adequate laws protecting the inheritance rights of the women. Inheritance rights of women were usually linked to their marital status. The problem was that customary marriages practiced among indigenous communities were not recognized and complications arose if the women were widowed or were in consensual unions.
In countries where women were protected by laws prohibiting economic domestic violence, their economic empowerment and ability to inherit land were higher.
The study makes several recommendations, among which formulating laws protecting rural and indigenous women and reforming existing legislation to ensure full recognition of women’s rights are a few.
Posted on :
Jun 14, 2017