Persisting Inequalities: Gender and Land Rights in Rajasthan

Abstract

This paper critically analyses issues related to gender and land rights in the state of Rajasthan. It argues that serious gender gaps continue to exist in ownership and control over land; and land rights have remained elusive to women despite state policies and interventions to increase women’s access to land. Socio-cultural factors persisting in the state prevent women from claiming their rights to land. The ideology and practice of stringent patriarchy through which women’s subordination is perpetuated is reinforced through institutional structures. Even where women enjoy ownership rights, they do not exercise effective control over land and their expansion of spaces in agriculture as well in their participation in other domains at the household and community level is restricted. This is evident in their inability to lease, mortgage or dispose-off land and its products. Land rights in the state also continue to be embedded in a strong cultural bias against female inheritance in the implementation of laws.