Tribal Women's Property Rights and Gender Equality
The discourse on tribal women's property rights is crucial for ensuring gender equality, as highlighted by a recent Supreme Court judgment in India. This discussion gains prominence post the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples.
Supreme Court Judgment: Ram Charan and Ors. vs Sukhram and Ors.
- The case involved the exclusion of daughters from ancestral property, deemed as a violation of their fundamental right to equality.
- Involved parties were legal heirs of a Scheduled Tribe (ST) woman from Chhattisgarh, seeking partition of her maternal grandfather's property.
- The original courts dismissed the case citing no existing custom granting women rights in the Gond tribe.
- The Chhattisgarh High Court eventually granted equal property rights to the female heirs, challenging discriminatory customs.
Policy and Customary Laws
- Madhu Kishwar and Ors. vs State Of Bihar and Ors. (1996) highlighted issues of gender disparity in tribal inheritance.
- Tribal customary laws often exclude women from land inheritance, despite their significant contribution to agriculture.
- In Scheduled Five Area States, tribal women possess only 16.7% of the land compared to 83.3% by men.
- Tribal lands are communitarian but rarely distribute proceeds from sales to village councils.
Challenges and Legal Precedents
- Fear of land alienation due to inter-tribal marriages curtails women's inheritance rights.
- Customs must meet criteria like antiquity and reasonableness to be lawfully recognized.
- Jharkhand High Court's decision in 2022 favored property rights for Oraon tribe women.
- The Supreme Court's 2022 decision in Kamala Neti case furthered gender parity in tribal property rights.
Future Directions
- The Hindu Succession Act, 2005 excludes tribal women; a separate Tribal Succession Act is suggested.
- Codification of tribal laws, similar to those for Hindus and Christians, could address these issues.
Author: Shalini Saboo, Junior Fellow, Prime Ministers Museum and Library, New Delhi.