The latest census has revealed that land ownership among women has reached 19.7 percent, from 10.3 percent ten years ago. This welcome shift is the result of the gradual changes in property laws, beginning 1975, when the law for the very first time allowed for any woman unmarried at 35 to inherit her father’s property. Prior to this, there were no clear legal provisions in Nepal regarding women and property, and the laws at the time mostly followed social norms, which considered a woman’s property her husband’s.
Before the era of women’s activism and lobbying for change, laws were often just the written and codified forms of social norms. In the UK, for example, until 1870, a woman’s property was transferred to her husband after marriage, and men got to retain their wife’s property after divorce. Only in 1922 were husband and wife allowed to inherit property equally. In the US, the process of legally recognizing the property of married women started in 1850, but even by 1920, four states were not ready to let women own property. In India, the process started in 1936, but the law was severely limited, giving preference to social norms where the property reverts to parents or brothers in case of any eventuality. The law was amended several times, most recently in 2005, finally giving women the right to equally inherit their parents’ property and hold on to their personal properly after marriage.
Coming to Nepal, several more changes to the law have made it easier for women to own property. In 2002, the Women’s Property Rights Bill was passed, which ensured men and women would inherit property equally. Also, this bill allowed women to get an equal share in their husband’s property immediately after marriage, rather than after 15 years of wedlock. Currently, there is also the provision of 25 percent tax exemption if a property is registered in a woman’s name, which could also have contributed to an increase in women’s property ownership.
There have been arguments that changing the law does not lead to changes in the society. But in fact, as more women become aware of the legal provisions, laws for women’s equal property rights could impact the society in many ways. Historically, women’s lack of property ownership, and as an extension, wealth, has been linked to several social problems, the most dramatic of which is dowry. But actually, lack of land and property has had other subtle but deep rooted implications on the status of women. Patrilineality, or the transfer of property along paternal lines, is one reason many women are deprived of the startup and influence in life provided by inherited property. But now that could change and we could be seeing more women entrepreneurs in various fields.
Patri-locality, the tradition of a married couple residing at or near the husband’s residence, has been associated with many problems for women like physical and emotional abuse. But in the future, with many women themselves owning houses, it will not be surprising if this tradition wanes too. The changes wrought by these laws are there for all to see. Though the new figure on property ownership by women is nowhere near the land ownership of men, and nowhere near enough to ensure property and inheritance rights of all women, it is a significant progress nonetheless, and a harbinger of further progress.
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