Equal Property Rights for Women links to decrease in Domestic Violence: Report
A recent report demonstrates that women face lower levels of violence inside marriage when they are financially protected outside of marriage.
A new study has shown that equal property rights can help reduce domestic violence in society. As equitably distributing property rights between spouses not only helps reduce the incidence of domestic violence but also increases women’s condemnation of such violence.
“In fact, women face lower levels of violence inside marriage when they are financially protected outside of marriage. Violating women’s rights are oftentimes sanctioned under the guise of male-based cultural practices and norms. The required large-scale changes and its implementation in the justice and legal system confer an ongoing challenge, notably in developing countries” reveals the study.
Globally, domestic violence hits one in every three women every day. In India, domestic violence is the most common crime faced by women. The National Crime Record Bureau recorded that more than 30% of complaints are registered by women facing domestic violence, in 2019. Moreover, this number skyrocketed in 2020, with the National Commission for Women declaring 2.5 times higher in the number of domestic violence complaints during and the lockdown. States such as Karnataka witnessed one in every two women facing domestic violence during that time.
In such circumstances, marital property laws that concede a woman a substantial share of assets strengthen her ability to negotiate and/or leave abusive situations. Irrespective of whether she ultimately divorces her abusive partner this remains valid, affirms the study.
Further, these rights also raise women’s condemnation of domestic violence, advocating a change in societal norms that continue violence against women, concludes the study. In contrast, property laws that leave women vulnerable when leaving a marriage bring more prone to abuse and fail to challenge attitudes about acceptable treatment.
Moreover, in India, during a divorce, women are entitled to maintenance and shelter from their husbands, under Hindu, Muslim, and Christian family laws. However, in the present time, women are not entitled to a share, equitable or otherwise, of co-owned or male-owned property, under any law in the constitution.
And the positive influence of property ownership on Indian women’s lives brings legislative reforms around women’s inheritance rights to a positive domino effect on girls’ education, marriage age, financial strength, and living conditions, according to the World Bank report released last month.
Nevertheless, the study has uncovered that only 28% of women in India own land where women-owned land solely make up less than 2% of all agricultural land in the country.
'A Field of One’s Own' author Bina Agarwal penned in her book that land ownership can empower women not only economically but also strengthen their ability to challenge social and political gender inequities. “‘We do have a voice but aren't allowed to utter, have feet but could not walk. However, now that we have the land, we have the strength to speak and walk,’ said the landless women when they received titles in their own names for the first time in two villages of Bodh Gaya in Bihar in the late-1970s” says Prof. Agrawal in an interview last year.
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