Towards a secured future: an ongoing journey for the right to land
India's Forest Rights Act promotes land ownership for tribal communities, including women. But Indigenous women don't always know about their land rights and face social and procedural barriers when they try to claim them. Saswati Roy Paniak reports on work to support women to claim their rights to land.
Women from the Singhbhum district of Jharkhand visit a government office and interact with an officer about India's Forest Rights Act (Photo: copyright Swadhina)
Land is the foundation on which we exist, yet women have to walk the extra mile to secure their right to land. This unfairness was once again starkly highlighted when our organisation, Swadhina, a Kolkata-based NGO, decided to help Indigenous rural women in the East Singhbhum district of Jharkhand state claim their rights to land.
With support from the Advancing Land-Based Investment Governance (ALIGN) technical support facility, we have made progress towards using the protections and entitlements under the Forest Rights Act of 2006 (FRA). But we have also faced challenges.
Jharkhand (meaning the land of forests) is a state rich in forest and mineral resources, contributing to about 40% of India's mineral wealth. However, the state also has a high level of poverty, with 40.3% of the population living below the poverty line.
More than a quarter of Jharkhand's population are Indigenous Peoples, mostly living in rural areas. Women within these areas face significant discrimination and hardship.
Women are always labourers, whether on their own farm or someone else's. They work hard in the fields but do not have decision-making power. Decisions about which crops to plant, where to sell the produce, and who receives the profit are made solely by the men in the household. Despite our significant contribution, women lack rights and decision-making power.
Sonamoni, a participant from Dhoboni village
A unique law and hope for change
Against this backdrop, the FRA, which guarantees land rights to forest-dwelling communities, offers hope and the potential to transform the lives and livelihoods of millions. The law vests rights over forest lands with 'scheduled tribes and other traditional forest dwellers' and guarantees individual and community rights over forest lands, as well as the right to protect and manage community forest resources.
Not only does the FRA recognise the pivotal role of Indigenous Peoples in the management of forest resources, it also recognises women's rights to forest land and resources. Under this act, land can be registered jointly in the name of both spouses or, in the case of woman-headed households, in the name of an individual woman. Women can also claim land collectively for economic activities.
The FRA is a historic milestone for empowering people from scheduled tribes and forest-dwelling communities and granting them land ownership. But for rural communities to fully benefit from the legislation, further steps are required.
Land as the key to success
Swadhina has always focused on women's empowerment through the promotion of sustainable living and livelihoods in the rural tribal areas of India. Since the majority of rural women are engaged in agricultural work, we believe that lasting change must be linked to ensuring sustainable livelihoods. These livelihoods are land-based.
So long as women toil over the land as agricultural labourers and cannot own or make decisions over the land, they cannot enjoy equality. Women's land rights are a prerequisite for full empowerment.
Overcoming barriers
Working with tribal women of the East Singhbhum district, we encountered numerous challenges. The primary obstacle was a complete lack of awareness about the FRA. People are unaware of the FRA provisions and their potential benefits.
Most of the women here are illiterate, so we lack information about the laws, even those [that] are for our own benefits.
Malati, a participant from Dhoboni village
As part of work supported by ALIGN, our first step was to create awareness about the FRA at the village level. We established women's groups, organised regular and repeated meetings, and developed easy-to-understand awareness materials.
Participatory resource mapping to identify village resources including agricultural land, forest and water sources (Photo: copyright Swadhina)
These meetings allowed us to identify women eligible to apply for Van Patta (land titles) under the FRA. A major challenge was convening the Gram Sabha (the village assembly attended by adult citizens of the village with a right to vote) needed to initiate the FRA process.
Poor villagers, understandably, would rather prioritise engaging in economic activities. This made achieving the required meeting quorum very difficult. Women's participation in the Gram Sabha is also usually very low.
Additional hurdles we faced included getting the claimed land surveyed, a map prepared, and gathering the 13 different documents required from each applicant. The entire process is time-consuming. For applicants who don't have a clear understanding of the process, who already have pressing economic priorities and who face crippling social prejudice, it is difficult to remain optimistic.
The land will not be registered in my name; only my husband has the right to use it.
Salge, a participant from Uldahi village
More work needed
Land remains a critical issue. Yet the process for claiming it comes with complexities that put it beyond the reach of the rural populations the FRA is meant to benefit. When we seek to encourage rural tribal women to apply for land, it becomes even more complicated. Limited literacy, social constraints, lack of mobility, and poor access to information are all additional barriers.
When customary law deprives women of their right to land, it also becomes difficult to pursue women's applications under FRA through the Gram Sabha.
During this process, the many subtle but obvious dimensions that need to be simultaneously addressed have come into focus. Legal literacy is not enough.
While awareness and understanding are necessary, the systems and processes that are required to realise the benefits of the FRA must be strengthened. The Gram Sabhas need to become fully functional and representative to effectively promote women's land rights and play a key role in removing all prejudices against women.
Pivotal stakeholders, such as forest rights committee members, through whom FRA applications are channelled, need training. Information needs to be accessible and processes need to be clarified. Departments need to coordinate, bureaucratic hurdles must be removed and FRA facilitation points must be brought to within easy access of the villagers.
Though the FRA promotes women's participation in forest governance, their full and active participation in the public domain still remains a distant dream.
Many obstacles remain – both social and procedural. It is critical that we tackle the social norms and values that impede women's empowerment and rights to land. It is our collective responsibility to walk together in this arduous journey towards women's emancipation.
With thanks to Nathaniah Jacobs for contributing to the development of this insight.
