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| Sunday, 29 May 2005 |
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Study finds need to publicise women's right to land by Rashomi Silva Women's entitlement to land in government resettlement schemes need to be widely publicised to alleviate problems faced by female headed households, due to the lack of legal ownership to the land and property, a study carried out among the female headed households in the North and East points out. Yet women have turned out to be the largest landowners in the North-East. With the exception of State given land and nearly 90 percent of land in the district are registered under female names, it said. While the government does not officially discriminate with regards to access to the land for settlement schemes, women are often under the impression that they would not receive the land and therefore do not ask for it. In State land distributed under the Land Development Ordinance, the title held by a male member of the family, such as husband, father, or a brother. The research has also revealed that the women have to go through lot of difficulties when the male member leaves, disappears or dies since the land, house and other property belongs to him legally. Secure land and property rights will increase investment and secure credit for loan schemes and thereby assist a country's economy growth. For many people, land and property is a means of livelihood. Thus the women who are deprived of their legal right are often deprived from means of livelihood, driving them to a hopeless situation. Women feel that developing land, farming and other economical activities that are involved with land are part of a man's role. Since most State donated lands are given under conditions such as developing the land or for using for agricultural purposes women feel that the schemes are meant for men. The study emphasises the need of changing that attitude of women and says the media and the civil society including NGOs have a big role to play in this. |
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