Women’s Land Ownership and Empowerment: A Case Study of Mrigauliya Village Development Committee Nepal

Hi Everyone,

It has been such a long time I have stop writing there.. Please accept my apology for that.. I was writing my thesis.. Now I have passed my Master and thought you might want to know the topic of my thesis.. I have share an abstract with you all.. if you are interested to read the full content of my thesis.. Please send me the message with your email address.. I would love to share with you guys..

For now only this much.

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sunita

Traditionally, land is considered to be related to women’s sustainable livelihood, prosperity, social status, economic security and political power in Nepal. Since women’s rights to property have been incorporated into various national and international legal and political documents as significant element of human rights, women’s access, ownership and control over land remains largely limited or absent in actual practices. Despite the fact that land entitlements for women have been recognized and encouraged in Nepal in recent decades mainly after the re-establishment of democratic system in 1990 as one of the pillars of empowerment of women, positive relation between land ownership and women’s empowerment has not been well established.

This study makes an attempt to find whether and how there is such relationship, and also it tries to answer some other questions such as: how, what kind of, and through which process do women own land in Nepal? What are the factors that determine women’s access to and control over land? The study confirms many normative and empirically based arguments that land ownership can play crucial role in women’s empowerment in many ways. But it also finds that land ownership alone cannot be sufficient for women’s empowerment in Nepal, thus other supplementary factors might be relevant.

It reveals the fact that almost 41% surveyed women legally own the land. Most women have security of land tenure as wives and daughter-in-law; whereas, very few of them have through parents and own selves. It shows that if females do not cooperate with the male members either father\\brother\\ husband, they might be cast out and no one seems to be out there for them. It also finds that very few women, who interestingly happen to be widow with small children and live separately, have full control over their land. And when women with land ownership are educated, it is highly likely that they are willing to invest their land in education for themselves and their children, which might be crucial for the empowerment of women in Nepal. Generally marital status and family relationship seem to determine female’s access to land and other form of property ownership in Nepal .

Keywords: Women’s Land Ownership, Women’s Right, Empowerment