01-03-2021 The Asian Independent

www.theasianindependent.co.uk
NEWS
01-03-2021 to 15-03-2021
19
Uttarakhand’s historic decision
for women’s empowerment
Uttarakhand has become the first
state in India to have given women
right over ancestral property. This is a
landmark initiative taken by the state
government and must be complimented
for it. According to government’s
own assessment, over thirty five lakh
women are going to be benefitted from
this.
At the time, when women’s rights
groups are asking for being provided
status of ‘Kisan’ in rest of India and the
fact that women do not own property,
particularly agricultural land, she cant
get any loan even if she does more than
80% work on farming. Even the Kisan
andolan have not been very supportive
to this as they fear that the agricultural
land would be divided which reduces
its bargain power.
That is why farming communities
and families tend to be in the ‘joint
family’ system which is often regressive
for women. Most of the time,
farmer leadership had been opposed to
radical land reforms for the fear of land
getting fragmented but the biggest fear
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
social and human rights activist
is of women’s ‘autonomy’. Most of the
time, this question is asked if a woman
get divorced then what will happen to
land. All these kind of issues come up
for discussion.
According to Hindustan Times
report, ” “Under the ordinance, the
daughters will have ownership rights
on the land owned by her father.
Similarly, a wife will also be the joint
owner of the land of her husband’. The
state government is going to change
Zamindari Abolition and Land
Reforms Act of Uttarakhand.
The ordinance that Uttarakhand
government has brought to give property
rights to women have the following:
a. The names of all the married
women will be added as co-owner in
the ancestral property of her husband.
It is important that women never had
K'taka Law Commission
chief calls for technology
UPGRADATION
Bengaluru : Karnataka Law
Commission chairman S. R. Bannurmath
on Saturday appealed to the Karnataka
government to improve the technical services
in the legal infrastructure like providing
internet, computers and updated software
to allow High Court judges, advocate
generals and other legal officers to discharge
their duties properly.
Speaking after the launch of Karnataka
dispute resolution policy and coffee table
book on Karnataka Advocate generals and
their contributions here,
Bannurmath who was
former Kerala High
Court chief justice
asked, "How can anyone
function without interruption?
Take my own
case, whenever I come
to my office (Karnataka
Law Commission) at
Vidhana Soudha, either
the internet is not working,
or the server is not
working or even worse
the computer is not
working. Under such
circumstances how can
even anyone discharge
their duties?"
He added that the same is the case with
the Advocate General's office and High
Court judges too. "There are 20 lakh cases
pending in the High Court of Karnataka
and 15.2 lakh cases in subordinate courts.
One of the main reasons for such high pendency
of cases is lack of communication
between law officers in higher courts with
law officers of lower courts," he explained.
Citing his own experience, Bannurmath
pointed out that when he was serving state
prosecutor in Kalaburagi, one district law
officers had not filed appeal against murder
accused, who was acquitted for over 600
days only because he had not got any
'instructions' from Advocate General's
office. "Advocate General's office must
regularly monitor such things. For this the
government needs to provide them with
adequate infrastructure," he said.
According to him, of the 20 lakh cases,
4.42 lakh cases are related directly to the
state government itself.
"Of the 4.42 lakh cases,
3.20 lakh cases are filed
against the government
while in the remaining
1.2 lakh cases the government
has filed cases.
The government needs to
augment the infrastructure
in courts and legal
officers offices," he
argued.
He quickly added that
high number of pendency
was not just the phenomenon
of Karnataka alone
this is a country wide
phenomenon.
The former Chief
Justice also observed that the rise in the
number of cases against governments in
courts is a direct result of rise in activism.
"The activism has not only succeeded in
creating awareness of one's rights as a
result of this many approach courts against
governments. Most of the time, it gives
relief in crucial issues, but in some cases
this has also turned out to be impediment in
implementing several initiatives," he said.
rights of hereditary property as in the
joint family system the lineage was
always protected through male progeny.
That way, this is a great beginning.
b. According to the ordinance, in
case a woman files for divorce from
her husband then she wont be a coowner
of the property or land but if the
husband give her divorce and unable to
pay her maintenance allowance then
she would still remain the co-owner of
the property.
c. If the
woman is
childless and
her husband
is ‘missing’
for over
seven years then she can be made a coowner
in the property of her father.
Though the government also
amended the law for the purpose of
Varanasi, (Asian independent)
Congress General
Secretary Priyanka Gandhi
Vadra on Saturday attended the
644th birth anniversary celebration
of Sant Shiromani Shri
Guru Ravidas ji Maharaj at
Seer Govardhanpur of the
Ravidas temple in Varanasi.
Priyanka also sought blessings
of Sant Niranjan Das and
enquired about his well-being.
She had last visted the temple
in 2020.
The Congress General
lease and sale of land in the Tarai or
plain regions of Uttarakhand but the
decision to give ownership rights to
woman will have far reaching impact.
Uttarakhand is a state where women
have traditionally played powerful role
in protecting resources. At many
places, more than 90% of work related
to agriculture or maintenance of livestock
is managed by women. The hill
regions of the state have broadly a better
male female ratio and women have
lead historic social movements such as
Chipko to protect their forests and biodiversity.
It is also a reality that due to
heavy migration, many of the villages
in the hills are left with no people.
There are lack of basic amenities. Most
of the villages are actually managed by
women but unfortunately despite 90%
of work on land they dont have any
access to banks or market. They don’t
get any loan as they are not the owner.
This bill therefore is a historic one and
will definitely helpful to more than 3.8
million women in the state.
Land and property ownership to
Secretary’s visit witnessed a
massive crowd as she reached
here at around 11 a.m. and
offered her prayers at the Sant
Ravidas temple to mark the celebration
of the Jayanti.
Priyanka was accompanied
by Uttar Pradesh Congress
President Ajay Kumar Lallu,
former MLA Ajay Rai,
Varanasi Metropolitan president
Raghavendra Choubey,
Manindra Mishra, Gaurav
Kapoor, Naveen Mishra and
other Congress leaders.
women is a great move towards
democratisation of our social system.
Fortunately, Uttarakhand does have
that culture where women are centre of
our universe and hence these laws will
help strengthen women’s agency and
autonomy over her resources. We are
sure, they will not only be able to protect
their land and resources but it is a
great news for agriculture sector also.
Uttarakhand’s hill regions don’t have
big land holdings and that is one reason
why the system is more democratic and
women play bigger roles in our lives.
We wish to congratulate the state
government in this regard. Whatever be
the political differences if any law that is
helpful to the 50% of our population and
give them their legitimate rights need to
be supported and complimented.
Vidya Bhushan Rawat is a social
and human rights activist. He
blogs at
www.manukhsi.blogspot.com twitter
@freetohumanity
Email: vbrawat@gmail.com
Priyanka visits Ravidas
temple in VARANASI