Abstract
The author looks at how the law is given meaning and substance as a result of peasant movements and women's mobilisation. The paper outlines women's involvement in peasant struggles for land rights in Bihar after the 1970's. She exposes the limitations of law reform through her discussion of agrarian reform and women's access to land. Despite legislative measures to ensure property rights for rural labourers, including women, inequalities in land distribution continue to exist. She analyses how gender-class systems which operate inside and outside the home, impede women's access to their legal rights. In addition, women's issues are not adequately addressed within the peasant movement and violence against women by landlords persists, though to a lesser degree than prior to the peasant struggles. Land reforms offer some promise, but real change for landless women labourers can only occur if the legislation is enforced by bureaucratic structures and if there is strong support for women's struggles from within the peasant movement. (Editor’s abstract.)
Recommended Citation
Kelkar, Govind
(1993)
"Women, Land and Agrarian Reform: Issues of Gender and Class in Improving Women's Effective Access to Land,"
National Law School Journal: Vol. 5:
Iss.
1, Article 5.
Available at:
https://repository.nls.ac.in/nlsj/vol5/iss1/5