Establishing land rights for sustainable development of Bangladeshi women

The 8th of March marks International Women's Day, an occasion that will be commemorated worldwide this year, as in previous years. The significance of this day is undoubtedly immense in empowering women and ensuring women's rights.   

Of the 17 SDGs, one of the prime objectives is to ensure gender equality by abolishing all sorts of social, economic, legal, and political disparities in all the phases of women’s lives. Being consistent with Goal 5 of SDGs, all developing countries have focused on formulating diverse policies as well as implementing several development projects and Bangladesh is not an exception. 

In light of the National Women Development Policies (NWDPs), the Government of Bangladesh (GoB) has made sincere efforts to implement multiple women development programs for empowering women through building an effective partnership among NGOs, donor agencies, and different stakeholders of society. 

To realise the aspirations of female empowerment, all these programs have emphasised assisting women by ensuring credit facilities for women; improving women’s status by accelerating educational facilities for them; widening opportunities for women to participate in training programs for increasing their work efficiency; ensuring women’s legal rights; and, above all, eradicate all sorts of violence against women under a legal framework. 

Undoubtedly, the implementation of these women-focused activities will widen the opportunities for women’s social and economic empowerment. It is an undeniable fact that such public and private sector initiatives have brought admirable changes in women’s lives, resulting in a remarkable increase in women’s educational attainment and a significant decrease in mother and child mortality rates. 

The line graph of women’s economic participation shows a sharp increase in the readymade garment sector and agricultural sector. All the sustainable and enduring endeavours of Bangladesh have secured its leading position in Southeast Asia as a beacon for women's empowerment. 

Indeed, on a global scale, Bangladesh has garnered acknowledgement as a pivotal case study or exemplar for other developing nations in mitigating gender inequality, even though the long-cherished dream of ensuring gender equality has not yet been materialised completely. Unfortunately, the existence of gender disparity is still observed in society in various visible or invisible forms. It is a herculean task to ensure women’s social and economic empowerment by breaking the current social structure, which is deeply rooted in the norms of patriarchy. 

Generally, women’s empowerment refers to a woman's capacity to make her own decisions in selecting her life path, women’s freedom of speech, and retaining full control over all the activities in all spheres of her life. It is undebatable that the concept of women’s empowerment is a complex procedure that is embedded in multi-dimensional aspects, not on a single standard. 

Studies in developing countries indicate that women’s control over productive resources, full freedom of movement, free and frequent access to information, and decision-making capacity are considered the major determinants of women’s empowerment. Regrettably, the legitimacy of women's land rights remains a subject of considerable uncertainty. Despite the ownership, it is a common phenomenon that women’s lack of control over their land is a major hindrance to women's empowerment.   

According to the researchers, women’s low educational attainment, economic deprivation, cultural taboos, loopholes in the state policies, and religious norms are primarily responsible for creating barriers for women in accessing and ownership of lands. Research findings in Southeast Asian countries reveal that women possess smaller plots per head than their male counterparts, and the lands they own are usually having a lower quality. 

Globally, the burgeoning world population is swiftly expanding, thereby diminishing the per capita land area available. As a result, women’s struggle to achieve land rights has become more difficult than their male counterparts. No doubt that land is a precious asset, and it is closely related to the overall socioeconomic development of women. 

Access to or ownership of land assists women to become self-reliant by widening the opportunities in pursuing their Income Generating Activities (IGAs). Besides, ownership of land assists women in many ways, viz.: access to credit facilities from formal financial institutions, increases their risk management capacity, improves their decision-making capacity as well, and acts as a catalyst in improving their social status. 

It is worth noting that ensuring women’s rights to land not only improves the living standard of a woman herself rather, but also helps to increase the overall living standard of the family, especially maintaining children’s food and nutritional security, and to a greater extent in improving the health and educational status of the family members. Thus, it is imperative to preserve women’s rights in accessing and proper utilisation of land. It is the responsibility of all agencies of a country to ensure women’s rights to land under the constitutional framework of a welfare country like Bangladesh.

 In the constitution of Bangladesh, equal rights for all citizens are recognised and preserved. Even then, women, especially rural women, often become the victims of exploitation and deprivation in enjoying their land rights. 

Rural women are often forced to give up their land rights to the male members, especially to husbands and brothers. According to some researchers, religious laws create barriers for women to have their land rights. In Islamic jurisprudence, women’s rights to land are well recognised and practised. However, the distribution ratio of land is more inclined to the male child than the female child. In the Hindu religion, women’s rights to land are not even recognised. 

The Succession Act, 1925 states that Christian women possess equal entitlement to land rights; nonetheless, they frequently find themselves deprived of the opportunity to exercise these rights due to entrenched patriarchal norms within society. 

When a woman is subjected to exploitation that results in the weakening of her social and economic standing, it increases the probability of her becoming a victim of violence and harassment. It is imperative to acknowledge that rural disadvantaged women encounter formidable challenges in asserting their land rights due to deficiencies within the current legal framework, consequently leaving them without the requisite legal safeguards when subjected to deprivation. It is essential to reform the inheritance laws and strict implementation of the laws to ensure rural women’s rights to land. 

Rural women in Bangladesh are not very aware of their legal rights to the land because of their lower educational status. These rural women are often unwilling to seek legal support if their land rights are violated due to the fear of losing their familial and social security. Besides, women often feel uninterested in land registration due to bureaucratic and administrative complexities. Therefore, urgent steps should be taken to eradicate the administrative complexities in the land management system to make it more efficient and women-friendly. Providing training to women regarding the issues of land management and land rights can be an effective strategy for empowering them. 

In the context of rural Bangladesh, a significant portion of women involved in the agricultural sector are mostly landless and marginal farmers. In most cases, they encounter multiple problems in operating their farming activities efficiently because of landlessness or owning small pieces of land which compel them to have lower production and income. 

An immediate step needs to be taken to allocate khash land (government’s reserved land) to these women as the lease for a short-term, medium-term, and long-term basis by assessing their needs properly. A massive campaign in the media about women’s rights to land could help bring a positive change in the attitude of the people of the country. 

Emphasis should be given to including women’s issues, especially land rights, in the course curriculum of schools, colleges, and universities. It is incumbent upon all of us to acknowledge that women constitute fifty per cent of the population of Bangladesh. As a result, the dream of sustainable development of the country can never be achieved without empowering women socially, legally, and economically. Therefore, all citizens of Bangladesh have to strive towards securing women's land rights as a means of promoting women's empowerment.

Kazi Tanvir Mahmud, PhD, is an Associate Professor & Chairman of the Department of Economics at Southeast University (SEU), Dhaka. Bangladesh. Shejuti Haque is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Economics at the same university.