1. The Culture of Land Ownership: Women’s Claim Making Strategies
Masterclass
Shipra Deo, Govind Kelkar, Jolyne Sanjak
Landesa

2. Landesa
Focus on helping governments secure land rights of poor & women.
Leading land rights organization in the world.
Winner of 2015 Hilton Humanitarian Prize – world’s largest humanitarian award.
Experience in more than 50 countries.
Non-financial partnerships with governments.

3. Landesa’s Beliefs
Landlessness is the best predictor of poverty in India
Secure land rights a powerful means for empowering the poor, particularly women
To fully tap the transformative power of land rights, men and women must hold them equally.
Ownership of land is directly related to women’s agency, power, assertion, ability to negotiate, resist violence etc.
Better outcomes on health, education, nutrition are also associated with women’s land ownership

4. Women’s Rights – Prisoners of Patriarchy
Women land rights are determined by a complex web of inter-relations between the culture and norms surrounding formal and informal institutions.

5. Some Definitions
Social norms - values, beliefs, and attitudes that result in shaping practices, behaviour, symbols and institutions  governing social, economic and political relationships between women and men.
Institutions are socially determined rules that specify certain behaviour to be proper and legal.
Formal institutions are codified, in the sense that they are established and communicated through official channels
Informal institutions are socially shared rules, usually unwritten, that are created, communicated, and enforced through family, neighbourhood and community.
Conformity to the Institutional rules can be a general response to avoid punishment  or get rewarded.

6. Formal and Informal interface
Informal Institution
Family
Neighbourhood
Community
Formal Institutions
Policy makers
Decision making bodies
Laws
Education system
Religion
market

7. Deprived of Her Own Rights
She is Anju, 16, eldest of 6 sisters.
She is from a village in Agra in Uttar Pradesh.
Her father passed away two years back.
He had a share of 50% in the 30 bighas of family land.
But Anju or her mother could not get any of the land.
WHY ?

8. Never Ending Struggle for Dignified Life
She is Mansa, 24, mother of 2
Her husband was abusive
She filed a DV case and came to her parental home
Soon her father passed away
Stayed with her brothers for a while but they threw her out after her father passed away.
Land Management Committee is not ready to allocate land to her.
WHY?

9. What is Working at the Back
Marriage and Husband – Her all Life
Son - Mother’s Only Pride
Customs Confining Her Individuality

10. What is Working at the Back
Protection or Destruction –
Not Sure
My Brother, My Protector
Customs Confining Her Individuality

11. Customs: In Media and Market
Customs and Media

12. Impact of Mindsets on Formal Institutions
Policies and laws example –HSAA/UP revenue code
Ineffective implementation
Land and Revenue administration
Ambiguity about individual rights

13. How do Norms Change
Aspiration
Defiance
Changing norms

14. Source: Kelkar and Jha, 2016

15. Land – A Step towards Empowerment
If I have land, my husband and children respect me
Now we are ‘saksham’; we have freedom of movement, self confidence, and independence. We can manage our own assets and our life.

16. Here Occurs the Change Rattling the cage of customs
Breaking the shackles of gender norms
Taking a leap towards agency
Celebrating individual identity and rights

17. Determined for Changing Norms and Empowerment