Women’s right to agricultural land : removing legal barriers for achieving gender equality

Women’s land rights (WLR) have been and continue to be a live agenda in social development discourse of India. The importance of WLR has been discussed in the context of agriculture; poverty reduction; reduction in gender based violence; women’s well-being and agency. There now exists a vast academic literature and experience of collective action to point that women’s land rights can significantly contribute to achieving greater gender equality. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) capture the above under three targets that are connected to the goals of ending poverty and hunger, and of achieving greater gender equality.1 This policy brief outlines the gaps that exist in the realisation of women’s land rights on agricultural land and calls for immediate collective action aimed at removing the structural barriers in inheritance, leasing, and joint ownership of privately held land in favour of women