Denied land, Indian women stake claims in collectives
▻https://www.reuters.com/article/us-india-women-farming/denied-land-indian-women-stake-claims-in-collectives-idUSKBN1EZ1TD
Fed up with local officials denying their demand for land, 40 women decided to form a collective and simply start farming a plot near their village of Pallur, in India’s southern state of Tamil Nadu.
“We have worked as farm laborers most of our lives - why can’t we own land?” asked Shakila Kalaiselvan, leader of the women’s collective.
Members of the group faced additional discrimination due to their gender. Despite laws granting equal inheritance rights, women own just 13 percent of land in India although they do about two-thirds of all farm work.
A year ago, they took over an unused 2.5-acre (1 hectare) plot, which was dry and overgrown with weeds. Even though it was common land owned by the state, they faced strong resistance as they cleared it to grow beans, corn and millet.
“The higher-caste men opposed it, but we did not give in,” Kalaiselvan told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “We should have at least 40 acres for 40 women, but this is a start. We can be independent, earn the respect of the community.”
