"How India’s Indigenous Female Forest Dwellers Feel about Owning Their Own Land" - Stella Paul

KORCHI/GADCHIROLI, India, Aug 9 2019 (IPS) - Kumaribai Jamkatan, 51, has been fighting for women’s land rights since 1987.Though the constitution of India grants equal rights to men and women, women first started to stake their claim for formal ownership of land only after 2005–the year the government accorded legal rights to daughters to be co-owners of family-owned land.For the Indigenous communities, it was the Forest Rights Act 2006 which allowed women to own land.The struggle has been long and hard with social, financial and legal challenges, Jamkatan says.