The Hindu : National : Manmohan urged to amend Hindu Succession Act

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Sunday, Feb 27, 2005

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National

Manmohan urged to amend Hindu Succession Act

By Our Staff Correspondent

NEW DELHI, FEB. 26 . Several organisations and individuals from across the country have sought the intervention of the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, for a comprehensive amendment of the Hindu Succession Act of 1956 to bring about full gender equality.

A delegation that met Dr. Singh last week expressed dissatisfaction with the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Bill 2004 introduced in the Rajya Sabha on December 20, 2004, and likely to be discussed in both Houses of Parliament in the ongoing session.

The memorandum, drafted by Bina Agarwal of the Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi University, in coordination with the Human Rights Law Network (HRLN) and the Housing and Land Rights Network (HLRN), argued that the amendments proposed would leave several critical sources of gender inequality and anomalies intact; in particular, inequality in rights to agricultural land, unequal interests in the Mitakshara coparcenary property for several categories of women, and implicit inequality arising from a person's unrestricted rights to will away his/her property — a provision that is often used to disinherit female heirs, given the male bias in Indian society.

Colin Gonsalves and Shruti Pandey, of the HRLN, pointed out that removing these inequalities would be in keeping with the constitutional guarantee against discrimination on the basis of sex, and would substantially facilitate the empowerment of women.

The memorandum recommends bringing all agricultural land at par with other property and abolishing the Mitakshara coparcenary property system altogether. The signatories include dozens of grassroots groups working in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Maharashtra, Kerala and Delhi, as well as prominent individuals such as Aruna Roy, Sayeeda Hameed, Mohini Giri, Mushirul Hasan, Nirmala Buch, Aparna Basu, Neerja Chandhoke, Jayati Ghosh and P.V. Satheesh.

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