June 28, 2023 Global Indicators Briefs No. 19 How Did India Successfully Reform Women’s Rights? Part I: Answers from the Movement on Equal Inheritance Rights Julia Constanze Braunmiller,* Isabel Santagostino Recavarren,* Aparna Mittal,** and Tanvi Khatri** T his two-part policy brief series traces the development and reform of law in India related to three critical areas that a ect women’s rights and economic opportunities: women’s property rights, domestic violence, and sexual harassment in the workplace. It explores the underlying factors and driving forces that led to reforms as well as the broad processes and extensive timelines required for change. It also highlights the remaining gaps in the rights for Indian women, including how the absence of robust implementation as well as inadequate administrative and infrastructural support for reform—coupled with deeply entrenched patriarchal mindsets—often makes real gender equality elusive for many. e achievements in India, which are the result of years of concerted e orts and thought leadership by multiple governmental and nongovernmental players, private actors, and women’s rights activists, could function as a “how to” guide for other countries that may want to carry out similar reforms in the future. is rst Brief in the series explores the reform of (Hindu) women’s inheritance rights. Starting in 1975, several states reformed the (federal) Hindu Succession Act of 1956, improving women’s rights to inheritance, until a federal reform occurred in 2005. However, additional reforms are needed in order to overcome gender discriminatory legal provisions and social norms that perpetuate the exclusion of women from accessing and owning property. Legal reforms on women’s rights are key to e World Bank Group’s Women, Business and the Law achieving sustainable and inclusive growth project has consistently shown the critical links between gender equality under the law and positive outcomes for women’s India has experienced immense economic growth over the employment and entrepreneurship. Better performance in the past seven decades. However, while gender equality and areas measured by the Women, Business and the Law index is women’s rights and safety have been consistently stated as a key associated with a narrower gender gap in development focus of the government of India, the pace of reform of Indian outcomes, higher female labor force participation, lower law in this area, as well as measures of women’s economic vulnerable employment, and greater representation of women participation more generally, have not kept up with the in national parliaments (World Bank 2023). country’s burgeoning economic growth. In particular, the rate of female labor force participation remains very low: since 1990, On the Women, Business and the Law index, in 2023, India this rate has actually declined from 27.8 percent in 1990 to only scores 74.4 out of 100, which is slightly higher than the regional 23.0 percent in 2021 (compared to 72.7 percent for males) average for South Asia of 63.7. is is a signi cant ( gure 1). While male labor force participation has declined as improvement from 49.4 in 1970 – the rst year for which well during this timeframe, a gender gap of almost 50 Women, Business and the Law index data is available. is percentage points means that several economic, social, legal, and increase is due to several reforms advancing women’s rights that policy measures are needed in order to bring women’s the country has enacted over these past 53 years. Reforms in the participation closer to men’s. Around the world, reform of legal areas of inheritance law and violence against women legislation frameworks plays a signi cant role in expanding women’s are particularly remarkable in the way that they provide the economic participation and empowerment. If India’s growth is foundations for women’s access to property and their safety, to be sustained, it almost certainly will demand that more than which together are the underpinnings of socioeconomic one in four women participate in the workforce. participation of all women. India has also made progressive Affiliations: *World Bank, Development Economics, Women, Business and the Law. **Samana Centre for Gender, Policy and Law. For correspondence: jbraunmiller@worldbank.org; isantagostino@worldbank.org. Acknowledgements: This Brief is a part of a series focusing on reforms in seven economies, as documented by the Women, Business and the Law (WBL) team. Support for the series is provided by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. This Brief (Part I) would not be possible without the generous contributions of Shipra Deo, Veena Gowda, Palak Jain, Geeta Luthra, Madhu Mehra, Dr. Anindita Pujari, Jhuma Sen, Dr. Sarasu Esther Thomas, Dr. Saumya Uma, and Dr. Namita Wahi. The team would also like to thank Kanchan Rajeevsingh Parmarn for helpful peer review, and Norman Loayza, Tea Trumbic, Varun Eknath, and David Francis for comments and guiding the publication process. Objective and disclaimer: This series of Global Indicators Briefs synthesizes existing research and data to shed light on a useful and interesting question for policy debate. Data for this Brief are extracted from the WBL database and supplemented by information gained through interviews and panel discussions conducted between December 2021 and January 2022 with women’s rights experts from local civil society organizations (CSOs), the public and private sectors, lawyers, and academics in India, as well as desk research. This Brief builds on the information collected to reconstruct the development of the legal reforms and the success factors that allowed the reforms to pass. This Brief carries the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the World Bank Group, its Executive Directors, or the governments they represent. All Briefs in the https://www.worldbank.org/en/research/brief/global-indicators-briefs-series. series can be accessed via: https://www.worldbank.org/en/research/brief/global-indicators-briefs-series. DECIG – Global Indicators Briefs No. 19 Figure 1 The rate of women’s labor force participation in India remains low and has been declining Labor force participation rate in India, female and male (% of female and male population ages 15+) 100 90 79.0 80 72.7 70 60 50 40 27.8 30 23.0 20 10 0 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 Female Male Source: World Development Indicators. Note: The figure presents modeled estimates from International Labour Organization (ILO) data. reforms in the area of employment and working conditions of remained the second fastest growing economy in the world, women, but some gaps remain, such as the absence of paternity behind China, until 2015. India’s GDP crossed the US$2 leave under law applicable to the private sector (World Bank trillion mark in 2015–16 (Rao and Kadam 2016), and India is 2023). e reforms on inheritance, domestic violence, and projected to be the world’s fastest growing economy in 2023 sexual harassment law discussed in this two-part series of Global (IMF 2023). Indicators Briefs and the lessons learned about what made them successful can encourage reforms to address the remaining gaps e constitutional framework promotes equal rights for in Indian laws and in particular, their implementation, which is women fundamental for continued, socially sustainable, and inclusive e Constitution of India, adopted in 1950, establishes the growth. principle of equality before the law; prohibits discrimination on multiple grounds, including sex; and allows for a rmative Significant gaps remain in the socioeconomic action measures for gender equality (Arts. 14 and 15). It has participation of Indian women despite the been a catalyst for the government, judiciary, and civil society to actively examine discriminatory provisions under existing country’s immense economic growth legislation, harmonize laws across the country, and push for e time since India’s independence in 1947 has been legal reforms in favor of women in India. India is a diverse characterized by a focus on institutional and infrastructure country with multiple religions and communities that each building, planning, and development. e country’s goal has developed and followed their own customary laws and practices. been to emerge from the aftermath of the colonial rule that had e government of India used this constitutional mandate to left it in deep poverty, with its share of world income having harmonize and codify the diverse customary rules on family shrunk from 22.6 percent in 1700 to 3.8 percent in 1952 matters of the Hindu community - which makes up about 79.8 (Livemint 2019). e initial decades of the 1950s to 1970s saw percent of the population (Press Information Bureau 2015). a predominant role of the government and public sector, Parliament subsequently enacted a series of laws, including the growing industrialization, and agrarian revolution, with a Hindu Succession Act of 1956 (HSA 1956). While it continues gradual involvement of the private sector through a controlled to contain gender discriminatory provisions, it was an and licensed market regime (Adhia 2015). During this time, important rst step toward codi cation of multiple customary civil society and social movements, which had already been laws governing the Hindu community. Other religious active before independence through the Indian freedom and communities in India continue to be governed by their own independence movement, continued to grow, and so did the personal family laws (both codi ed and customary), some of which still contain gender inequitable provisions. government’s work on legislative drafting and reforms. e mid-1970s witnessed the growth of a more vocal civil society Interviews with women’s rights experts from local civil (against the backdrop of a National Emergency imposed by the society organizations (CSOs), the public and private sectors, then-ruling government), which demanded a focus on social, lawyers, and academics in India, as well as three panel political, and legal change and gave a strong impetus to the discussions with these experts, were conducted between women’s rights movement (Heuer 2015; Scott 2019). From the December 2021 and January 2022 to inform the analysis of this mid-1980s, the country saw the advent of liberalization, with Brief. e information gathered from these sources makes clear the government of India encouraging a much larger role for the that pathbreaking reforms in women’s rights, in a traditionally private sector, growth of capital markets, expansion of patriarchal society like India, are the result of years of concerted international trade, and a larger in ow of foreign capital and e orts and thought leadership by multiple governmental and investments, including the advance of technology, which nongovernmental players, as well as private actors and women’s catalyzed the Indian economy (Panagariya 2004). India rights activists. 2 DECIG – Global Indicators Briefs No. 19 Equalizing women’s inheritance rights across the law has been amended, including through a federal-level India amendment in 2005, several provisions based on customary law remain in e ect that deny women equal access to property Access to property is a key enabler of women’s economic rights. participation, particularly women’s entrepreneurship. Yet, women own only 20 percent of the world’s land (Villa 2017). Under Hindu customary law, the de nition of property of Discriminatory rules and practices worldwide hinder women’s the “joint Hindu family” (also known as “ancestral property”) is access to assets that can be used as collateral to obtain nance to fundamentally di erent from self-acquired property. A “joint open or grow their businesses (Bin Humam, Braunmiller, and Hindu family” comprises lineal descendants from a common Elsaman 2023). In India, women’s access to property has for the ancestor and their family members, including wives and longest time been hindered by patriarchal social norms that also unmarried daughters, who are all joint in estate, food, and manifest in formalized discrimination in institutions and laws. worship (Srinivasan 2019). Under the Mitakshara school of Gender discrimination was prevalent under the original customary law, three generations of male members became joint provisions of the HSA 1956, which governs inheritance and heirs (or “coparceners”) to the joint family property by birth, intestate succession (that is, when there is no valid will) among while women had no such rights. e HSA 1956 gave statutory Hindus. Several states were the rst to amend the HSA, taking recognition to this so-called “coparcenary framework” of the lead in equalizing Hindu women’s inheritance rights, until inheritance and the basket of “ancestral property” or “joint the Act was amended at the federal level—that is, for all Hindu family property” owned by it (which includes all of the states—in 2005. family’s assets and liabilities, such as immovable and moveable property, investments, jewelry, and business assets). is A heterogenous society without a uni ed civil (personal) framework was the root of gender discriminatory provisions, as law it granted three generations of male descendants an inherent birth right to the ancestral property of the joint Hindu family, is inheritance law reform can only be understood within while negating any similar property rights for female the context of India’s heterogeneous society. India is a diverse country with multiple religions and communities that each descendants. e HSA 1956 created limited exceptions to this apply their own customary practices and laws. ese practices rule, most notably, in case a testament was made, that property and laws govern a wide range of aspects of personal and family would devolve according to this testamentary disposition life such as marriage, divorce, succession and inheritance, (174th Report by Law Commission of India 2000). adoption, and guardianship, among others. India’s progressive constitution spurred its government to review, consolidate, State laws change toward equal inheritance rights but codify, and harmonize existing religious, customary, and remain unequal federally personal laws and practices governing persons across India who To eliminate gender inequities, the state of Kerala took an followed Hinduism (across its diverse variants and schools), unprecedented step in 1975 and abolished the joint Hindu Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism, and other religions (excluding family system altogether ( gure 2). e reform was motivated Islam, Christianity, Zoroastrianism, and Judaism). is led to by the wish to equalize existing patriarchal and matriarchal the Parliament of India enacting a series of federal laws, family traditions, as well as reconcile prevailing conservative and including the Hindu Marriage Act of 1955, the Hindu progressive schools of thought. e Indian constitution enlists Adoptions and Maintenance Act of 1956, the Hindu Minority matters of joint family property, succession, and intestacy to be and Guardianship Act of 1956, and the HSA 1956. within the legislative competence of both the central But—despite the constitutional vision “to endeavour to secure government and the states; hence, either can legislate in this for the citizens a uniform civil code throughout the territory of domain. Following suit throughout the 1980s and 1990s India” (Constitution of India, Art. 44)—no standardized civil (though not to the same extent), with a similar aim to equalize law exists for the whole of the country. Parallel personal laws daughters’ rights to inheritance of joint Hindu family property, continue to exist across India, as of today. the states of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and A prominent example is the HSA, which, despite India’s Maharashtra carried out respective state amendments to the constitutional principles on gender equality, contained many HSA 1956 (collectively referred to as State Amendments), provisions permitting discrimination against women. Although wherein by statute, a daughter was given the same coparcenary Figure 2 Timeline of the Federal Hindu Succession Act and State Amendments Hindu Hindu Succession, Hindu Succession Federal Hindu Andhra Pradesh Succession (Amendment) Succession Act Amendment Karnataka Act of 2005 of 1956 (HSA 1975 Act, 1986 1989 Amendment 1994 (2005 1956) Act, 1990 Amendment) Kerala Joint Hindu Hindu 1956 Hindu Family 1986 Succession 1990 Succession 2005 Abolition Act, Tamil Nadu Maharashtra 1975 Amendment Amendment Act, 1989 Act, 1994 Source: Women, Business and the Law database. 3 DECIG – Global Indicators Briefs No. 19 rights (and liabilities) as that of a son, by birth, with regard to property rights for Hindu daughters, actual land ownership by the ancestral property. Because only ve states had recognized women has increased only marginally since the passage of the such equal rights of daughters, but many joint Hindu families new law. For example, a study conducted over the period (and/or their properties) were situated across multiple states in 2009–14 across thirty villages in nine states in India, with 95 India (most of which were still following the unamended HSA percent of the sampled landowning households being Hindu, 1956), the State Amendments, though laudable, led to legal found that women in 2014 owned land in only 16 percent of uncertainty and practical challenges in implementation of households. is level was virtually the same as ve years earlier, women’s property rights, and an increase in litigation between in 2009, when women owned land in only 14.2 percent of the contesting heirs (Bhadbhade 2001). It took another 10 years, households sampled (Agarwal, Anthwal, and Malvika 2020). until 2005, when the HSA 1956 was amended at federal level, Another study based on 8,640 rural households across four that women throughout the country saw an improvement in their inheritance rights (Agarwal, Anthwal, and Malvika 2020). states showed that women’s land acquisition through inheritance increased only nominally from 5.5 percent in How did the reform come about? 1956–2005 to 6.4 percent in 2006–15 (Valera et al. 2018). Limited awareness among women about their new rights, and e Law Commission of India, an executive body moreover, a lack of assertion of their rights based on deeply established under British colonial rule and appointed by the rooted gendered norms and behavior, can partially explain this government of India anew in 1947, has a mandate to make limited progress. recommendations for the removal of anomalies, ambiguities, inequalities, and progressive reform of a wide range of laws. is Research comparing inheritance patterns over three Commission played a critical role in the legal reform process. generations and across states that have and have not enacted Analysis and public consultations led by the Commission reforms shows that the legal reform improved women’s resulted in a detailed report in 2000 that proposed a draft law socioeconomic status and empowerment. For example, females amending the HSA 1956 (174th Report). After consulting the whose father died after the State Amendments had become state governments and other concerned ministries and e ective were 15 percentage points more likely to inherit land departments, the government of India accepted the than those whose father died before the reform (Deininger, recommendations of the Law Commission and introduced a bill Goyal, and Nagarajan 2013). Such women covered by the to amend the HSA 1956 in the Parliament of India in reform were also more likely to complete primary education and December 2004 (Seventh Report of Parliamentary Standing to have a bank account. Second-generation e ects were even Committee, 2005). e Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice considered the larger, as shown by increased spending on girls’ education bill in ve sessions, hearing views of the Ministry of Law and (Deininger et al. 2019). Further, the reform was found to have Justice, experts, and CSOs. On September 5, 2005, the raised women’s autonomy and labor supply, particularly into Parliament of India enacted the Hindu Succession high-paying jobs (Heath and Tan 2016). However, some (Amendment) Act, 2005 (2005 Amendment). studies have uncovered unintended consequences of this reform: for example, parents circumventing the law so that e 2005 Amendment to the HSA 1956 brought several daughters will not receive an inheritance, higher female infant important reforms to women’s inheritance rights. In particular, mortality and feticide, and a higher suicide rate among women Section 6 was amended to give both married and unmarried and men driven by a rise in marital con icts (Anderson and daughters the same rights in joint Hindu family property by Genicot 2015; Bhalotra, Brulé, and Roy 2020; Rosenblum birth as sons across India. e Supreme Court has subsequently 2015). taken on an active role to interpret women’s equal inheritance rights by recognizing retroactive application of the new rights to daughters born before the Amendment was passed and by Social norms push women to relinquish their property clarifying that it was not necessary for the father (coparcener) to rights be alive on the date of the 2005 Amendment for the rights of Despite promising outcomes, several gaps remain in law the daughters to fructify (see, for example, Vineeta Sharma vs and practice preventing women from fully claiming their Rakesh Sharma, Supreme Court 2020). property rights and accessing resources in the same way as men. Women often fail to claim their inheritance rights due to deep Impact of inheritance law reform on women’s land patriarchal conditioning (box 1). On the one hand, a son ownership and socioeconomic status traditionally stays with his natal family after marriage and While hailed as a progressive legal reform to create equal supports parents in old age, while a daughter’s new place is with Box 1 Despite changes in the law, patriarchal norms deprive women of equal inheritance A few days before her marriage, K. Bina Devi and her sister, who were living in the province of Rajasthan, signed a small piece of paper witnessed by their parents, siblings, and village elders. A small ceremony followed to celebrate that the two women had just completed “haq tyaag,” giving up their share of the family property to the bene t of their four brothers. While it is a voluntary practice, misogynist norms often push women to comply. “If we don’t do it, our family will boycott us, our relationship will break, and people will speak ill of us,” K. Bina Devi explained many years later. e conviction that only sons can and should inherit property, including agricultural land, is widespread. Daughters receive dowry upon marriage, including gold, cash, vehicles, and household goods. Jai Yadav, a resident and police o cer in Bihar, explains: “I have given my daughters more than their share; my son shall inherit my property and the ancestral agricultural land. Since they have been given dowry, hence they have no right over family land and property.” However, such attitudes and practices leave many women in vulnerable positions and keep them dependent on their parents and brothers should a marriage not work out. Policy interventions are needed to ensure women’s property rights are given e ect to. For example, in order to encourage property registration by women, some states o er nancial incentives such as lower registration fees for women—which also demonstrates to men the bene ts of registering property in the name of the women. Source: Chandran 2016; Landesa Rural Development Institute 2013; Mehrotra 2021; Times of India 2018. 4 DECIG – Global Indicators Briefs No. 19 her husband’s family. e son is thus seen as deserving of both succession of Hindu men and women so that a surviving female his and the daughters’ share in the property. On the other hand, (and her natal family) receives the same priority and inheritance a daughter often receives assets as part of her wedding, either as a male (and his natal family). e Law Commission has also voluntary gifts by her family, including the wedding expenses, recommended abolishing the “coparcenary framework” and the or a dowry—which despite being prohibited by law is still right in a property by birth (Consultation Paper of Law prevalent across India. is topic is discussed in the Commission of India 2018), but no reforms have taken place to accompanying Brief (No. 20) in this series. So, many women date. A less satisfying but equally valid option would be to are hesitant to antagonize their natal family or ruin social ties by recognize coparcenary rights of all female heirs (not just asking for their fair share of inheritance. Social pressure may daughters). thus prevent women from asserting their rights in the property—or, conversely, to give these rights up by a Gender-equal rules under the HSA 1956 only apply to the relinquishment deed in favor of the male heirs (Gupta 2017). Hindu community. While the HSA 1956 has largely equalized Concerted e orts on behalf of the government and civil society daughters’ legal coparcenary rights to inheritance in joint are needed to raise awareness about women’s legal rights to Hindu family property, it only applies to members of the inheritance and property and overcome such social barriers. Hindu community— the most populous religious community in India. Other communities continue to apply their own Equal inheritance rights are often circumvented through the personal laws, often perpetuating gender discriminatory or drafting of gender-discriminatory testaments. e HSA 1956 patriarchal rules. ere have been discussions and debates about (Section 30) enables any Hindu person to dispose of their enacting a uniform civil code, but given the extent of religious property (self-acquired property as well as their share of diversity and related personal laws, it has been di cult to nd coparcenary/ancestral joint property) by a testament. is right consensus on the matter (De 2013; Oka 2022). e Law is often consciously exercised to disinherit female heirs, Commission of India recently con rmed that instead of especially daughters. Social norms have been shown to enacting a uniform code, a continuous reform process within incentivize fathers to draft a will and bequeath their the various communities to align their own personal laws with property—including the share that would go to a daughter in constitutional values of equality and nondiscrimination is case of intestate succession under the HSA 1956—to their sons preferable (Consultation Paper of Law Commission of India (and other male heirs) (Dogra 2015). Experts have suggested 2018). Further reform e orts should also extend to equal rights the introduction of a legal limit to such unbridled testamentary to own and administer marital property and the recognition of rights in order to prevent disinheritance of females by choice. nonmonetary contributions to the home and family upon For example, a legal provision could stipulate a speci ed dissolution of a marriage (including in the Hindu Marriage Act percentage of the property that can (or cannot) be disposed of of 1955, Sec. 27). through a will. Box 2 presents some recommendations. Discriminatory provisions remain in the text of the HSA 1956. While the 2005 Amendment has been celebrated for Need to continue reforming and asserting addressing some glaring issues regarding Hindu women’s women’s property rights property rights, several provisions remain e ective in the HSA, It took several decades for India to equalize (Hindu) which do not give women the same rights or recognition given women’s inheritance rights, but critical gaps remain in law and to men (Venkatesan 2020). For example, coparcenary practice. is Brief highlights how positive developments can be rights —rights to joint ancestral property— of female heirs initiated and driven through regional initiatives. Closing the other than daughters (such as mothers, wives, or widows) are remaining gaps in women’s access to property will require the still not recognized. In addition, di erent rules of intestate concerted e ort of government, policy makers, civil society succession (when there is no valid will) apply in case of Hindu organizations, and the private sector (box 2). A second Brief males and females, including the class of heirs and the rules of (No. 20) sheds light on the reform of domestic violence and priority for inheritance of the property. A woman and her natal sexual harassment laws. Together, the lessons learned and key family are often not given the same priority as the husband and factors of successful reforms can guide India’s civil society, his side of the family (Damle et al. 2020). e Law Commission government, and private sector in addressing gender gaps to of India has recommended to unify the scheme for intestate spur inclusive and sustainable growth. Box 2 Recommendations to equalize rules of accessing and owning property for men and women Several gender discriminatory inheritance rules remain e ective in the Hindu Succession Act of 1956 and in other personal laws, and social norms perpetuate the exclusion of women from accessing and owning property. is could be remedied by the following: • Unify the scheme for intestate succession of Hindu men and women and potentially abolish the “coparcenary framework” and the right in a property by birth. • Raise awareness on the legal reforms as well as the importance of women’s rights to property and inheritance to overcome patriarchal norms that pressure women to give up their rights. • Strictly enforce anti-dowry laws. • Review and reform laws across all communities (whether Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Parsi, or otherwise) to align their own personal succession and inheritance rules—as well as other matters of personal law, including marriage and divorce—with constitutional principles of gender equality and nondiscrimination. 5 DECIG – Global Indicators Briefs No. 19 References Adhia, Nimish. 2015. “ e History of Economic Development in India since Law Commission of India. 2000. 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