According to a recent study from the Indian Institute of Management Indore, the legal acknowledgement of women's inheritance rights has significantly impacted women empowerment in India. The study, carried out by Professor Ajay Sharma and doctoral researcher Minali Grover, offers unique empirical proof that reforms to the Hindu Succession Act (HSA) have strengthened women's autonomy in the home and changed gender roles.
A paper published in the journal, Empirical Economics, 'Women's Inheritance Rights Reforms and Impact on Women's Empowerment: Evidence from India', explores the ways in which women's decision-making authority and social status have been impacted by the historic 2005 amendment to the HSA that gave unmarried daughters equal rights to ancestral property.
Using the phased adoption of inheritance laws in five Indian states between 1976 and 1994—before the national amendment in 2005—the researchers used a quasi-natural experiment approach. They used a difference-in-differences approach and data from the India Human Development Survey (2004–2015) to compare the outcomes of women who were exposed to the reforms with those who were not.
Their results are striking: women who had the ability to inherit were much more likely to be involved in household decisions about mobility, big expenses, and healthcare, all of which are important measures of empowerment in development economics. Younger women, especially those who were single when the reforms went into effect, were most affected, highlighting how the timing of legal actions affects their long-term impacts.
It's interesting to note that the study did not immediately find a rise in women's labour force participation, indicating that property rights empowerment may initially translate into bargaining power and a slow cultural shift before showing up in economic activity. In order to provide the groundwork for gender equity, legal clarity and equal rights are essential. The research demonstrates that reforms on paper are not merely symbolic; they have the ability to transform women's lived realities and household power dynamics.
The report also emphasises how crucial it is to make consistent efforts outside of legislation. Campaigns to raise awareness, cultural changes, and systems to guarantee that rights are accessible are still crucial for converting laws into real empowerment for women from all socioeconomic backgrounds.
The IIM Indore study provides policymakers, activists, and academics working on gender equity with important insights by measuring the practical effects of inheritance laws. It makes a stronger case for the use of legal reform as a means of resolving long-standing disparities in property rights, which are essential to social and economic empowerment.
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