DIMAPUR/KOHIMA: For centuries, Naga women couldn’t inherit land because of patriarchal commonplace regulations. But a silent revolution has began in Nagaland, and persons are writing wills and getting ready reward deeds to go away in the back of the land that they have got got all over their lifetime for his or her daughters.
“In urban spaces of Nagaland it is going on at large scale nowadays. Parents are shifting possession of land to daughters, which used to be earlier extraordinary,” says TL Kiusumona Tikhir, additional deputy commissioner of Kohima, also in-charge of the earnings department, which oversees transfer of land.
What is being gifted is got land. Ancestral land can't be sold to members of any other tribe or gifted to daughters as they could marry into any other tribe and finally end up decreasing the village area, which is unthinkable for a Naga. Acquired land, however, are in urban settlements and do not affect tribal village obstacles.
Land rights had been a sensitive factor in Nagaland for centuries. “For Nagas, land is id. He belongs to a village and he has his forefathers buried there. Therefore he can by no means foresake his ancestral village,” says Naga social activist and Tangkhul expert S Varah.
IAS couple Anenla and Bendang Longchari have determined to reward land to their three daughters. “We bought plots of land for our first and third daughters in Kohima and gifted a plot to the second one daughter in Dimapur,” says Anenla. But Anenla places training sooner than land on the subject of empowering daughters. “I'm the commissioner secretary to the federal government of Nagaland lately as a result of my father gave me the best training,” she adds.
Empowered via training, women also are purchasing land on their very own. “Given the top literacy price and subsequent enlargement of ladies professionals in each box, there is an increasing development of ladies purchasing their very own land and belongings in Naga society lately,” says Toshimenla Jamir, HoD sociology at Nagaland University.
With training, also comes consciousness. “My father used to be illiterate and he sent my brother and me to non-public schools and my six sisters to a central authority faculty. But I realised that my sisters will have to get a percentage of the property,” says 38-year-old Pinman Konyak from Abhoi town, who has already gifted land to 4 of his sisters.
A concerted effort has also begun to transport against an inheritance law in Nagaland that isn't biased towards women. “We have had detailed meetings with all tribal hohos — the apex decison-making frame of Naga tribes — and 15 of the 16 recognised tribes are amenable to the idea of a law facilitating women inherit got belongings of their parents,” says Temsula Ao, chairperson of Nagaland State Commission for Women. Talks are, however, caught in a limbo after the February 2017 violence over the problem of 33% reservation for women in urban legislative bodies.
“These days, we're getting to listen to of accelerating number of instances where fathers are shifting land within the name of their daughters,” says Ao. She says that in sure instances where parents have only daughters and concern that family might try to usurp the property, they're taking the step of leaving in the back of wills, extraordinary in Nagaland, where most land is still transferred or bequeathed via oral pronouncements.
The Centre now not only stands a mute spectator right here, but data launched via the ministry of well being and circle of relatives welfare creates a smokescreen round this gender injustice. The ministry-released National Family Health Survey 2015-16 says ‘women owning a space and/or land (by myself or collectively with others)’ stands at 41% in rural Nagaland and 26% in urban spaces of the state. Experts TOI spoke to trashed the knowledge. Email and call calls via TOI in the hunt for rationalization at the data fro
“In urban spaces of Nagaland it is going on at large scale nowadays. Parents are shifting possession of land to daughters, which used to be earlier extraordinary,” says TL Kiusumona Tikhir, additional deputy commissioner of Kohima, also in-charge of the earnings department, which oversees transfer of land.
What is being gifted is got land. Ancestral land can't be sold to members of any other tribe or gifted to daughters as they could marry into any other tribe and finally end up decreasing the village area, which is unthinkable for a Naga. Acquired land, however, are in urban settlements and do not affect tribal village obstacles.
Land rights had been a sensitive factor in Nagaland for centuries. “For Nagas, land is id. He belongs to a village and he has his forefathers buried there. Therefore he can by no means foresake his ancestral village,” says Naga social activist and Tangkhul expert S Varah.
IAS couple Anenla and Bendang Longchari have determined to reward land to their three daughters. “We bought plots of land for our first and third daughters in Kohima and gifted a plot to the second one daughter in Dimapur,” says Anenla. But Anenla places training sooner than land on the subject of empowering daughters. “I'm the commissioner secretary to the federal government of Nagaland lately as a result of my father gave me the best training,” she adds.
Empowered via training, women also are purchasing land on their very own. “Given the top literacy price and subsequent enlargement of ladies professionals in each box, there is an increasing development of ladies purchasing their very own land and belongings in Naga society lately,” says Toshimenla Jamir, HoD sociology at Nagaland University.
With training, also comes consciousness. “My father used to be illiterate and he sent my brother and me to non-public schools and my six sisters to a central authority faculty. But I realised that my sisters will have to get a percentage of the property,” says 38-year-old Pinman Konyak from Abhoi town, who has already gifted land to 4 of his sisters.
A concerted effort has also begun to transport against an inheritance law in Nagaland that isn't biased towards women. “We have had detailed meetings with all tribal hohos — the apex decison-making frame of Naga tribes — and 15 of the 16 recognised tribes are amenable to the idea of a law facilitating women inherit got belongings of their parents,” says Temsula Ao, chairperson of Nagaland State Commission for Women. Talks are, however, caught in a limbo after the February 2017 violence over the problem of 33% reservation for women in urban legislative bodies.
“These days, we're getting to listen to of accelerating number of instances where fathers are shifting land within the name of their daughters,” says Ao. She says that in sure instances where parents have only daughters and concern that family might try to usurp the property, they're taking the step of leaving in the back of wills, extraordinary in Nagaland, where most land is still transferred or bequeathed via oral pronouncements.
The Centre now not only stands a mute spectator right here, but data launched via the ministry of well being and circle of relatives welfare creates a smokescreen round this gender injustice. The ministry-released National Family Health Survey 2015-16 says ‘women owning a space and/or land (by myself or collectively with others)’ stands at 41% in rural Nagaland and 26% in urban spaces of the state. Experts TOI spoke to trashed the knowledge. Email and call calls via TOI in the hunt for rationalization at the data fro
Denied for centuries, Naga women get to own land now
![Denied for centuries, Naga women get to own land now]()
Reviewed by Kailash
on
August 16, 2018
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