Setting the record straight: Less than 10% of Indian women may own land

New study suggests earlier ownership surveys may have overestimated their rights

In the eighties, Mary Roy sued her brother after being threatened with eviction from their father's cottage in Ooty where she lived with her two children after walking out of an abusive marriage. The Travancore Christian Succession Act denied Syrian Christian daughters the right to inherit property if the father died without a will. Roy’s litigation paved the way for the Act to be abolished and women to inherit property in their name. Separately, Parliament amended the Hindu Succession Act to give women equal inheritance rights in 2005.

Despite such reforms, the share of Indian women who