Rattan Manjari is an iconic tribal woman whose battles with patriarchal norms are legendary. The 70-year-old hails from the remote Ribba village in Kinnaur바카라a high-altitude district along the Indo-Tibetan border바카라where women have no legal titles to property and power in other matters. From managing her apple orchard in Kinnaur to organising women against the customary law called Wajib-ul-Urj that prevents women, unmarried daughters, widows, and deserted single women, from inheriting ancestral property바카라 Manjari does it with determination.
Women in tribal families at Kinnaur, Pangi, Lahaul-Spiti and Bhamour suffer gender discrimination, injustice, and legal deprivation. Due to Manjari바카라s efforts, about 35 applicants have received property rights and their names noted in the revenue records. She also runs Mahila Kalyan Parishad바카라a group seeking equal rights for women in ancestral property matters.
Manjari was elected unanimously as village pradhan at the age of 21. 바카라I was lucky that my family, particularly my mother, inspired me as a 14-year-old to raise my voice against the century-old patriarchal laws. I could also reach out to the state chief ministers and even prime ministers of India, P.V. Narasimha Rao and Atal Bihari Vajpayee. I led hundreds of tribal women to spread a gender revolution. Still, there바카라s a long way to go,바카라 she rues.
The 1926 law is practiced in Kinnaur and Lahaul-Spiti districts, besides the tribal belt of Chamba district, despite a high literacy rate of 81 per cent. 바카라This customary law seems to have originated from the fear of losing tribal land if a woman marries a non-tribal. Unmarried daughters have a share in the property with their brothers, but after the father바카라s demise, the sons become sole inheritors,바카라 says
Dr Dev Kanya Thakur, a journalist whose film, No Woman바카라s Land, looked at gender discrimination in Kinnaur and Lahaul-Spiti.
Manjari recalls that the Himachal Pradesh high court had held that gender discrimination violates fundamental rights. 바카라The daughters in a Hindu society cannot be left and segregated from the mainstream as they are entitled to equal share in the property,바카라 the court ruled on June 25, 2015. The matter later went to the Supreme Court, which referred it back to the high court, where it is still pending.
As a last-ditch attempt, Manjari wants to meet the newly elected President of India, Droupadi Murmu. 바카라I am sure she will make a big difference vis-à-vis my struggle for getting the legitimate rights of tribal women enforced,바카라 says Manjari.
(This appeared in the print edition as "The Fight for Equal Property Rights")
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