Equal Property Rights
Women Stand To Benefit

By Ram Kumar Kamat

THE issue of equality between men and women has been a serious matter of discussion worldwide. With the registration of the proposed "Muluki Ain (Civil Code) Eleventh Amendment Bill 2056" in the House of Representatives, the issue of equal rights has been extensively debated in our society, particularly among human rights activists, lawyers, journalists and members of the civil societies. It has now reached the parliament.

Expectation

In the backdrop of the then Prime Minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai's assurance of doing the needful exercise in the parliament to get the proposed bill passed, it is widely expected that the people's popular expectation will set things in motion and the parliament will pass the bill most probably in the sitting session. Members of the civil societies have in recent months, conducted a series of debate sensitize the MPs of the women's rights, including equal property right.

As far as equality between men and women is concerned, the Constitution confers equal rights both to men and women and categorically denies any discrimination on the ground of sex, race, colour and creed. In fact, before the present Constitution was promulgated, the then interim government headed by Krishna Prasad Bhattarai had ratified the United Nation's Convention on Eradication of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). As far as legal justification for women to seek equality at par with men is concerned, the CEDAW along with Human Rights Declaration and Convention on Children's Rights is the major international legal instrument that guarantee women's right of equality. Nepal has ratified all these major conventions. So, the provisions of these conventions prevail vis-a-vis our national laws. The international conventions to which Nepal is a party shall be considered as national law. It is a legal obligation of His Majesty's Government to abolish legal discrimination in the country. So far, there are 21 legal provisions in various special acts and chapters of Muluki Ain that discriminate women on grounds of sex.

Though the Muluki Ain amendment bill is far from satisfactory, it, however, seeks to rectify those discriminatory provisions to some extent.

The bill has proposed that son and daughter will be equally entitled for a share of property. But the key issue is still unsolved where the MPs need to focus and come up with a consensus. Those who are opposed to the idea of equal property rights are of the view that such a provision can have an adverse impact on the structure of society causing intense fragmentation of land, increasing cases of divorce, female foeticide and so on. They also view that such a provision can give rise to a tendency among the sons to eye for the daughters of rich ones and in that case marriage for the daughters of poor could be a big problem. They either vouchsafe for status quo emphasising on promoting girls' education or opt for the Will system.

As far as women's property right is concerned, status quo can no longer be maintained as Nepal is one of the members of the UN conventions that guarantee equal rights to women. It is obvious that until and unless gender mainstreaming is done, the nation's development in a country like ours, is unattainable. Keeping in mind the practical aspect of equal property right to women, it can be said that we are not the only country in the world to talk of this right. In fact, Indian states like Maharastra, Tamilnadu and Karnataka have such a provision. In these states sons and daughters are equally entitled to parental property. Sri Lanka in this reason is another example. The constitution of Japan guarantees its citizens equal rights and prohibits discrimination of a daughter on the ground of sex. England has adopted the Will system. Even in some of the Muslim countries, daughters are entitled to have property right in at least one third or one fourth of their parents' property. No doubt the Will system could be an ideal proposition where offspring bear inspiration from the very beginning to become self reliant - a key factor to inject dynamism into the society to prosper.

But is it appropriate for our society? 'No', at least not for now. The reason: we are not only a male-dominated society but also dominated by socio-cultural and religious ethos where most of the parents consider sons indispensable for, among others, funeral rites and carry on the family line, though such traditions are fading away with the spread of education and awareness.

So, if the Will system is introduced in our society at the moment, no change could be brought to women as most of the parents will tacitly go for conferring their will to their favoured son and the daughters will continue to be relegated in comparison to their male sibling. From the development point of view, it is obvious that until and unless women themselves step forward to be at par with their male partners a family, society and ultimately a country cannot prosper as expected.

There are a majority of parents who do not consider it their duty to impart good education to their daughters. And the reason is that daughters are considered to be someone else's property. The irony is that in most cases, a daughter is not even counted as a member of the family. She is dependent on her parents' kindness and sympathy. If a father becomes unreasonable, a daughter, unlike her brother, has no right to seek redressal.

Benefit

Had the daughters been entitled to equal property rights, there would have not been evensingle family where sons are well educated but the daughters are not. All this that once daughters are given equal property rights, their parents will be treating them at par with their sons. And at the same time it can bring about a renaissance in our society. Equal property rights to women will also serve as the best way to empower the women.

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