Give Full Property Rights To Women

The parliament has shown an initiative to empower women by passing a bill related to women’s rights, including their rights to parental property. Without having control over economic institution or modes of production that increases wealth, no one can be truly independent and free from social suppression. In our context, women generally do not hold property and are, therefore, suppressed in the male dominated society. If one goes and sees in the rural areas, he/she will find that women work harder and for longer hours than their brothers and husbands do. Though the parliamentary initiative is a laudable task towards protecting women’s rights, the new bill does not allow women to take away the parental property after they are married. This makes the bill no better than the previous one which had it that an unmarried daughter would get a share of parental property only after she was over 35 years. Therefore, the bill should be immediately amended if the authorities are really serious about empowerment of women who share more than half of the country’s total population.

Manisha Pokharel
Bhimsengola, Kathmandu