Access, Ownership, Control

The book under review is part of the series on Land Reforms in India, a project entrusted to the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie, by the Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India. The specific objectives of Understanding Women’s Land Rights edited by Prem Chowdhry include (i) a historical review of the land systems and of formal and customary laws in existence, from a gender perspective; and (ii) an assessment of the conditions on the ground, of the extent to which women actually own land. The volume begins with an introduction by the editor and thereafter covers 14 states of the Indian union.

The introduction provides a competent overview of the different themes emerging from the findings from each of the 14 states. Using these themes (rather than discussing each state-specific chapter seriatim), first, it is highlighted what is common among the states and what is particular to a state, reserving comments on the volume as a whole for the end.