Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhamo was also among the first registrants AT Uniform Civil Court portal. (Photo: X@pushkardhami)
Abhik Bhattacharya
Jan 29, 2025 14:46 IST First published on: Jan 29, 2025 at 14:44 IST
Around 20 km from Ranchi, under a thatched roof, sitting on her haunches near an abandoned cycle that her husband used to ride before he died during the Covid pandemic, Savitri Murmu* pulls her five-year-old daughter close and sighs, “I don’t know what is there for her future. We have three acres of land, but as a daughter, she wouldn’t get it. I don’t have a son”. According to Santhal tribal customary laws, women don’t have rights over ancestral property except when they marry a man during her father’s lifetime and make the husband ghar-jamai (Section 20, Santhal Pargana Tenancy Act, 1949). Savitri, or for that matter, her daughter, can stay there as long as they want, but they would never be able to own it.
As Uttarakhand becomes the first state to implement the Uniform Civil Code (UCC), exempting Adivasis from its ambit, the question of Adivasi women’s rights hangs in the balance. Notably, during the Jharkhand assembly election campaigns, Union Home Minister Amit Shah also promised to exempt Adivasis from the UCC in Jharkhand.
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar both have cited “gender equality” as a ground while celebrating the introduction of the UCC. But will leaving Adivasis out of its ambit serve the purpose? Customary rights of the tribal communities are safeguarded under many Articles of the Constitution [29, 30, 244, 366 (25)], including in the Fifth and Sixth schedules. However, when these customary rights stand against gender rights, there is an eerie silence. The All India Report on Agricultural Census, 2010-201, pointed out that Adivasi men own 88.7 per cent of the land, whereas the women own only 11.3 per cent. However, it was almost similar to the national average, where women held 12.8 per cent of land. It further emphasises the need for structural changes that would help women increase their landholdings.
The courts have intervened in cases related to Adivasi women’s property rights and batted against discriminatory tribal customary rights on several occasions. On December 9, 2022, while hearing a petition by Kamla who claimed that she should be given an equal share of the money that her brothers received from the government when it acquired their land for an Ultra Mega Power Project at Bhedabahal, the bench of Justices M R Shah and C T Ravikumar said, “When the daughter belonging to the non-tribal community is entitled to equal share in the property of the father, there is no reason to deny such right to the daughter belonging the tribal community”. They also added that a “female tribal is entitled to parity with male tribal in intestate succession” asking the central government to carefully look into the Hindu Succession Act (1956). According to section 2(2) of the Act, the Scheduled Tribes are exempted from it.
Reiterating its position in December 2024, the SC bench of Justices C T Ravikumar and Sanjay Karol said, “Female tribal is entitled to parity with male tribal in intestate succession. To deny the equal right to the daughter belonging to the tribal even after a period of 70 years of the Constitution of India under which the right to equality is guaranteed, it is high time for the Central Government to look into the matter and, if required, to amend the provisions of the Hindu Succession Act by which the Act is not made applicable to the members of the Scheduled Tribes.” While implementing the UCC to ensure “gender rights”, the government could have paid heed to the orders of the apex court. Organisations like Jharkhand-based Ekal Nari Sangathan have been fighting for ancestral property rights for decades.
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Another important aspect of the UCC is the banning of polygamy. Again, there is inconsistency in the claims as many Adivasi communities practice it across the country. In 2016, the Rashtriya Adivasi Ekta Parishad, a group that represents11 indigenous communities, filed a petition to the SC seeking its intervention to protect the customary rights of diverse Adivasi groups. The Parishad showed its concern regarding the practice of polygamy that is prevalent among different communities, including Naga, Baiga, Lushai and Gond, to rest its case. It also mentioned the practice of polyandry among communities like Tiyan, Toda, Ladhaki Bota, Rota and Khasa. The existence of such practice is accepted as Adivasis are excluded from the ambit of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955.
While it is necessary to preserve the cultural rights of the Adivasis, gender rights must have a larger appeal. Not just an abandoned cycle, Savitri’s daughter deserves to own her father’s land.
abhik.bhattacharya@expressindia.com
