A question of property

THEY will not let her rest in peace. In life, or in death. Everything that needs saying about Phoolan Devi has already been said. And many times over. But at a reader's prompting, I turned my eyes again to the column upon column written in the aftermath of her death in our newspapers and magazines. And the word that sprang out at me was "property".

The Bandit Queen has variously been the property of the media, of politicians, of her husband and her natal family. After her death, too, the same people continue to fight over Phoolan - politicians and media over how to make capital over her death, and her husband and natal family over how to gain control over the material capital she left behind.

By dying intestate, Phoolan has ensured that her story will not disappear from the news columns for a long time. No one will be able to answer satisfactorily the dozens of questions being asked.

Who will inherit her wealth, Rs. 10 crores at last count? Did she really want to disinherit her husband, as has been suggested by more than one person? Can he be stopped from taking over her estate? What are the rights of her sisters and her mother over her property in the absence of a will?

Macabre as all these questions are in the context of Phoolan Devi's death, they are relevant to many women in India. Literate or illiterate, the majority of women remain, by and large, innocent of their rights under property laws. When alive, they do not seek independent advice either about their entitlements or about the management of their personal wealth if they have any. And if they die intestate - most women would not know the importance of a will, or even how to make one - their wishes die with them.

The crude and public battles over Phoolan's property open a window into the daily battles fought in many different locations around India. In this case, the woman is dead. In the majority of cases, the women are alive and deliberately deprived of even what they are guaranteed under law.

The Maharashtra Government is undertaking an interesting exercise in this area. It has asked a group working on women's legal rights, Majlis, to help them draft a Bill on Women's Right to Property. In the process, they are consulting women's groups, lawyers and judges who deal with these issues every day.

The stories that the process is throwing up illustrate only too well how women, without the knowledge of law, can so easily be duped into forfeiting their rights. For instance, even though the law has many loopholes, there are rights that some States, like Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, have guaranteed that ought to have made things easier for women governed under the Hindu Succession Act. In these States, women have coparcenary rights. Regardless of whether they are married, unmarried, divorced or widowed, they have an equal right to inheritance in the ancestral property of their parents. In other States, they can only get a part of their father's share in joint family property. And even though they are entitled to an equal share with their brothers, the latter get a separate share in the family property by virtue of being male. As a result, women get a much smaller share. However, most women would not be aware of what the law deprives them of in some States, and to what they are entitled in certain other States.

At a meeting to discuss the provisions that a law on women's property rights should have, one of the youngest judges of the Bombay High Court, Justice D.Y. Chandrachud shared some interesting experiences of how women are fooled. He spoke of a couple, both doctors, who lived in a joint family with the husband's parents, who were also doctors. After 10 years of marriage, the husband said that he had finally managed to buy a separate flat where they could move. He took his wife to see the flat. She noticed that there was no water connection and the place looked unfinished. But he assured her that it would be set right once they moved in and encouraged her to move right away. When she did, she was faced with the unsavoury reality that the flat actually belonged to someone else. Her husband had fooled her.

On finding out, she returned to her marital home, expecting that the matter would be sorted out. Instead she was told that as she had moved out, there was no place for her in the marital home. And in any case, she could not claim even a legal right to live there, as the property did not belong either to the husband or his parents, but to some other relatives. What rights do women have in such situations? And if this can happen to a highly qualified professional woman, what must be the fate of millions of her unlettered sisters?

Justice Chandrachud believes that the State must recognise the woman's right to reside in the matrimonial home, even if it means physically dividing a dwelling. Majlis, which was founded by the well-known activist and advocate, Ms. Flavia Agnes, says that their battle in the last decade around the rights of women victims of domestic violence has revealed that the law does not have clear provisions with respect to women's rights to the matrimonial home. Women are driven out by their husbands, or in- laws, and left with nothing. Even though their right to parental property has been recognised, it is not always honoured. And their right to a share of the matrimonial home is a grey area.

Ms. Agnes points out that the issue is particularly relevant as an increasing number of households are headed by women. Many of these are amongst the poorest in the country. The legal system does not guarantee them maintenance to which they are entitled under the law if the husband deserts or divorces them or if they are forced to flee from a violent and abusive situation. Also, they cannot demand a share in the matrimonial home even if they have made a substanial contribution to it in direct or indirect ways.

Women's right to property, including the very definition of property, is a complex subject. But the issue of the future of Phoolan Devi's property reminds us, once again, of the urgent need to find ways to protect women's rights, and to educate them about these rights, so that they do not remain in victim-mode - in life and in death.

KALPANA SHARMA

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