Securing Women\\\'s Right to Land, The Indian Experience vis-a-vis the promise of the Sustainable Development Goals

Contetnt:

The introduction of the Sustainable Development Goals marked a watershed moment in the movement to secure land rights for women. Target 5.a. represented the first, concrete global commitment to protecting and promoting women’s right to land. However, a global commitment of this sort, requires concerted state action if it is to result in tangible gains for women. This paper examines this question in the Indian context and assesses the response of the Indian State machinery vis-a-vis the promise of Target 5.a / the SDGs for women’s land rights. In order to do so, it analyses the response of four critical pillars of the Indian State responsible for operationalising the SDGs, including Target 5.a.: The Legislature, the Judiciary, the Executive body responsible for guiding policy making on the SDGs (NITI Aayog) and Implementation bodies/institutions responsible for training duty-bearers. We argue that India’s current approach to land rights for women falls woefully short of the vision of Target 5.a. We ultimately propose that sincere implementation of the SDG framework provides a roadmap to address the gaps in India’s response to the question of women’s land rights.