Land Grabbing

Impact of Land Acquisition on Women: An Anthropological Case Study on Gokulpur, Paschim Medinipur (India)

Citation:

Majumder, Arup. 2014.  “Impact of Land Acquisition on Women: An Anthropological Case Study on Gokulpur, Paschim Medinipur (India).” International Journal of Interdisciplinary and Multidisciplinary Studies (IJIMS) 1 (4): 26-34.

Author: Arup Majumder

Abstract:

The acquisition of agricultural land for industrialisation leads to a number of socio-economic consequences. The Paschim Medinipur district in the state of West Bengal is chiefly an agricultural district where more than seventy per cent of the population lives in the rural area and among them majority depends on agriculture and agriculture related occupations. In this paper, we have presented some empirical data on the socio- economic consequences of women of the establishment of the industry on the fertile agricultural land in the Kharagpur subdivision of Paschim Medinipur district in the early 1990s with the cooperation of West Bengal government.The findings revealed that acquisition of agricultural land for industry leads to change among the women as well as children of landloser families who depended on agriculture for their livelihood. Field data showed that the school dropout rate among female members of landloser families have been increased than nonlandloser families. This study has also showed that after the acquisition, livelihood pattern have been changed among the female members of landloser families. Moreover the “age at marriage” have been decreased among the girls of landloser families than non- landloser families.

Keywords: land acquisition, landloser, women, Gender, dropout, age at marriage, Industrialisation

Topics: Agriculture, Education, Gender, Land Grabbing, Livelihoods Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: India

Year: 2014

'Territory is Everything': Afro-Colombian Communities, Human Rights and Illegal Land Grabs

Citation:

Bratspies, Rebecca. 2020. “'Territory is Everything': Afro-Colombian Communities, Human Rights and Land Grabs.” HRLR Online 290-323. 

Author: Rebecca Bratspies

Abstract:

In Colombia, the struggle over land rights often pits the cultural and economic interests of indigenous and marginalized peoples against the governments that are supposed to protect their rights under law. Rural Afro-Colombian women seeking to vindicate their land rights find themselves at the mercy of multiple vectors of discrimination: they are black; they are women; and they are rural farmers. Their land rights are under threat—from land occupations from below and State Development plans from above. An unholy mix of gender and racial discrimination compounds their struggle. Nevertheless, Afro-Colombian women are at the vanguard of land rights advocacy in Colombia. This article documents their struggle for vindication. Part I begins by situating Colombia in the broader, global movement for land rights, and then describes Colombia’s Afro-descendant population, their landholdings and the main threats to their land rights. Part II outlines the primary legal and political sources of land dispossession in Colombia, and concludes by proposing a path forward for Colombia to protect, promote and realize the rights of Afro-Colombian women to their territory.

Topics: Development, Gender, Women, Indigenous, Land Grabbing, Race, Rights, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights Regions: Americas, South America Countries: Colombia

Year: 2020

Climate Chaos: Ecofeminisms and the Land Question

Citation:

Isla, Ana, ed. 2019. Climate Chaos: Ecofeminisms and the Land Question. Toronto: Inanna Publications & Education Inc. 

Author: Ana Isla

Annotation:

Summary:
Today's social and ecological crises, which threaten the preservation of life on our planet, require our attention to understand the dynamics of patriarchy and capitalism, as well as to unmask "answers" or false solutions that obscure, perpetuate, and even worsen the current situation. Ecofeminists have critically examined several of the underlying assumptions of the capitalist-patriarchal conceptual framework, such as the promotion of the destructive transformation of nature, hierarchical thinking, the encouragement of dualism, the enforcement of the logic of domination over life, even the hatred for life itself, and speciecism. Yet ecofeminism's attempts to call attention to and stop the destruction of the planet have not yet been able to tackle the growing problem of climate change, which is threatening not only life on earth, but the earth and all her "living systems." Climate change and extreme weather are exacerbating existing social inequalities and political conflicts globally. Climate justice is the starting point from which we can begin to build the kind of local and international solidarity that is needed to address climate change and transform the socio-economic hierarchies that caused it. This volume re-examines existing analyses from this new and much broader point of view in theory and practise, and points to the need for a new concept of nature and the earth as a living being, a cosmic being, so that it is the life of the earth herself that today must be protected. (Summary from Amazon)
 
Table of Contents:
1. Climate Chaos: Mother Earth Under Threat
Ana Isla
 
2. Money or Life? What Makes Us Really Rich?
Veronica Bennholdt-Thomsen
 
3. Deconstructing Necrophilia: Eco/feminist Perspectives on the Perversion of Death and Love
Irene Friesen
 
4. The Guardians of Conga Lagoons – Defending Land, Water and Freedom in Peru
Ana Isla
 
5. Ecofeminisms, Commons and Climate Justice
Patricia E. (Ellie) Perkins
 
6. Finite Disappointments or Infinite Hope: Working through Tensions within Transnational Feminist Movements
Dorothy Attakora-Gyan
 
7. Sasipihkeyihtamowin: Niso Nehiyaw iskwewak
Margaret Kress
 
8. Climate Change and Environmental Racism: What Payments for Ecosystem Services Means for Peasants and Indigenous Peoples
Ana Isla
 
9. Biotechnology and Biopiracy: Plant-Based Contraceptives in the Americas and the (Mis)management of Nature 
Rachel O’Donnell
 
10. Building Food Sovereignty through Ecofeminism in Kenta: From Capitalist to Commoners’ Agricultural Value Chains 
Leigh Brownhill, Wahu M. Kaara and Terisa E. Turner
 
11. Monsanto and the Patenting of Life: Primitive Accumulation in the Twenty-First Century
Jennifer Bonato
 
12. “I Know My Own Body…They Lied”: Race, Knowledge, and Environmental Sexism in Institute, wv and Old Bhopal, India
Reena Shadaan
 
13. Water is Worth More than Gold: Ecofeminism and Gold Mining in the Dominican Republic
Klaire Gain
 
14. Indigenous Andoas Uprising: Defending Territorial Integrity and Autonomy in Peru
Ana Isla
 
15. The “Greening” of Costa Rica: A War Against Subsistence
Ana Isla
 
16. Earth Love: Finding our Way Back Home
Ronnie Joy Leah

Topics: Environment, Climate Change, Feminisms, Ecofeminism, Gendered Power Relations, Patriarchy, Indigenous, Land Grabbing, Land Tenure, Rights, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights Regions: Americas, Caribbean countries, Central America, South America, Asia, South Asia Countries: Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, India, Peru

Year: 2019

Land Policy Reform in Rwanda and Land Tenure Security for all Citizens: Provision and Recognition of Women’s Rights over Land

Citation:

Uwayezu, Ernest, and Theodomir Mugiraneza. 2011. "Land Policy Reform in Rwanda and Land Tenure Security for all Citizens: Provision and Recognition of Women’s Rights over Land." Paper presented at FIG Working Week, Bridging the Gap between Cultures, Marrakech, May 18-22.  

Authors: Ernest Uwayezu, Theodomir Mugiraneza

Keywords: rights to land, female orphans, land reform policy, land law, inheritance law, land tenure security

Annotation:

Summary:
In Rwanda, for many years ago, rights over land for women and female orphans were not recognized. The main causes were the inexistence of efficient land administration systems and the prevalence of traditional system of land tenure which were complex and did not favor women and female descendants. In 2004, the Government of Rwanda had adopted a new land policy which was complemented by the 2005 Organic Land Law and a series of laws and regulations with regard to access to land, land management perspectives, and to the modalities of land rights transfer. The main goal of land policy reform in Rwanda is to protect and to enforce land holders’ rights and the provision of land tenure security for all citizens without any discrimination. The study investigates the effects the land policy reform on rights over land for widow and female orphans. Data collected from the field survey in five districts of Rwanda and literature review were analyzed using qualitative and interpretative methods, following the principles of impact/outcome evaluation approach. Findings show that the implementation of a new land policy and associate regulations are having a positive impact in safeguard, protection and enforcement of land rights for widow and female orphans. Widow and female orphans are given back their lands previously grabbed by their relatives. However, there is a need to continuously and widely empower widow and female descendants for defending themselves against practices of land grabbing and/or land deprivation through sensitization and reinforcement of land related laws and regulations in place. 

Topics: Gender, Women, Land Tenure, Land Grabbing, Rights, Land Rights Regions: Africa, Central Africa, East Africa Countries: Rwanda

Year: 2011

Financialization, Resistance, and the Question of Women’s Land Rights

Citation:

Collins, Andrea M. 2018. "Financialization, Resistance, and the Question of Women’s Land Rights." International Feminist Journal of Politics 21 (3): 454- 76.

Author: Andrea M. Collins

Abstract:

The financialization of food and agricultural land has been a critical driver of the “land-grabbing” phenomenon in the post 2007–2008 period: the potential for land to be both a productive and financial asset has driven interest in long term land rentals and sales. Scholars and activists have highlighted the negative effects of these trends for rural populations. International institutions have promoted the recognition of land rights as a means to secure land from seizure, ensure equal participation in land acquisitions, and enable low income populations, including women, to access credit. At the same time, activists are promoting collective land rights, customary modes of land tenure and the rights of Indigenous peoples. For activists, land reform models that promote the collective rights of peoples to govern land are critical to resisting individualized land ownership models that encourage the alienation of land. This article reviews these rights-based frameworks using a critical feminist perspective and argues that both the institutionalist and activist approaches require more nuanced understandings of gender and difference in order to effect gender-equitable change. This article concludes by mapping new feminist research directions that consider land and resources within the context of local–global processes, the global economy, intersectionality and global rights-based discourses.

Keywords: land governance, gender, food sovereignty, collective rights, international institutions

Topics: Feminisms, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Indigenous, International Organizations, Land Grabbing, Land Tenure, Rights, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Property Rights

Year: 2018

The Battle After the War: Gender Discrimination in Property Rights and Post-Conflict Property Restitution

Citation:

Mohan, Sharanya Sai. 2011. "The Battle After the War: Gender Discrimination in Property Rights and Post-Conflict Property Restitution." The Yale Journal of International Law 36 (2): 461-95.

Author: Sharanya Sai Mohan

Annotation:

Summary: 
“This note argues that property restitution programs in transitional justice settings need to correct barriers to women's property ownership. In so doing, efforts by government, civil society, and the displaced themselves to achieve transitional justice can also create long-lasting property rights reform that moves a post-conflict society toward both reconstruction and equality. After considering the existing international legal framework as well as several case studies of transitional justice schemes, this Note will argue that actors in transitional justice should take certain steps at the very beginning of the transitional process to ensure that women's property rights are protected as they return to their lives” (Mohan 2011, 463).

Topics: Civil Society, Conflict, Peace and Security, Governance, Post-Conflict Governance, International Law, Justice, Transitional Justice, Land Grabbing, Peacebuilding, Post-Conflict, Rights, Land Rights, Property Rights, Women's Rights

Year: 2011

The Praxis of Access: Gender in Myanmar’s National Land Use Policy

Citation:

Faxon, Hilary Oliva. 2015. “The Praxis of Access: Gender in Myanmar’s National Land Use Policy.” Paper presented at the Conference on Land Grabbing, Conflict and Agrarian‐Environmental Transformations: Perspectives from East and Southeast Asia, Chaing Mai University, June 5-6. 

Author: Hilary Olivia Faxon

Abstract:

In Myanmar, heated struggles around land grabs, acquisition, and formalization fail to acknowledge the complexity and heterogeneity of existing land relations. Gender dynamics are key to shaping these systems, and have been neglected in current research and policy. This paper examines women’s access to land and the emergence of gender discourse in land policy debates through a participant ethnography of the National Land Use Policy consultation process. I explore both ways in which land access is lived by rural women, and feminist contributions to land-based social movements. Attention to the differentiated yet interlinked spheres of the household, customary law, and land formalization enhances understanding of land politics, and women’s presence, gender concerns, and the nascent common identity of the pan-Myanmar women can catalyze effective advocacy for just land reform in Myanmar.

Topics: Development, Feminisms, Gender, Gendered Discourses, Households, Land Grabbing, Rights, Land Rights, Property Rights, Women's Rights Regions: Asia, Southeast Asia Countries: Myanmar

Year: 2015

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