“Gender and land rights revisited: exploring new prospects via the state, family and market”

The question of women’s land rights has a relatively young history in India. This paper briefly traces the history of women’s land rights in India before examining why gendering the land question remains critical, and what the new possibilities are for enhancing women’s land access. Potentially women can obtain land through the State, the family and the market. The paper explores the prospects and constraints linked to each, arguing that access through the family and the market deserve particular attention, since most arable land is India is privatized. ON market access, the paper makes several departures from existing discussions by focusing on the advantages, especially for poor women, of working in groups to lease or purchase land, using government credit for land rather than merely for micro-financing.