India – 2014 results

Nevertheless, NGOs report that weak implementation of the law has undermined the real impact of the reforms. District court rules have not been revised; officers are not held accountable for seeking female heirs; the law’s implementation is not monitored.^[94] In practice, a number of obstacles prevent women from accessing land and non-land assets, including discriminatory inheritance customary practices, limited legal literacy, discriminatory attitudes towards women’s ownership and control of land in the family and community and discrimination in the allocation of land through state transfer programmes.^[95] There is limited national data available on women’s ownership of land and property, however one 2012 UN survey of women in two States found: only 12 percent of women respondents reported that they have or believe that they will inherit land; eight percent currently owned land; only four percent of formally titled plots in Muslim families named the woman; and women felt their plot access was most vulnerable if they were to divorce their husbands, had a falling out with their family, or their family incurred debt.^[96] The National Mission for Empowerment of Women also promotes a model intervention project launched in many districts in India, to ensure the socio-economic development of women in rural areas: A Poorna Shakti Kendra (PSK) is established in villages and offers services to women at the grassroots level, including information on legal rights and entitlements, as well as training and capacity building on leadership.^[97]

There are no legal restrictions regarding women’s access to finance and credit, and women have equal rights to register a business.^[98] In 2012, the Government of India reported that to improve women’s access to the formal banking system, public sector banks were directed by the Reserve Bank to earmark 5% of their Net Bank Credit for lending to women. Credit to women from Net Bank Credit increased from 2.36% in 2001 to 6.29% in 2009.^[99] However, in practice, access to finance in India is restricted by lack of access to bank accounts. For example according to the World Bank in 2011, only 26.5% of women held an account at a formal institution, compared with 43.7% of men; and only two percent of women used that account for business purposes, as compared with 6.1 percent of men. Unbanked women respondents cited a family member having an account as one of the reasons they did not possess an account.^[100] In 2011 the World Bank also found that 6.7 percent of women obtained an institutional loan in 2011, contrasted with 8.6 percent of men. ^[101]Women’s access to credit in India is also restricted in practice due to restricted control over collateral such as land.^[102] The Government reported in 2012 that a number of micro-credit initiatives have been established to increase women’s access to credit, several of which focus on minority women.^[103] However, UNDP has reported that in parts of southern India, where competitive pressures have started pushing multiple micro-loans onto women regardless of the stability of their businesses. This has resulted in indebtedness and backlash.^[104]

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^{[90] CEDAW (2005), pp. 45, 82-83, 92, 94 [91] UNDP (2010), p.70 [92] Oxfam (2013), p1 [93] UNDP (2010) [94] Oxfam (2013), p.2 [95] Agarwal (2002)  [96] UN Women (2012), p.5 [97] National Mission for Empowerment of Women (2014) [98] Constitution of India, art 19(1)(g) [99] CEDAW (2012), p.16 [100] World Bank (2011) [101] World Bank (2011) [102] Agarwal, B. (2002)  [103] CEDAW (2012), p.8 [104] UNDP (2010), p.53}