Paper short abstract:

Women constitute half of the world's population and produce between 60 to 80 per cent of the food in developing countries but they are frequently denied the right to own and inherit property.

Paper long abstract:

Gender discrimination in land ownership in productive assets such as land can be seen all over the world. This has a direct bearing on women's status and places them at disadvantaged situation in terms of securing a place to live and maintaining resources for their livelihood. One of the significant reasons for this was found gender unequal laws/policies and also the prevailing socio-cultural value system. In practice, few women own productive resources, even fewer effectively control it. Women own less than 10 per cent of the world's property. The UN Research Institute for Social Development mentions that there has been considerable progresses post 1990s in making formal laws pertaining to landed property more gender equitable. Many developing countries have enacted laws, framed policies and amended constitutions to guarantee rights of women on an equitable basis. In order to empower women economically, some of the Indian states have initiated a scheme of providing concession in the stamp duty including registration fee to women registering property in their name. The programme is based on the basic premise that ownership of productive resources by women would make them socially and economically secured, reduce the chances of domestic violence and enable them n their empowerment. The paper is an attempt to see the impact of the Scheme in the empowerment of women in the state of Uttar Pradesh.