However, the scenario has changed now.
"It's so surprising but since the day of the joint registration of the plots, his behavior has changed. He has started behaving better with me. He even takes my advice," shared an obviously elated Tara.
The secret of the change in her husband is the 'joint registration' of a plot of land. According to Tara, though earlier it did not click to her, it must be the empowerment that automatically came to her with the land ownership that compelled her husband to treat her like his equal.
In fact, her husband would never have agreed to share the ownership had it not been for a drive in the village.
"He sold off our land without my knowledge many times in the past. Once, after I came to know that he was going to sell yet another plot, I reached out to the court and foiled his plans. That had upset my husband," recalled Tara. "He then had to share the property with me legally," she added.
And a growing number of married couples at the village are following the couple's footsteps. Harimaya Bhatta was recently at the land and revenue office to co-register their land. "Only my husband had the ownership of the land earlier. Now both of us own it. It's a wonderful feeling," said Harimaya.
According to her, her husband is good to her and she's never really had much ground for complaint. She has always felt secure with him and there was no need to go through legal procedure to own the property.
"But still I took the move as I thought this would be a contribution to women empowerment. If I do it, my neighbors would follow, then the next-door woman would follow, thus we could compel many more for the co-registration," stated
Harimaya.
Terms like gender equality, women empowerment, education for girls etc do not necessarily excite men in the traditional societies of Chitwan. Some families even criticize it as 'western influence' that will ultimately result in the downfall of the society as a whole. However, not many men are able to resist the pressure built by the local group, called, Chitwan Sakriya Samuha, that has been carrying out co-registration campaign in the village.
And the effect of joint ownership of property is showing dramatic results, at least in the mindsets of people who opt for it.
"As men come to understand that their wives, in fact, are entitled to have equal share of their land and house, they are bound to believe that they aren't their subordinates but equal partners. This realization reflects on their behavior and attitude toward their women," observes Harimaya, President of the local women's organization, Shanti Mahila Samuha.
She has witnessed several men in her locality changing their approach towards their wives just because they have become their equal partners in their property overnight.
"It's really interesting. Men tend to look down upon women. Married men are used to show their superiority over their women. However, when economic power is shared, they are bound to think differently and I've been noticing it here," she said.
Until a few years ago, very few women in the country had land ownership. While they did not have rights over parental property, very few women made efforts to legally claim their husbands land property. With an aim to increase women's land ownership, the government later decided to provide huge discount on the registration fee when land is registered under a woman's name.
If the land is in an urban area, women get 25 percent off the registration charge and when in village, the discount is upto 30 percent.
"But if both husband and wife come for co-registration of land, the registration charge is just Rs 100," informed Tek Prasad Upadhyay, Chief of the Land and Revenue Office in Chitwan.
According to Upadhyay, co-registration of the land is a growing trend. However, it is not very popular yet and might be years away from becoming the norm.
"In the last eight months, 64 couples in the district have come for this formality. The campaign needs to be more effective and carried out widely," he said, adding that gender equality cannot be ensured without equal share in property.
Chitwan Sakriya Samuha has taken the campaign of the joint registration of land as one of their major moves against violence against women. Even though women are easily subjected to domestic violence, few show guts to speak or stand against it. Due to the lack of economic support, women and girls continue to tolerate mishandling, verbal and physical abuses.
Meanwhile, the women's group in Chitwan has planned to carry out the campaign in several other villages in the days to come.
k6ramesh@gmail.com
(Translated from Nepali by Anjali Subedi)
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