Srinagar, Feb 05:A public meeting by the members of Kashmir Women’s Collective was held in public park, known as women’s public park, on February 4 2019 around 3pm about the recent revocation of SRO 82 that had ordered 0% stamp duty on women bought and titled properties.
Nearly 100 people gathered, mostly women who talked about their experiences of being women, about property rights, and about how the new SRO 219 that has put stamp duty at 3% (on women bought properties) would lead to disempowerment of women in J&K financially.
In 2018, Jammu and Kashmir government decided to waive off the payment of stamp duty, if the property is registered in the name of the female member of a family in the state. Across India a stamp duty of 3-10% is otherwise levied on purchase of immovable property. This step in J and K was therefore considered a move towards economic and financial empowerment of women which even the United Nations hailed. The decision was also considered to help women in owning immovable assets and making them financially independent and its revocation has not been appreciated by the women across the state.
While speaking at the occasion, Mantasha,, a voluntary member of the women’s collective said that female literacy rate in the state is at 56.43%, much lower than male literacy which is 76.75% as per the last census. Only 23% of women in the state own land and 33% owned a house, according to census data which means that 70-80% property is still owned in the names of men even when the property is bought by disposing off women’s gold and other assets in middle class families. Many women are thrown out of their homes even in old age as they have no claim on the houses which they nurture throughout their lives.
Another voluntary member, Subreen Mushtaq discussed a few cases in which women have been helped by KWC. Desertion and non-maintenance of women and children is the number one form of domestic abuse in the state which can be curbed to a large extent by ownership of property by women, she said. She invited a victim survivor to the stage who spoke about the experience of being deserted along with children and is currently economically dependent. She told the gathering that KWC has provided her legal and psychological support, and had she owned property, she would not be suffering.
Shehryar Khanum, another member of the voluntary support network, KWC, laid stress that parental property is also not inherited by women in most cases, across urban and rural areas in the stat despite it being a religious right of women guaranteed in Islam. As observed sociologically, women are socially motivated to give up their parental share to their male sibblings as a way to preserve their relationship with parental home. As a result women do not own any property in most cases making them vulnerable and economically weak. Incentivising society to financially empower their women is not only a thoughtful but a strategic move towards empowerment of women.
Rifat Andrabi, Ifra Jan and Enus Shafi also addressed the gathering and strongly demanded that the new SRO that revoked zero percent stamp duty be taken back by the governor, Satya Pa,l as women are disadvantaged and marginalised group and policies focusing on women’s empowerment must be enacted and hailed.
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