Gender Inequality in Land Ownership in India: Evidence from National Sample Survey

Rakesh Kumar Mahato, Arindam Das and Bheemeshwar Reddy A

Journal of Development Studies, 2025, vol. 61, issue 10, 1623-1641

Abstract: Gender inequality in land ownership remains a significant barrier to women’s economic empowerment and social equity in India. Addressing this disparity is crucial for advancing gender equality and improving household welfare. Using measures of inequality developed by Agarwal et al. (2021), this study examines various dimensions of women’s land ownership in India. The study utilises nationally and state-level representative data from the All-India Debt and Investment Survey to assess the extent of inequality in agricultural and non-agricultural land ownership between men and women across rural and urban areas. Additionally, it leverages temporal variations in amendments to inheritance laws across Indian states to evaluate the impact of longer exposure to progressive inheritance reforms on women’s land ownership, employing a propensity score matching approach. The findings reveal that women’s land ownership remains significantly lower than men’s, with only 11 per cent of rural women and 15 per cent of urban women owning any land (either individually or jointly), compared to 53 per cent of rural men and 49 per cent of urban men. The propensity score matching results show that longer exposure to inheritance reforms positively affects the likelihood of women owning land.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1080/00220388.2025.2481879

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