Bina Agarwal: Women and Land

How Bina Agarwal's research on women's land rights, especially "A Field of One's Own", influenced the 2005 reform giving Hindu daughters equal inheritance rights.

Bina Agarwal is a development and environmental economist.

A Field of One’s Own

Her 1994 book A Field of One’s Own: Gender and Land Rights in South Asia argued that women’s lack of land ownership is a key source of gender inequality.
Land gives women bargaining power, security and income.

Policy impact

Agarwal campaigned to amend the Hindu Succession Act.
The Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005 gave daughters equal rights to inherit agricultural land and joint family property.

Group farming

She studied women’s group farming, finding groups of women farming together could raise productivity.

Environment

Her research also covered community forestry and women’s participation in forest management.

Honours

She received the Padma Shri and led the Institute of Economic Growth in Delhi.

Legacy

Her work shows how property rights shape gender equality.

The daughter's share

After 2005, a daughter in a farming family could claim an equal share of her father's agricultural land alongside her brothers.

Thinking gender equality is only about wages

Land ownership gives women bargaining power.

Key takeaways

Bina Agarwal wrote A Field of One's Own (1994).
She argued land ownership empowers women.
The 2005 amendment gave daughters equal inheritance rights.
She studied women's group farming.