FORCED BY TRADITION TO GIVE UP INHERITANCE, INDIAN WOMEN EMBRACE PROPERTY OWNERSHIP
CHAKSU, India (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Days before she was married 18 years ago, K. Bina Devi and her sister were called to the living room of the family home where they lived with their parents and four brothers. There, in a short ceremony witnessed by village elders, she and her sister signed a piece of paper giving up their share of the family property to their brothers. Sweets were distributed and everyone congratulated her and her sister. The custom of "haq tyag", or sacrifice of right, entails a person - usually a woman - relinquishing their claim on ancestral property.