WUNRN
Landesa - Rural Development
Institute - Securing Land Rights for the World's Poorest
Landesa - Center for Women's Land
Rights http://www.landesa.org/women-and-land/
Also via Women's Livelihoods -
PWESCR
"Rural Chinese women may be in a particularly vulnerable
position. In a system based on patrilocal marriage, it is easy to see how
the “30-year-no-change” law against big reallocations of land-use rights can
effectively lead to a weakening of women’s land rights at marriage.
Furthermore, a large proportion of rural households lack land documents, but
even among those families who do possess them, women’s names are rarely
included in the land documents. "
CHINA - RURAL WOMEN
& AGRICULTURAL LAND CONVERSIONS
China's
unprecedented economic growth and rapid urbanization have created a massive
demand for arable land to be converted to real estate or industrial
development. In parallel, local government officials and Village
Collective cadres typically favor conversions because local public expenditures
tend to greatly surpass local taxes and land use fees have become an important
source of fiscal revenue.
While the
law establishes that land can only be expropriated for the public good, that
farmers need to be notified in advance, and that those affected should be
compensated for the land lost – for the cost of resettling and for the value of
the structures and standing crops – the picture that has emerged in practice is
worrisome. Land expropriations have been rampant and a high number of
farmers have been rendered landless. The process of consultation is not
always inclusive and farmers who lose their land receive only a meager compensation
based on the average agricultural output of the previous three years. As
a result, grievances arising from land conversions are now the most
frequently-cited cause for rural unrest and protest.
Women may
be in a particularly vulnerable position. In a system based on patrilocal
marriage, it is easy to see how the “30-year-no-change” law against big
reallocations of land-use rights can effectively lead to a weakening of women’s
land rights at marriage. Furthermore, a large proportion of rural households
lack land documents, but even among those families who do possess them, women’s
names are rarely included in the land documents. Moreover, when land is
converted, Village Collective cadres and representatives—whose decisions are
typically influenced by traditional and gendered norms—have the authority to
determine who is eligible for monetary compensation and how the remaining land
is reallocated. This means that while the law does not directly
discriminate against women and their land-use rights, entitlement to
compensation, or recourse to the court, in practice women are not always
treated equally. As a few case studies from Guangxi argue, women’s
eligibility for compensation can vary each time land is taken; they can receive
less compensation than men; if they had married out or their husbands have
urban residency, they might not be eligible for compensation despite living in
the village, having kept their residential status, and possessing land rights.
To explore
some of these issues, we conducted a survey in 5 provinces (Hebei, Henan,
Sichuan, Shandong, and Zhejiang) where we interviewed 380 rural
women. According to our survey, in 28% of the villages where there
have been land takings, villagers had not been consulted. Our results
suggest that the extent to which villagers were consulted varied.
Villagers were less likely to be consulted if they lived in more remote
villages, but those who were wealthier were more likely to have been consulted
or to be aware of the consultation that had taken place.
Women were
significantly less likely to have been consulted: 38% of the respondents
said women were not consulted and only 29% said women had been consulted by the
Village Committees. Of those who reported that villagers had been
consulted, 19% said women had not been consulted. According to our
statistical analysis, this gender gap is explained by two opposite
factors. On the one hand, the gender gap in consultation widens and women
are less likely to be consulted in more remote villages. On the other
hand, the gap decreases and women are more likely to be consulted if their
husbands are away for at least half of the year and they become the de-facto
heads of household, reflecting perhaps their more visible role in their
communities as well as an enhanced access to additional sources of information.
Based on
our results, we propose a three-prong approach to address the gender gap in
consultation and increase women’s awareness of their options. First, it
is important to promote transparency throughout the entire land conversion
process and particularly when it comes to consultation and decisions regarding
compensation. Second, it is important to increase women’s awareness
of their land use rights through legal aid centers, community-based paralegals,
or agencies such as the Women’s Federation. Finally, it is important to
increase women’s representation in local decision-making institutions.
Results
and analysis of our survey of women’s land rights in rural China will be
available soon. Findings from
our broader survey on farmers’ land rights in rural China are
available on our website.