Property Inheritance and Empowerment: An Econometric Analysis of the Effect of the Hindu Succession Law Reform on Married Women Decision Making
Keywords:
Hindu Succession Amendment Act, inheritance rights, women decision making, treatment effect, difference-in-difference estimationAbstract
The Hindu Succession Amendment Act, 2005 provides Hindu women equal inheritance rights in ancestral property. This legal reform empowers married women by enhancing their autonomy and increase the decision making power of married in marital households. This paper estimates the impact of HSAA 2005 on women empowered and autonomy in their marital household in 24 states of India where the HSSS law has been implemented after 2005 using the 2015-17 National Family and Health Survey data and applying the nonparametric difference-in-difference (DID) method. The DID estimates show that the property rights reform has increased the decision making power of the post-2005 Hindu married women with respect to their health care, visit family and friends and major household purchases by 2 percent, and spending husband’s earnings by 9 percent, and also of non-Hindu women. The HSAA 2005 reform of legal property rights to women has impacted married women with greater autonomy and more say in household decisions.
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