Gender and Generation: Landownership and Older Indians’ Autonomy

Abstract

While increased access to household assets has been shown to improve older individuals’ autonomy and bargaining power at home, the role of gender hierarchy in shaping differential impacts of household assets has received far less attention. This article explores the gender asymmetry in the association of older people’s (age 60 years or more) decision-making power at home and survival probability with their ownership of and managerial control over agricultural land in rural India. Using data from the India Human Development Survey, results find that in multi-generational households, landownership at the household level is associated with higher decision-making power and survival probability for older men but not for older women. Among older women, the relationship between household landownership and decision-making power is positive when they have clearly established titles to the land or managerial control but negative when their names are not on the land title.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Landownership is an important source of old age security in India.

• Agricultural land in India is typically controlled by the patriarch; women rarely own or control household land.

• The generational power conferred on older men with landownership does not apply to older women to the same degree.

• It is crucial to register household land under women’s names and recognize women as actual landowners.

KEYWORDS:

• Landownership
• gender inequality
• older Indians
• decision-making power
• mortality

JEL Codes:

• J16
• J14
• Q15

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation [grant number INV-003352]; Foundation for the National Institutes of Health [grant number R01HD041455]; William and Flora Hewlett Foundation [grant number 2018–7924].

Notes on contributors

Hope Xu Yan

Hope Xu Yan is a PhD Candidate in Sociology at the University of Maryland, College Park and Graduate Research Assistant of the India Human Development Survey. Yan holds a MSc in Gender and a MA in Sociology.

Sonalde Desai

Sonalde Desai is Professor of Sociology at the University of Maryland, College Park with a joint appointment as Professor and Centre Director, NCAER National Data Innovation Centre, New Delhi. Desai holds a PhD in Sociology and is a social demographer by training.

Debasis Barik

Debasis Barik is Fellow at the National Council of Applied Economic Research, New Delhi. Barik holds a PhD in Population Studies and is a demographer by training. His research focuses around the issues of gender, health inequality, and social demography.