China: Rural Women Fight For Their Right To Land - Brief Article

WIN News, Spring, 2000

FROM 'WOMEN OF CHINA', 15 Jian Guo Men Dajie, Beijing, CHINA 100730

"Tong Sufang never expected that she would lose her land on getting married. Tong, 27, was married in 1992 to a man in another village. Tong was not listed as a candidate for a share of the village soil. The reason: Tong is married and does not live in the village any more, although she has never moved her membership to her husband's village and is still legally a member of the village of her childhood.

The same thing happened to Hou Cunli, who moved to her husband's village after getting married. For the same reason, the village where she came from deprived Hou of her share of the village land when the village distributed land among the villagers. While women who marry out of the village lose their land at home, things are no better for women who marry into their husbands' village, where they are put on an endless waiting list for their share of land in their new home[ldots]

The land is a resource that plays an important part in improving women's economic status and is also an important measure of gender equality. Since the implementation of the land contracting system in the countryside, peasants have been granted their own land in the form of contracted land from the village.

A survey by the All-China Women's Federation shows that 60 percent of the labor force working on farmland are women, while many male villagers have swarmed to cities and towns for jobs. Rural women are not only working in the fields, but are also looking after the elderly and children at home. More and more women are deprived of their right to land because of marriage, how are these women to live? Where is the gender equality here?

When three women of Shenxianao Village in Hunan Province sued the village committee for depriving them of their right to land at the Changsha City court, the answer from the court was that their case was 'not a civil suit and hence should not be handled by the court.' The Changsha case also affected courts in other cities in the province. The court in Liuyang City, which has handled 18 cases relating to the infringement of women's right to land since 1997, has now stopped accepting such cases.

Zhou Chao, director of the civil division of the Liuyang City People's Court, maintains that the village rule that a woman should return her share of the land when she marries out of the village is against the principle of gender equality stated by the law. Hence the villages have no legal power to impose the erroneous regulation.

According to Chen Zhunlian, director general of Legal Affairs of Hunan Provincial Women's Federation, the Women's Federation has made great efforts to help keep their equal right to land since the land contracting system was employed in the countryside in the early 1980s[ldots]Married women are suing their village committees for infringement of their land rights in many places all over the country.

The law the women use is the PRC Law on the Protection of Women's Rights and Benefits, states that women enjoy equal rights to men in contracting land, that their legal rights must not be infringed, and that when women marry or divorce, their right to contracted land must be protected[ldots] CHINA

In Hainan Province, ten women won back their right to land employing the law as their weapon, although the process was not at all easy. Since 1994, the ten women had united together and fought for their right to land. They had been to the appropriate departments and organizations at various levels without any result. Finally, they went to the municipal women's federation in Haikou City, who investigated the case and helped them to bring their case to court. After hearing the case the court agreed that 'the plaintiffs, as permanent members of the village, should enjoy rights equal to any other permanent member of the village'[ldots]

The infringement of women's land rights has also caused concern with experts and scholars. They made in-depth analyses of the historical and social reasons. They believe that the infringement of women's right to contracted land will result in serious consequences[ldots]To prevent such infringement against China's women, execution of the law should be enforced in the countryside. Meanwhile, administrative interference should be applied to protect women and their rights."

WOMEN OF CHINA, Contents:

"The Garden of the World // Probing into the Mystery of Death of the Nerve Cells // Comparing Sexual Mores // Facing Reality, Meeting Challenges // Hong Kong Women on Teaching // Giving Birth no longer means Death // Yang Huei-san's Modern Chinese Glass Work // Return of the Diving Queen // Directing Lives // Children from Single-Parent Families // The Origin of Chinese Characters // An Ambassador for Sino-Japanese Relations // Chinese Women Fifty Years on // and more."