 Make Rakshabandhan memorable, get sisters to voluntarily give up their rights. Said a letter by Dilip Singh Prajapati, a Tehsildar in Digor Tehsil Rajasthan on Rakshabandhan this year. Women's organizations have condemned the statement, calling it obnoxious. They have demanded immediate suspension of the Tehsildar. What is a woman's right in her ancestral property under the Hindu Succession Act In 2005, the amendment of the Hindu Succession Act allowed daughters to inherit an equal share in their father's property, also known as copper scenery rights. Before 2005, it was only granted to sons, not daughters. Kerala was the first state in 1975 to have abolished this discrimination by doing away with the Hindu joint family system altogether. Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu too made changes in the law before 2005. But the discriminatory clause for agriculture land awarded to sons remained. A three-judge panel headed by Justice Arun Mishra in the case Vinita Sharma v. Rakesh Sharma 2020 ruled that a daughter's inheritance rights are absolute, that is free of any condition. The court also ruled that the daughter's children could also demand a share in that inheritance even if she passed away before 2005. Let us look at the status of married women seeking property rights in marital homes. The status of a Kapasana's wife, who is a member of a Hindu undivided family, remains the same. Wives only have rights of maintenance and cannot seek a part in their husband's property. But if a husband dies without making a will, a widow has legal heir status to his property. We must note that all these rights are for Hindu women. Muslim and Christian women's laws are different and need to be understood separately. Since women receive valuable gifts during their wedding, dowry and festivals, it is believed that they must give up any claim to parental property. Women who do claim their rights are often faced with a legal war with the family. They are banned from visiting their parental village and suffer of falling out with their family. This patriarchal strategy is insured in customs, but a woman is entitled to the properties of both her husband and her father. It is ironic that women are expected to bring property from paternal homes but are not given any legitimate share of ancestral property. Indian economist Bina Agarwal says despite equality in inheritance laws, only a small percentage of women own land in rural land-owning households. Globally, it is known that women owning land would enhance their well-being, improve children's health and education, reduce domestic violence, raise farm productivity, increase family food security and empower women socially and politically. Women with assets such as land have greater bargaining power leading to gender-equal allocations of benefits even from male incomes. Neither the agricultural census nor the NSSO surveys on ownership holdings account for gender ownership figures. We urgently need more gender-based data on land ownership and innovative policies to increase women's actual ownership. The problem is, fathers fear losing control over land if given to married daughters. Daughters fear damaging family relations if they claim their shares. Policymakers say they fear land fragmentation. Notably, despite vast numbers of women joining the ongoing protests against farmers, we hear barely a whisper about their claims in family land.