By: Yi Ming and Lü Bingbing
Date: May 3rd 2016
Source: Women of China
Over 94 percent of rural villages or communities in east China's Shandong Province have included women's names on rural land rights certificates, to safeguard their legal rights and interests, according to a Shandong Women's Federation official.
In recent years, the provincial authorities have issued a series of policies and regulations, including a notice on revising regulations featured in safeguarding women's rights and interests, and a notice on safeguarding women's rights and interests in land rights certificate and registration, said the official of the Department of Women's Rights and Interests under the Shandong Women's Federation.
So far, efforts to carry out the scheme in this aspect have almost been fully carried out.
Yu Qing, president of the women's federation in the provincial city of Zaozhuang, said that 97 percent of local rural villages have written women's names on the certificates, specifying their qualification to share the land rights with other family members.
Reports show that problems surrounding rural women's land rights were especially prominent in Shandong in the past. Over 300 such cases, in which people petition to women's federations above the county level, are filed every year.
"In the specific operation, a leaflet containing the shareholders' personal information as well as the seal of relevant authorities, was added to certificates that have been issued to land owners," said the Shandong Women's Federation official.
"The move is a breakthrough and lays a foundation for improving the mechanism of safeguarding rural women's land rights and interests," the official added.
It makes it possible for women to participate in making decisions on how to dispose of families' properties, including land circulations, according to the specialist.
It can also prevent the head of a household from disposing of the family's properties without the approval of others.
Furthermore, women can also claim their rights in the event of any change in marital status. If their families break up, they have the right to their own share of land.
(Source: Farmers' Daily/Translated and edited by Women of China)
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