Daughters as beneficiaries of inheritance

The will to have a girl child Arun Ram DNA Sunday, August 27, 2006

CHENNAI: In a land infamous for female infanticide, a small group of women is heralding social reform with a new interpretation of the adage ‘where there is a will, there’s a way’. Twelve women of a self-help group (SHG) in Usilampatti, 40 km from Madurai in Tamil Nadu, have bequeathed their wealth to their granddaughters. The message to the new generation is strong and simple: Take care of the girl child and inherit our wealth. Now the idea is catching on in the region.

The first step for these women was to empower themselves. “None of us were working and we had no money, though we hail from middle-class families,” says Chellammal. She realised that women had to earn to be powerful. “The Aurobindo Meditation Centre in Usilampatti helped us set up a supermarket,” she says. Prosperity supermarket, which opened in January 2005, now has a monthly turnover of Rs 1.5 lakh.

“When Chellammal told me she was depositing her earnings in the names of her granddaughters, I suggested everyone in the group should do that,” says Parimala of the Aurobindo Centre. “Now, about 50 women are following suit and we are spreading the message in the villages,”

Some women like Pandiammal (43) have nominated their daughters as beneficiaries of inheritance. “I feel ashamed when people of other towns refuse to let their daughters marry Usilampatti men, fearing that their girl children may be killed,” she says. Gory tales of girl babies being killed by the administration of ‘kallipal’ (cactus sap), or being asphyxiated by having their nostrils blocked with paddy grains, abound in Usilampatti.