Does INRA’s work end with the granting of property deeds?
Even after the deeds have been awarded, women are still unaware of their rights. Many of them do not know how to read and write, and they do not realise that the land is not exclusively owned by their husbands. This is a very sensitive issue in communities in the Andean region, where the structure of land ownership is patriarchal. We do not even know exactly how many indigenous cultures adhere to this patriarchal model. Q: In marriages between two people from different cultural groups, is women’s right to land recognised? A: When women get married, they leave their own communities and move to their husbands’ villages. There are cases where women are abandoned and expelled from their former husbands’ communities, and then try to return to their home communities when they are old, but they are not allowed back because their children have a different surname (indicating membership of a different indigenous community). When marriages break down, there is little tolerance in the communities
