Women are often denied the right to own land, even though they work on it more than men. Nearly three quarters of rural women in India depend on land for their livelihoods, compared to about 60 percent of rural men, as lower farm incomes push many men to the cities for jobs. Women face numerous legal and social hurdles to owning land, in addition to the social bias against being widow, especially in rural areas. With more than 46 million widows, India has the highest number of widows in the world. Photo credit: Reuters
