A NEW LAW
(Hindu Succession Amendment Act, 2005)
Often when we think of farmers who own land, we think of men. Women are seen as people who work in the fields, but not as people who own agricultural land. Till recently in some states, Hindu women did not get a share in the family's agricultural land. After the death of the father his property was divided equally only among his sons.
Recently, the law was changed. In the new law sons, daughters and their mothers in Hindu families can get an equal share in the land. The same law will apply to all states and union territories of the country.
This law will benefit a large number of women. For example, Sudha is the eldest daughter of an agricultural family. She is married and lives in a neighbouring village. After her father's death, Sudha often comes to help her mother with the farming work.
Her mother has asked the Patwari to transfer the land and enter her name along with the names of all the children in his record.
Sudha's mother confidently organises the farming with the help of the younger brother and sister. Similarly, Sudha also lives with the assurance that if she ever has a problem she can always depend upon her share of the land.
OTHER PUBLIC SERVICES - A SURVEY
The above topics have looked at some of the administrative work of the government, especially for rural areas. The first example related to maintaining law and order and the second to maintaining land records. In the first case, we examined the role of the police and in the second that of the Patwari. This work is supervised by other people in the department, such as the Tehsildar or the Superintendent of Police. We have also seen how people use these services and some of the problems that they face. These services have to be used and made to function according to the laws that have been framed for them. You have probably seen many other public services and facilities provided by various departments of the government.
Activity:
Do the following exercise for your village/by visiting a nearby village or looking at your own area.
List the public services in the village/area such as the milk society, the fair price shop, the bank, the police station, the agricultural society for seeds and fertiliser, the post office or sub-post office, the anganwadi, creche, government school/s, health centre or government hospital, etc. Collect information on three public services and discuss with your teacher how improvements can be made in their functioning. One example has been worked out.
|
Public service |
What did you notice about their work? |
Area covered |
What do they need to do in order to use the facility? |
Problems faced by those managing the service |
Problems faced by people |
Improvements that can be made |
| Fair- price shop (ration shop) | The shop was open. Three people came. They all had yellow cards. They bought sugar and rice. Kerosene was not available | This shop covers two villages | They need a ration card. This has to be made at the tehsil office | There is not enough supply of kerosene |
Rice is of very bad quality. We never get kerosene. |
Improve the quality of rice. Make kerosene available. The fair price shop should be kept open every day. |
|
Health centre |
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Milk society |
Source: This topic is taken from NCERT TEXTBOOK