In this Pune village, women occupy pride of place in nameplates outside houses

Officials said that this village, Sasewadi in Bhor taluka, is now at the forefront of the Pune Zilla Parishad’s Mission Gruhswamini, a year-long initiative to empower women by giving them “a visible sense of ownership” by making them co-owners in family property records.

So far, officials and residents said, 333 out of 370 registered properties in Sasewadi have put up nameplates showing women as co-owners. The rest are either commercial properties or homes with no female members, they said.

Overall, Mission Gruhswamini has led to 89 per cent of properties in rural Pune with women listed as co-owners, according to Zilla Parishad CEO Ayush Prasad. He said the Zilla Parishad will ensure that the nameplate “movement” is replicated in all 1,385 villages of the district. “We have achieved cent per cent success in Sasewadi. Encouraged by this, we will have all the villages displaying the names of women members of families as co-owners in their properties,” Prasad said.

“We wanted to make the women feel that they are owners of the houses,” said Kiran Dhanolkar, Block Development Officer, Bhor Taluka. “Any change in the property registry, or Namuna No 8 as they are called, automatically gives half of the ownership to women. Now men cannot sell or mortgage their houses without consent from the women in their homes. Women can also take loans against their houses,” he said.

Sasewadi has a population of about 3,000 people, according to village sarpanch Poonam Gogawale. “The gram panchayat took the initiative in this regard. First, they got the names of the women registered in the property registry and then made the nameplates and fixed them on homes. At my house, the nameplates of my father-in-law and mother-in-law have been fixed,” she said.

Nirmala Bodke, who lives in a double-storeyed house in the village, said, “I desired to have my name on the property documents. Now I am happy that my name is prominently displayed on our door as well. There was no objection at all from my husband or in-laws.”

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Sadhana Gogawale, another resident who is part of a joint family, said, “My husband joked that since I am now the co-owner of the family property, I may now start dictating terms.”