Big Decisions: What Women Must Know About Inheritance

Aditi Sharma (name changed) has been unable to visit her ancestral home. And it’s not because she can’t make the trip. Rather, her brother and his wife, who reside there now after her parents’ demise, refuse to let her enter. She told NDTV Profit on the condition of anonymity that she would like to live in her childhood home, but is unaware of whether she has any right to it.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that Aditi’s story is not an uncommon one. Most often, this is because women are unaware of their rights to inheritance. But, sometimes, even if a woman knows her rights, she accepts the common social practice of the male claiming the lion’s share, if not all, of an inheritance.

One of the primary issues is that there isn’t a uniform law that governs inheritance. In fact, each major religion is associated with a specific law. The first step a woman must take to ensure she receives what she is due is to identify the law that pertains to her.

On this episode of Big Decisions, Bijal Ajinkya, partner at Khaitan & Co., discusses the rights every woman has to her parents’ and husband’s assets.