Working Group for Women and Land Ownership (WGWLO) is a formal but unregistered network of 20 NGOs, 21 CBOs and 7 individuals across 17 districts out of 33 districts in the state of Gujarat. Initiated in 2002, The Network works on the issue of women’s ownership of agriculture land and access to productive resources from the perspective of women’s rights and empowerment, as well as livelihoods security. The network functions as a multi-level, collective platform for sustained action and policy advocacy on the issue of alienation of women from their land rights in patriarchal societies.
In its 15 years of functioning, WGWLO has been successfully able to address the issue of women’s land ownership from the perspectives of women’s rights and empowerment as well as livelihood enhancement. Since 2009 onward, expansion of land rights agenda has come into practice – from women’s ownership of private land, the network has expanded land rights of women to public land including forest land, common land and government land from a gender perspective. The agenda of land rights and right to productive resource was gradually elaborated and consolidated by working with women farmers for sustainable agriculture and their forest rights. The Network uses its collective strength to lobby for change at various levels through forging strategic alliances with existing other Networks, influencing Government and non-Government agencies, and mass media.
