Women's property rights as an AIDS response: emerging efforts in South Asia

"The research presented here takes ICRW and the international development community one step closer to understanding how secure property rights might help women protect themselves and their households from adverse social consequences related to HIV, including stigma, poverty and property dispossession. It also is one of the first explorations of women’s property rights and HIV in South Asia, where the epidemic is severe but remains fairly concentrated among specific populations. The study is a snapshot of women’s experiences of property and HIV in Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka, where women often are denied their legal rights to property. This snapshot also explores the extent to which organizations are linking women’s property rights and HIV.