Land return and abandonment of women: some findings in the communal studies in Thái Bình and Vĩnh Long

Abstract

Since 2005, there have been numerous media reports on farmers returning their land to the authorities or abandoning land for other jobs. Recently, a team of staffs from the Institute for Human Studies under the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences in theatre with other experts and collaborators conducted a research study with financial support from the Vietnam Centre for Philosophy, Culture and Society (under the University of Temple, the United States) on the above-mentioned phenomenon in Dong My (Dong Hung district, Thai Binh province) and My Loc (Tam Binh district, Ving Long province). In this article, the author is to present several findings collected from the study, including inter alia the real situation of land return and abandonment by women in Thai Binh and Vinh Long; reasons leading to the phenomenon; the life of women before and after returning their land; the deadlocks and discrepancies pertaining to women-related policy implementation and institutions at the local level. Some recommendations made by the team are also reiterated in the article.