DEHRADUN: The Uttarakhand Waqf Board will consider a proposal at its October meeting to provide housing to women left homeless and without support in circumstances linked to triple talaq or nikah halala, board chairman Shadab Shams said.
Though the proposal is at a preliminary stage, the Board will examine the viability of leveraging waqf properties and whether its available land bank can legally be used for the purpose, Shams said.
“Someone who has no support should have a roof over her head—that is the true social purpose of waqf property,” he said. The proposed initiative, he added, is intended to give vulnerable women a safe place to live and a foundation for a life of dignity.
Women forced to leave their homes after marital disputes can face immediate difficulties in finding accommodation and financial security, Shams said. Paying rent on a limited income becomes especially hard when they are also caring for children. Those pressures, he said, have informed the proposal.
Shams said welfare work linked to waqf properties should reach poor and destitute women, widows, orphaned children and other families in need.
“Waqf property is not anyone’s private property; it is property associated with public welfare,” he said. “Our effort is to ensure that, wherever the law permits, its benefits reach those who genuinely need them.”
Key details remain undecided. The Board has yet to determine who would qualify, what form the housing would take or which properties, if any, could be used.
It has not announced a timetable for providing accommodation or an estimate of the number of potential beneficiaries.
The proposal will be placed before the Board in accordance with legal provisions, Shams said. Any further steps would depend on the Board’s decision and a legal assessment of how the relevant properties may be used.
Uttarakhand’s Uniform Civil Code rules, introduced in 2025, are in force, and the state’s official UCC portal provides online services relating to marriage, divorce and inheritance. The proposed housing initiative, however, is a separate social-welfare measure. Its implementation would require the Waqf Board to act under the applicable legal provisions.
For now, the October meeting will be the first step towards deciding whether the proposal can move forward. Only after the Board considers it and the legal position is clear can a process for providing housing to eligible women be set out.
