Anjali has worked on the land nearly all her life, first with her tenant-farmer parents, and then alongside her husband in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. But she has never owned land - a right she has been denied by inconsistent inheritance laws and her community's rigid custom that led her to believe only a man should own land. Now, at 32, Anjali's name will finally be on a title as joint owner of land allocated by the state, after months of petitioning local officials, and addressing age-old traditions and superstitions that deny women land ownership."It has never been our custom for women to own land, and I never thought that I would one day be a land owner," said Anjali, who goes by one name, at a land-literacy meeting of advocacy group Landesa at a local school in Taardeh village. "Having the title in my name means a lot to me: it means I have a say in what we do with the land, and my husband can't throw me out or sell the land without my permission."

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