Poorly educated and with few resources, Kanasari Veeraswami had no way of proving he was the lawful owner of a small plot of land left to him by his father in the southern Indian state of Telangana. Local government officials had told him the handwritten documents he had were not acceptable. For 10 years, he lived in fear of losing the four acre (1.6 hectare) small-holding and could not access any government subsidies to grow his crops. That was until three youngsters from his own village, trained in a state program to assist in land matters, came to his aid. “This is my land; I have been cultivating it for many years, but the government didn’t recognize me as the owner,” said Veeraswami, 60.

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