Author Archive for Nicole Tomita

About Nicole Tomita

The ideal of a married woman decorated with sindoor, sakha, and bichiya is romanticized through legend and folklore; steeped in this culture, women themselves see value in these rituals. Millions of women in India do not even imagine that these discriminatory and patriarchal rituals are not supernaturally ordained and blind them to the reality that the revered status given to suhagins causes untold suffering to any woman (widow) who does not fit the ideal.

Access to land is both a critical component and a fundamental barrier to productive youth engagement in agriculture. If properly harnessed, Africa’s nearly 420 million youth—including more than 200 million who reside in rural areas—will be the continent’s greatest asset and its engine to grow agricultural productivity and food security while reducing poverty.

COVID-19 and climate change are impacting all of us, but the dual disasters have a disproportionate impact on communities in emerging economies. These impacts are felt most acutely in rural areas, especially among indigenous communities and minority groups, and by women and others who are marginalized within those groups. Land rights were already crucial for food security, identity, and survival; but COVID-19 and climate change make land rights an increasingly vital solution in rural areas.

The Supreme Court of India recently ruled that daughters shall enjoy equal rights to inherit family land – an overdue and welcome shift toward greater equality for India’s women. The Court’s decision provided much-needed clarity on the scope of rights provided to daughters through the 2005 Hindu Succession Amendment Act.

To help strengthen land rights for rural women and men and help mitigate risk to businesses, Landesa frequently advises companies on best practices for respecting land rights in their operations and supply chains. Recently, Landesa worked with PepsiCo to create the ACRE Framework, which enables PepsiCo to track its Land Policy globally, across crops and borders.