Geographies in Depth

This Indian state is giving slum-dwellers the right to their own land

People play cards on a railway track at a slum area in Kolkata, India February 7, 2017. REUTERS/Rupak De Chowdhuri

India's eastern Odisha state has commenced a scheme to distribute land titles to families living in slum areas. Image: REUTERS/Rupak De Chowdhuri

Rina Chandran
Correspondent, Reuters

One of India's poorest states is handing out land rights to slum-dwellers in an innovative scheme to redevelop urban settlements that officials say will benefit a million people.

Eastern Odisha state began distributing titles to about 2,000 families earlier this week, launching a project officials say is the largest of its kind in a country where many slum-dwellers are forced from their homes.

"Now the slum dwellers can live without having fear of being evicted," G. Mathivathanan, commissioner at the state department of housing and urban development, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Odisha will give land rights to those living in slums in small towns and property rights to those in city settlements and expects to cover 200,000 households by the end of the year.

Charity Tata Trusts will help map the slums and redevelop them into "liveable habitats" with facilities including sanitation, healthcare and education, Mathivathanan said.

About 65 million people live in India's slums, according to 2011 census data, which activists say is a low estimate.

The number is rising quickly as tens of thousands leave their villages to seek better employment prospects in urban areas. Many end up in overcrowded slums, lacking even basic facilities and with no claim on the land or the property.

At the same time, activists say at least six homes are destroyed and 30 people forcibly evicted each hour in India as authorities modernise cities and build highways.

Slum-dwellers have long opposed efforts to relocate them to distant suburbs, which limits their access to jobs and amenities. Instead, they say they favour redevelopment with upgrading of facilities and secure tenancy.

The Odisha Land Rights to Slum Dwellers Act 2017 ensures slum dwellers living in small towns rights over up to 600 sq (56 sq mt) of land, while in the cities they will get rights over up to 450 sq ft.

"It is a good step and we welcome it," said Pratap Kumar Sahoo, president of slum dwellers' lobby Odisha Basti Sangharsh Samiti.

"However, the government must ensure that the identification of all slum dwellers is done properly," he said.

Have you read?
Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

Sign up for free

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

Stay up to date:

Social Protection

Related topics:
Geographies in DepthEconomic Growth
Share:
The Big Picture
Explore and monitor how Social Protection is affecting economies, industries and global issues
A hand holding a looking glass by a lake
Crowdsource Innovation
Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale
World Economic Forum logo
Global Agenda

The Agenda Weekly

A weekly update of the most important issues driving the global agenda

Subscribe today

You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in our emails. For more details, review our privacy policy.

How Japan can lead in forest mapping to maximize climate change mitigation

Naoko Tochibayashi and Mizuho Ota

November 12, 2024

Americans went to the polls. Here’s how US presidential election works

About us

Engage with us

  • Sign in
  • Partner with us
  • Become a member
  • Sign up for our press releases
  • Subscribe to our newsletters
  • Contact us

Quick links

Language editions

Privacy Policy & Terms of Service

Sitemap

© 2024 World Economic Forum