Millions of poor rural and urban households are long-time occupants and/or users of land, but don’t have formal records to establish their rights to the land or the house. They may have inherited the property from their parents, but haven’t managed to update the paperwork; or they may have bought it in good faith but not registered the sale deed; or they are tenant farmers who can’t access any government subsidy due to the lack of records; or they are slum dwellers who live under the cloud of possible eviction when infrastructure development comes to their doorstep.

Inadequate state of land and property records in India - both textual and spatial records, has a negative impact. They are a source of land tenure insecurity - not only for the poor but everyone. They facilitate corruption and lead to highly costly incidence of land disputes, and limit Government’s ability to conduct effective planning and raise revenue.

State governments and civil society organisations would benefit from innovative solutions that can help in

A - Identification of the poor households and updating their records to provide them tenure security.

B - Technology for surveying and developing accurate maps, combined with community engagement methods to enable acceptance of the maps

C - Paralegal solutions to establish long-term occupancy, resolve disputes

D - Legal awareness and aid for individuals and communities

E - Technology for land record digitization and management and open/secure data platforms that allow citizens to view and store their property data.

40% people in urban areas/slums are living informally. The housing shortage in urban areas is estimated to be 1 crore units by 2022. Many urban residents are also insecure and lack legal documentation for their residences (PRIndex report). Formalizing and strengthening the rights of urban informal settlers and providing them with affordable housing options are critical steps.

A - Affordable housing for urban informal settlers

B - Financing access to decent housing for the informally employed and those with informal property documents

C - Shelter solutions and rehabilitation for the urban homeless

Women from the poorest backgrounds are denied equal rights to access, use, inherit, control, and own land or property. Only 31% of rural women own land and 39% own a house- and the proportion is even lower for urban women. Often women’s only claim to the land they rely on for food, income, or the house which is their shelter, is through their relationship to a male relative. They are susceptible to displacement and exploitation, especially if they are widows/ single or divorcees. This hampers women’s ability to lift themselves and their families out of extreme poverty. When women have secure rights to land or their house, their status improves and they are better able to take care of themselves, and their families.

A - Help girls understand land rights, the benefits of having control over and access to land, and the importance of equal inheritance rights for boys and girls

B - Increase women’s access and ownership of land and other productive resources through ensuring effective implementation of laws for women’s entitlement to land and enable entitlements towards productive resources.