With titles, a million slum dwellers turn home owners

GOPALPUR: Every year, Neelabeni and her family await the monsoon with trepidation in their mud-andbrick home in an informal settlement near the coast in Odisha.

Nearly every year, cyclones that brewed in the Bay of Bengal would damage the nearly 300 homes in their settlement in Gopalpur town, tearing the tin and thatch roofs and smashing the flimsy walls.

This year, however, Neelabeni — who goes by one name — is looking forward to the monsoon, as she and her neighbours will start building pucca, or permanent homes, when the rains stop. Nearly every family has received a title, or patta, under an ambitious programme to give land rights to about 1 million people living in slums across Odisha.

They will also receive a loan with which to build their homes.

“We have always lived in a kutcha (temporary) home, and we would spend all our savings on building a new home every year after the rains. Now we will build a proper home,” she said. “This is the first document with my name — everything else only has my husband’s name. I will have full rights over the house,” she said, showing the laminated title, along with a loan approval document and an assurance from the chief minister.

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

Nearly half the country’s population is forecast to live in its cities by 2025, as more people leave the villages to seek better prospects, according to demographers. The Odisha programme aims to give titles to 200,000 households in urban slums and those on the outskirts of cities by the end of the year. Alongside, authorities are widening roads, laying sewage pipes, and installing water taps, toilets and playgrounds. “People who come to the cities are all contributing to its economic activity, yet they are considered encroachers,” said G Mathi Vathanan, the state housing department commissioner.

“The usual policy of settling them in the city’s periphery doesn’t work because they don’t want to live so far away. So the idea behind the legislation was, why not settle them where they live, and transform these slums into liveable habitats?”

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

It was unveiled last year by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who called it a “historic” legislation.

Charity Tata Trusts is helping implement the mission, as are dozens of local charities that are conducting surveys and verifying documents.

Officials have made maps of the slums after drone surveys and doorto-door interviews to fix property boundaries and ensure that no private lands are encroached.

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