Over the last few years, leaders of several countries across the world have realised the organic link between land, property rights, and climate change. Some of them have even started implementing innovative models and programmes around this. In our final episode of Season 2, we speak with Rachel McMonagle, climate justice and land rights advocate working with Landesa and Krutika Ravishankar – the co-founder of Farmers for Forests, to understand the connection between property, land rights, and climate change. We talk about various climate adaptation strategies with relation to land rights an ..read more

The 2011 census suggests that four out of five women workers in rural India work in agriculture as owner cultivators or as wage workers.  However, women farmers continue to be disadvantaged when it comes to access to agricultural land ownership, compared to men. This, often, further denies them their rightful recognition as farmers which in turn, inhibits them from accessing the welfare benefits that are entitled to farmers.  Lack of reliable data and poor policy framework are some of the key factors contributing to the disempowerment of women farmers.  In this episode of Lan ..read more

There are between 60 to 90 million people living in slums across India. Owing to the poor or complete lack of property rights, the slum dwellers across Indian states grapple with issues such as poor access to civic amenities and basic essentials such as water and electricity.  In this endeavour to help transform the slums into liveable habitats and provide the residents with access to basic amenities, Odisha’s JAGA Mission has emerged as a model programme. In this episode, we discuss the various steps, challenges, and successes of the mission, including how it brought community participa ..read more

Over the last few years, technology has made inroads in almost all aspects our lives — work, education, social interactions, governance and even land administration.  Up until ten years ago, getting a copy of your land records would have meant a trek to the tehsildar's office. However, today, in a majority of districts and states, it is possible to access digital copies online.  Today, technology is being leveraged to ease the processes of land registration, records and documentation, but there are many challenges when it comes to scaling technology in land administration. In this ..read more

It’s been nearly 6 years since the launch of RERA (Real Estate Regulation & Development Act) scheme which seeks to offer consumer protection to home-buyers as well as help boost investments in the real estate industry. Has the act been effective to solve problems of fraudulent housing and promise safe buy of property without worry? Join us as we speak with Neetu Vasanta and Shilpa Kumar to discuss the scheme’s implementation in different states across the country and also talk about the implementational challenges. We also discuss the challenges that the industry faces along with consumer ..read more

The property rights of transgender persons, including their right to inheritance, have garnered little attention. Considering that ‘immovable property’ is the largest and most valuable asset for a significant population in India, access to property plays a vital role in elevating the social standing of persons.  This is of particular importance since transgender persons have low income, savings, and little to no access to housing. Inheritance, therefore, becomes an important channel for access to property.  In observance of the Trans Awareness Month, through this episode, we aim to ..read more

Land Laws in India are a complicated set of rules that are usually not very easy to comprehend. However, there is an ardent need to understand and be aware of these laws and rules as they govern the property that we own, rent, buy or sell. In this episode, we speak with Dr. Namita Wahi and Nitin Sethi to understand these laws and the relationship between them and how they impact our life on an everyday basis, including in the context of the ongoing climate crisis.  Dr. Wahi is the Founding Director of the Land Rights Initiative, a pioneering initiative in the land policy space. She is a ..read more

With the motive of opening up the rental housing markets in India, the Union government passed the Model Tenancy Act, 2021. The MTA aims to provide a framework for transparency in renting property, minimising litigations and disputes between tenants and landlords by laying a clear set of clauses. The act also proposes to set up rent courts and tribunals to solve conflicts in the rental housing market. In this episode, we speak with Gautam Chatterjee, former Chairperson of MahaRERA, the Real Estate Regulatory Authority of Maharashtra, and Sahil Gandhi, an urban and real estate economist associ ..read more

Many parts of India are affected by a number of land acquisition disputes that stretch over years in courts.   A 2017 study by Daksh shows that over 30% of the civil cases in India involve land and property disputes, many of which relate directly to land acquisition. Even though land acquisition litigations are expensive, time draining and goes for years without settlement, people are filing cases every day.  In this episode, we speak with Leah Varghese, a researcher who has been studying land-related disputes for a long time. Leah is a researcher with Daksh and has extensive knowl ..read more

Land is one of the most important financial assets for Indians, and yet also one of the most disputed. Many of us have experienced the frustration over not being able to access reliable and accurate ownership records or maps of the land we own or wish to buy.  Digitisation has been increasingly seen as the solution to improving land records and services in India, as it eliminates redundant labour and human error while simplifying the task of updating records, and also makes it more accessible for the people. The Government of India has been working towards this since the late 1980s, howe ..read more