Around 23% of an eastern Indian state, Odisha’s urban families (1.56 m people) squat in slums (Census, 2011). Tenure insecurity coupled with migrant status and absence of identity and address papers deprive them accessing their legitimate entitlements. While these slum dwellers help run the city life as street-vendors, house-helps, drivers, plumbers, sanitation workers, daily-wagers, they themselves struggle for shelter, secured livelihood and basic amenities.
With community stewardship of the Slum-Dwellers Association (SDAs) with 50% women members and the women Self-Help Groups (WSHGs), Odisha, has successfully formalised the land rights of the slum-dwellers under The Odisha Land Rights to Slum Dwellers Act, 2017 through a participatory process. Joint titles, in the name of both spouses of the slum-dwellers, have been issued to the land under their possession measuring up to 30 sqm free of cost for residential use in the Urban local Bodies (ULBs). The land titling empowers the slum dwellers with heritable and mortgageable rights over the land for which titles. Land titles are also issued for area beyond 30 sqm. up to 45 sqm. in medium ULBs and 60 sqm. in smaller ULBs on payment by the occupant.
Post titling, these community-based collectives - SDAs and WSHGs - have engaged in economic activities under the Mukhya Mantri Karma Tatpara Abhiyan (MUKTA), 2021 (previously UWEI) that mandates to construct basic public amenity projects both in slum and non-slum areas in partnership with SDAs and WSHGs as the “community partners”. These community stewards have constructed 1016 public gyms, 824 mini parks, 724 child play station and 156 KM paver-block walking tracks in 115 ULBs of Odisha.
Once marginalised and subdued, these women are now economically empowered by executing projects of more than 10 billion INR and have earned 7.5% of the project cost as their supervision charges.
