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 ...
Feb 04, 2022•35 min•Ep. 20
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 fact...
Jan 21, 2022•39 min•Ep. 19
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 ...
Jan 07, 2022•31 min•Ep. 18
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 ar...
Dec 24, 2021•33 min•Ep. 17
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 impl...
Dec 10, 2021•34 min•Ep. 16
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...
Nov 26, 2021•35 min•Ep. 15
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 Direct...
Nov 12, 2021•34 min•Ep. 14
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 Esta...
Oct 29, 2021•35 min•Ep. 13
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-rela...
Oct 15, 2021•28 min•Ep. 12
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...
Oct 01, 2021•38 min•Ep. 11
Welcome to Season 2 of The Quint's fortnightly podcast, Land of a Billion. I'm Bhargavi Zaveri, your host for this season. Through this podcast, I'll be bringing you expert conversations about the most contentious of the holy roti-kapda-makaan trinity - that is the makaan over our heads, and the larger ecosystem that governs it. The Land of a Billion podcast is in essence an exercise to find out what it would take to secure land rights for the billion plus population that we have in India. Over ...
Oct 01, 2021•1 min•Ep. 10
In our last few episodes, we have dived deep into various issues that concern property rights - from discussing the extent and impact of weak property rights on slum dwellers in Mumbai, Scheduled Tribes across India and tenant farmers among others to attempting to understand the various solutions that we could potentially employ to solve some of these issues. However, an important aspect that remains to be covered, especially when we talk about property rights in India is land reforms. From the ...
Mar 22, 2021•37 min•Ep. 9
As urban areas became the epicentres of COVID-19, it sparked several conversations about the frailties of Indian cities — the lack of affordable housing, the lack of adequate social safety nets, public health risks owing to poor sanitation, and most importantly, the vulnerabilities of informal settlements. To what extent are our urban policies successful in assuring access to housing and services among vulnerable sections? How do the underlying governance frameworks in our cities affect the outc...
Mar 08, 2021•36 min•Ep. 8
With farmers at the forefront of the political discourse today, what are some of the more structural issues which are a part of the larger ecosystem of agriculture in India? For instance, with leasing out of agricultural land prohibited or restricted in most parts of the country - how does this affect the actual tiller of the land? Are they entitled to the same benefits as land-owning farmers? How do these laws affect the agricultural productivity in our country? In this context, we talk about t...
Feb 22, 2021•35 min•Ep. 7
Forests, regarded both as safeguards of biodiversity, as well as rich reserves of valuable resources, are often subject to unique laws and policies- especially when it comes to forest land. Since the colonial period, India has witnessed a continued conflict between indigenous forest dwelling populations and large resource extraction drives. For the forest-dwelling tribal communities, the forests and their land, beyond being their sources of livelihood are also at the heart of their cultural prac...
Feb 08, 2021•41 min•Ep. 6
The anxiety that comes with buying a plot of land or a house, is one that a majority of Indians are familiar with. Am I being quoted a fair price for this property? Is this seller or builder a genuine party? Am I going to be the next victim of fraud in the property market? At an administrative level, these concerns are further magnified. With a population of more than 1.2 billion, spread over 600,000 villages and thousands of cities and towns in India, one can imagine the kind of serious challen...
Jan 25, 2021•33 min•Ep. 5
As the COVID-19 pandemic-induced lockdown heavily impacted the economy, to address the impact on the agricultural sector and fears over food security, the central government announced emergency direct transfer of funds to farmers through the PM KISAN scheme. Looking at the instrumental role that such welfare distribution frameworks play in times of crises, how can states implement such measures efficiently? How do such schemes work and how can they be improved? Government welfare distribution sc...
Jan 11, 2021•43 min•Ep. 4
Surveying and mapping land have long served as the foundation for effective governance and administration. However, in large parts of rural India, while there are records of agricultural lands, no records exist of other inhabited lands, until now. In October, amid much fanfare, the Prime Minister physically distributed property cards to over 1 lakh land holders of such inhabited rural lands (abadi land). Why is it that abadi land had not been mapped until now? And now that it is being mapped and...
Dec 28, 2020•40 min•Ep. 3
Two out of every five people in Mumbai live in slums today. The sight of large clusters of blue tarped sheets over tinned walls is one that Indians are largely familiar with, just as we are familiar with the stories of slum residents’ vulnerability to fires, forced evictions, and even the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Why do we have such a large population of Mumbai living in slums, even though Mumbai has over 2 lakh houses lying vacant? How does the government cope with the dilemma of condoning ill...
Dec 14, 2020•40 min•Ep. 2
The 'Land of a Billion' podcast aims to look at the various issues that challenge our secure access to land, housing and property rights in India, by bringing together leading policymakers, economists, and social workers, to delve into the stories, policies, laws, and economics around land and property. Tune in every other Monday! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Dec 12, 2020•3 min•Ep. 1
