Project with Cadasta
Cadasta partnered with Tata Trusts and the Odisha State Government on the Odisha Liveable Habitat Mission— an innovative project designed to improve the living conditions of informal settlements in Odisha state. Through the use of Cadasta’s fit-for-purpose technology and services, more than 700 community data collectors were trained, and with the use of Cadasta’s Esri-powered technology and services, were able to quickly document and map 1,725 slum communities and 173,162 households (to date) to create an official data set of slum dwellings in Odisha. Once documented, the state government issued nearly 58,000 Land Rights Certificates and 105,000 Land Entitlement Certificates, benefiting an estimated one million people.
Not only has the data been used to issue formal land rights certificates, but the data has empowered the local communities, Slum Dwellers Associations, and the Odisha state government to make critical urban development and planning decisions, bringing new fish processing facilities to the settlements and making the settlements more safe, resilient, and sustainable. Decisions around essential civic urban infrastructure such as housing, road, drain, individual household toilets, public toilets, street lights, constant piped water supply up to the households, common work sheds, parks and playgrounds, among other amenities, are now being informed by the data collected on Cadasta’s tools.
In 2019, the JAGA Mission won the Bronze World Habitat Award and is already being publicized by the media as the “world’s largest slum titling initiative”. The mission has also inspired other Indian states to develop similar programs.