Land ownership is one of the most powerful economic tools available to a low-income family, and yet millions of urban slum dwellers across India have lived for generations without it. Odisha's JAGA Mission, launched in 2017, is trying to change that — not by relocating slum communities or replacing their settlements with new developments, but by giving residents legal rights over the land they already occupy. The model is straightforward in principle and significant in practice: security of tenure, delivered at scale, using technology to get there.
What Odisha's JAGA Mission actually does
JAGA, meaning "land" in Odia, was introduced under the Odisha Land Rights to Slum Dwellers Act, 2017. Eligible residents receive land rights for plots of up to 30 square metres. The title is heritable, meaning it passes to legal heirs, but non-transferable, preventing the land from being sold and thereby protecting communities from future displacement through market forces. For married couples, titles are issued jointly in both spouses' names. Single beneficiaries can hold ownership in their own name. The land rights certificate also functions as an official proof of address, opening access to government services and formal systems that were previously difficult to reach without documented tenure. Drone-based surveys were used to map slum areas and identify eligible beneficiaries, bringing technology into a process that has historically been slow and prone to exclusion.
Why land rights matter more than housing alone
The distinction between land rights and housing provision is more important than it might appear. A house built on land a family does not legally own offers limited security: the constant threat of eviction discourages investment in improvements, limits access to credit, and keeps residents in an informal grey zone where they contribute to the city's economy while remaining invisible to its legal and financial systems. By granting documented tenure, JAGA Mission gives families the confidence to improve their homes and invest in their neighbourhoods. Since 2018, the programme has been implemented across 114 Urban Local Bodies in Odisha, benefiting around 1.7 million people.
Upgrading settlements, not erasing them
The second pillar of the mission is physical transformation through the Biju Adarsh Colony programme. Rather than demolishing slums and relocating residents, the approach upgrades existing settlements with nine categories of basic infrastructure: paver block roads, storm water drainage, street lighting, community centres, open spaces, children's play areas, individual electricity connections, individual piped water connections and household toilets. According to government data, 725 slums have been converted into Biju Adarsh Colonies so far. Alongside this, the Mo Toilet initiative has delivered 4,137 completed household toilets, with more under construction, responding directly to a survey finding that thousands of slum households lacked individual sanitation facilities. Across settlements, 2,919 slums now have full electricity coverage, and 2,724 have complete water connections.
Community participation at the centre
A design feature that sets JAGA Mission apart from top-down infrastructure programmes is the creation of Slum Development Associations, which give residents a formal role in decisions about local development and infrastructure improvements. According to the mission's progress report, 2,919 SDAs have signed agreements with Urban Local Bodies and more than 43,785 community leaders have been trained. The model treats settlements as active participants in their own upgrading rather than passive recipients of state intervention, which improves both outcomes and long-term ownership of the improvements made.
What has been achieved and what comes next
The headline achievement is that 173,000 slum families have received land rights or land entitlement certificates, a figure that represents a tangible shift in legal status for a significant portion of Odisha's urban poor. The mission has also received international recognition, winning the Asia Pacific Housing Forum Award and the World Habitat Bronze Award in 2019 and 2023. Looking ahead, Odisha's targets include 1 lakh land rights across five Municipal Corporations, 20,000 additional certificates in municipalities and notified areas, transformation of 1,901 slums into Biju Adarsh Colonies and completion of 12 new liveable habitats. The ambition running through all of it is a reframing of how cities treat their poorest neighbourhoods: not as problems to be cleared, but as communities to be strengthened and integrated into the urban fabric.
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