Page 25 - Shelter-October-2022

THEME PAPER
other hand, a significant
volume of self- construction
takes place in urban settings
on plots with some sort of
tenure papers. The typical
examples are:
 Sites and services
schemes of public
institutions;
 Slum/squatter relocation
areas;
 Plots owned by poor
households in urban
villages;
 Ownership plots in peri-
urban land subdivisions
and sites without services
in small and medium
towns; and
 Plots in informal
settlements which are part
of tenure regularisation
programmes.
Such situations have
contributed to the success
of BLC. In this regard, the
most favourable conditions
have been found in states
which have legislation and
mechanisms for land tenure
regularisation. Madhya
Pradesh and Chattisgarh
have been granting tenure
rights or “patta” to slum
dwellers on government land
through the Patta Act of 1984.
Madhya Pradesh proactively
used the Patta Act as a major
enabling tool for making
households in smaller urban
centres eligible for the BLC
component by granting 2.8
lakh pattas (Banerjee, 2022).
The BLC component in
Odisha is closely aligned with
the ‘Jaga Mission’, a holistic
approach to development
of slum communities
through granting land rights,
improving basic services and
housing. Andhra Pradesh
and Telangana have been
using their land revenue
code to grant tenure to urban
settlers on government land
for government housing
programmes. Towns in other
states like Gujarat have
allocated plots to the poor for
BLC. Land being a state subject
under the Indian Constitution,
housing assistance can be
substantially scaled up with
complementary programmes
of states to regularise tenure
in informal settlements and
allocate land for the poor.
While there is much to be
said in favour of land tenure
regularisation, it is a poor
substitute for enhancing
access to land for the poor
to build on incrementally,
especially in smaller urban
centres, where land prices are
still affordable. Encouraging
private land subdivisions
with small plots and
undertaking sites and services
projects with adequate space
for facilities are options that
can add value to assisted self- been very limited penetration
built housing. Countries like
Tanzania, El Salvador and
Pakistan, where governments
have recognized the merit of
the incremental development
October, 2022, Volume 23. No.2 - SHELTER
approach, have sought to
improve on it by enforcing
minimum reservations for
street widths, open space
and space for education and
health facilities, so as the
area develops incrementally,
it can over a period of time,
become a complete housing
environment.
Housing loans based on
collective land tenure are an
accepted strategy in Thailand
as part of CODI’s work
with poor communities to
upgrade/ build their housing
and purchase the land on
which they live or another
plot of land. The Community
Mortgage Programme of the
Philippines is also based on
collective land ownership.
Although such methods have
not been used in India, there is
a potential to take advantage
of collective land ownership
in housing co-operatives
for incremental housing in
secondary cities.
Diversifying the range of
financial products
Secure land titles should
provide a huge business
opportunity for financing
institutions to lend to low-
income households to build
or improve their homes.
However, in practice there has
of conventional institutional
finance for poor households,
using property as collateral.
This is despite specific
clauses in state-level tenure
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