EAC-PM Working Paper suggests SVAMITVA-like scheme for urban India

A working paper by the Economic Advisory Council to the PM (EAC-PM) has recommended a SVAMITVA-like scheme for urban India to integrate scattered land records across states, saying the Survey of Villages and Mapping with Improvised Technology in Village Areas (SVAMITVA) relaxed collateral constraints, deepened formal credit access, strengthened women’s economic agency, and likely improved household liquidity management in rural India.

“Existing records of urban and peri-urban land ownership are scattered across multiple state and municipal bodies, making them difficult to reconcile,” the working paper titled Unlocking Rural Property Rights: Social Inclusion and Credit Expansion through SVAMITVA said.

The paper has been co-authored by Soumya Kanti Ghosh and Pulak Ghosh, part-time member of EAC-PM and Falguni Sinha, economist at ERD, SBI.


“Launching a SVAMITVA-like scheme in urban India as well and the creation of property cards in urban areas could significantly contribute to making urban land markets more transparent, efficient, and competitive,” it said.

“It could also make it much easier for businesses to assemble at least small to moderate-sized pieces of land by purchasing contiguous parcels of land without government intervention,” it added.

According to the paper, SVAMITVA is an institutional reform that makes rural residential property more legible, verifiable, and bankable within the formal financial system.

Using granular level data, the paper said the sanctioned loan amounts increased by 23% in districts where SVAMITVA were implemented after rollout with borrowers from backward classes experience an additional 21% increase while borrowers in Aspirational Districts recorded an additional 23% increase, both over common treatment effect of 23%.

“The bottom 20% of women borrowers see a 24% increase in sanctioned loan amounts with Muslim women exhibiting an incremental 5.8% increase over the common treatment effect of 23%,” it said, adding this increase is significant as Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act that was passed in 2019 rendered the practice of triple talaq void and aimed to strengthen Muslim women’s legal protection.

Thus, it is possible that the 2021 SVAMTIVA Act, coupled with 2019 Muslim Women Act, has created a favorable institutional impact, it added.