Integration of NCAER Land Records and Services Index & Prindex : Combining land records and property rights perception

NCAER has launched two editions of supply side NCAER Land Records Services Index in 2020 and 2021. While expanding and improving quality of land records reflects the efforts on the supply side of these services, how are they perceived and used by the users? To address this question, it was felt that a demand side component be added to the index. This could assess to what extent households are actually aware of, use and value digitised land records. Another dimension of rights of property strengthened by improvement in the land records and related services of the government is the perception of the citizens of the security of their rights in property. Do the improvements in land records and services lead to perceptions of greater security of property rights, leading to positive impact on investments in property that enhance its value and productivity? An opportunity to examine these two related aspects has been presented by the integration of the ‘demand side survey’ of N-LRSI with the survey of perceptions of security of property rights in India as part of Prindex India Survey. Learning from the global experience and more specifically experience of Prindex surveys in India, it is now proposed to carry out an integrated sample survey of households addressing both the demand side perspectives on land records and perceptions of security of land and housing property rights. The combination of LRSI and Prindex will open up opportunities for rigorous study of the inter linkages between formal tenure and subjective perception of its security. It will also allow assessing the differences in awareness about formal tenure status and related rights, allocation of assets within the household, rights to them and their productive use, participation in off-household productive activities and linkages across housing and land markets. This may be particularly relevant for rural and peri-urban markets where the separation between housing and land markets is greater than in urban markets. To meet the objectives of the proposed study, a primary survey will be conducted spanning 25 Indian States/UTs, covering 15,800 households.