Odisha’s Jaga Mission Bags Asia-Pacific Housing Forum Innovation Award 2021

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government’s initiative granting land rights to thousands of slum dwellers under the Odisha Liveable Habitat Mission (OLHM) or Jaga Mission has won the Asia-Pacific Housing Forum Innovation Awards 2021.

It was nominated for Innovation in Public Policy.

The inclusive initiative to give slum dwellers land tenure security and better living habitats was selected winner by an international jury through a competitive process from among 50 programmes from several countries in Asia Pacific region.

“Jaga Mission has emerged as a torchbearer for the developing world by successfully demonstrating a programme transforming informal settlements and the lives of slum dwellers,” the Housing & Urban Development Department tweeted on Thursday.

More than 175,000 slum families have been provided with land tenure security and 550 slums in 28 cities have been transformed into liveable habitats in Odisha, it added.

Launched in May 2018, Jaga Mission had won the bronze at the 2019 World Habitat Awards, which recognises innovative, outstanding and revolutionary ideas, projects, and programmes from across the world. The annual award is given by World Habitat, a UK-based organisation, in partnership with UN-Habitat.

The world’s largest slum titling and upgradation initiative is being executed in collaboration with reputed philanthropic organisations like Tata Trusts and Norman Foster Foundation for providing land to slum dwellers and transforming all slums in the state into liveable habitats.

The second phase of the participatory slums degradation programme aimed at integrating the urban poor settlements into the city fabric by upgrading basic facilities and services.

The Asia-Pacific Housing Forum’s Innovation Awards recognise and celebrate innovators and disruptors in the affordable housing sector.