SVAMITVA Scheme

In most Indian states rural land was historically classified into agricultural land, which had detailed revenue records and a survey settlement going back to colonial times, and abadi or inhabited land, which had no equivalent survey or title document. A rural family could farm three acres with a clear record of rights but live in a house with no formal title at all. That gap is what SVAMITVA closes.

By issuing a legal Property Card for every inhabited parcel, SVAMITVA gives rural households the same instrument that urban households have always had through municipal property tax records. The Property Card is a definitive document of ownership that can be used to access bank credit, to enter into transactions, to resolve disputes and to settle succession.

The SVAMITVA workflow runs in eight broad stages. Continuous Operating Reference Stations are set up to provide centimetre level positioning. Each village is notified for survey and the Gram Panchayat informs households. Properties are lime marked on the ground to define ownership boundaries. The Survey of India flies drones to capture high resolution aerial imagery. Parcel boundaries are digitised and a draft map is prepared.

The draft map is then exhibited at the Gram Sabha for objections. Objections are heard and resolved at the village level, with field verification where required. Once the map is finalised, the state revenue department issues a Property Card for each parcel in the format notified by the state. The eight stages typically take three to nine months per village depending on the dispute load.

When the Property Card is issued the household should check four things, that the name of the rightful owner appears correctly, that the parcel area and boundaries match the actual occupation, that any joint ownership is properly recorded with each owner's share and that the parcel identification number is correctly linked to the drone derived map.

Errors at issuance are much easier to correct in the first round than later. The Gram Panchayat secretary and the village revenue officer can initiate corrections within a notified window through the state's mutation process. Households that miss this window often have to go through a more cumbersome state revenue court process for the same correction.

• 01Owner of an inhabited parcel within the notified abadi area of a village
• 02Property must be located in a state that has signed the SVAMITVA MoU with the Ministry of Panchayati Raj
• 03Owner must respond to ground truthing notices issued by the Gram Sabha
• 04Disputed parcels must complete dispute resolution at the Gram Sabha
• 05Heirs of deceased owners must complete mutation through the state revenue process

• §Aadhaar of the property owner
• §Existing property documents such as sale deed, will or family settlement if available
• §Identity proof during ground truthing visit
• §Affidavit of ownership where original documents are not available
• §Mutation order in case of inheritance based ownership

• Parcel falls outside the notified abadi boundary
• Dispute pending at Gram Sabha not resolved within the timeline
• Multiple claimants without succession documentation
• Owner not present during ground truthing and not represented by an authorised person
• Mismatch between drone derived parcel boundary and on ground occupation

• SVAMITVA Scheme Guidelines, Ministry of Panchayati Rajlink ↗
• Memorandum of Understanding between MoPR and Survey of India, Ministry of Panchayati Raj
• Drone Survey Standard Operating Procedure, Survey of India