Beyond Digitization: The Need for Inclusive Co-Governance in Reforming Indian Land Administration

Across the Global South, heightened contestation over rural land is placing land administration at the centre of policy attention, as persistent mismatches between official title records and lived realities of occupancy generate legal challenges, political conflicts, and limited access to state programs. Existing systems often alienate landholders who lack valid documentation, limiting their access to welfare and compensation. Digitization of land records is frequently advanced as a solution; however, when implemented without meaningful community inclusion, it risks excluding local voices and producing inequalities in rigid and legally entrenched forms. This article critically examines whether contemporary digitization initiatives adequately address the structural challenges embedded within land administration systems, while also proposing a governance framework that addresses the institutional disconnect between policy design and implementation through decentralization, and co-governance. Drawing on qualitative research from two sites in Western India – Talasari and Chiplun – the study combines Focus Group Discussions (FGDs), field-based Key Informant Interviews (KIIs), and institutional process-mapping conducted between December 2024 and October 2025. The findings show that digitization without community-engaged implementation processes often produces inaccuracies and governance gaps, intensifying fragmentation rather than resolving it, and underscore the need for decentralized, hybrid frameworks that integrate statutory and customary systems through co-governance and community participation.