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Bangalore's citizens are involved in participative budgeting for their city, thanks to Janaagraha
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Bangaloreans together Janaagraha Agenda | Act now | Road-survey | Costs | Timeline | Resources
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Janaagraha 198, Nandidurg Road Jayamahal Bangalore - 560 046 Tel: +91-80-3542381, 3542382, 3330668 E-mail: janaagraha@vsnl.net |
January 2002:
Lavelle road, in downtown Bangalore, is popularly described by many (including the city's auto rickshaw driver fraternity ) as 'Lavelley' road. Unfortunately, the road is far from 'lovely.' It is a long and winding road, but that is - perhaps - its only similarity to the once popular Beatles song . Today, the 'lavelley' road show might well be a pedestrian's nightmare. At strategic junctions, overflowing drains rub shoulders with carelessly strewn garbage. Bereft of foot paths, snake like cables sporadically spring out of the ground, while frequent potholes complete a surreal picture.
Lavelle Road is, interestingly, a stone's throw from what many of Bangalore's residents would describe as the city's main road show artery - Mahatma Gandhi Road. It doesn't take very much to imagine what more far flung roads might have to suffer.
If this scenario hardly befits a city which has been described by a United Nations Development Report to be the World's fourth largest technological hub, the silver lining is that there is light at the end of the road - if not the tunnel - thanks to a citzen-centric movement taking shape called JANAAGRAHA.
While its name echoes the power of a Gandhian Satyagraha, its promise adds a new dimension to the meaning of participative government. People's participation has often been bandied about as an essential criteria for social change. Unfortunately, between precept and practice the process of participation often assumes confrontationalist postures resulting in the very same movements being short lived. This is where JANAAGRAHAA makes a difference.
But first things first: What exactly is JANAAGRAHA and what is the link between the road and participative government?
Ramesh Ramanathan, JANAAGRAHA's Campaign Coordinator and key architect explains: " JANAAGRAHA calls for citizens in Bangalore to join hands with their corporators to transform the face of Bangalore." In doing so , the movement champions collaborative change. Says Ramanathan, "JANAAGRAHA's approach is three pronged: collaborative, winnable and one that conforms to a single minded focus."
Over the next four months [Dec 01 - March 02], the JANAAGRAHA support team will work to meet its objective of ensuring participative budgeting for ward works at
all of the 100 wards of Bangalore." Citizen participation is being sought in only one item of the Bangalore Mahanagar Palike's (BMP or The city corporation) budget: the Ward Works expenditures. The plan is budget for the maintenance of the roads, footpaths and drains in various neighborhoods in each ward, with inputs from the
citizens themselves.
The JANAAGRAHA support team will help residents' associations in the city to document the condition of the roads, footpaths and drains. So if you are a resident, sit up and take notice. The data that you provide [upon submitting a survey] will be processed to provide an exact costing for the repairs. In doing so, it will build an active engagement between Corporators and Residents which in turn will help to shape the BMP budget (2002-2003) allocation.
Ramanathan clarifies that the actual process requires three hours of a citizen's time to "fill out a non-technical Field Report team form", including a short orientation time. About 1000 communities in Bangalore are required for adequate representation. The JANAAGRAHA support team has set themselves up to impart the equisite training to carry this out.
At first glance, the road may seem a somewhat pedestrian model to inspire the dimensions of a movement. But appearances are, often, deceptive. The dramatic jump in terms of enlistees to JANAAGRAHA confirms that the movement has captured the imagination of general public. Formally launched less than a month ago, it already enjoys the active support and endorsement of more than 200[update] resident associations across the city who (along with their members) have come on board as JANAAGRAHIS. This does not include the substantially greater number of individuals who have formally pledged alliegance to the cause. [list other numbers here]
Underlying their participation, is support from various civic stakeholders. Ramanathan points out that "people living in 18 slums are already involved, directly as well as through NGOs. The Bangalore Agenda Task Force (BATF) is an active supporter , while city NGOs like Swabhimana, Public Affairs Centre, and CIVIC have endorsed the effort."
Karnataka Chief Minister S.M. Krishna's public endorsement of JANAAGRAHA's citizen centric approach as a critical vehicle by which to take Bangalore forward was in many ways a reaffirmation of his earlier expressed sentiments that "social accountability should be extended to Participatory Democracy" and that "every civil society has a role in moulding a city."
In many ways, the same chord was struck by celebrated Kannada film star Vishnuvardhan when he participated in a JANAAGRAHA community launch at Jayanagar. He affirmed that , "the government is within us, not separate. We have to join hands and work together for the betterment of the city." Inaugurating another community event at the Rajendranagar slums in the city, reputed Cardiac surgeon , Dr Devi Shetty proclaimed himself as a JANAAGRAHI and pointed out that the campaign was an excellent vehicle to "highlight the voices and needs of the people before the Bangalore City Corporation."
Celebrities, however, are but a part of the JANAAGRAHA campaign. In fact, as Ramanathan points out , "JANAAGRAHA is purely for the community and not the celebrities." The crux of its support lies in the strength that it has derived from the "common Bangalorean." We live in cynical times where litanies of complaints about civic or public life are drowned by a sense of helplessness which often engulfs the common citizen. However, through JANAAGRAHA , a platform is emerging where the common man not only takes centre stage, but is enabled to address the very problems that s/he once believed was akin to the myth of Sisyphus. Of course, it also helps to have the road as the centre of deliberations. The pits and potholes that embellish many of our roads also act as a great leveller: Irrespective of class or status, the subject addresses both the heart and head of the citizen. In a larger sense the road becomes the leveller for citizen and corporator to shake hands and flesh the ideal of good governance. The fact that these are not castles in the air, but demand driven is confirmed by not only more resident groups wearing the JANAAGRAHA tag, but also increasing letters from citizens in other cities urging the movement to also take flight in their parts as well.
So is JANAAGRAHA all about an idea whose time has come? Asserts Ramananthan , it is much more. "Change happens when supply (government) and demand (citizens) synergise." By all accounts , it's happening on a fast forward plane. And underpinning the pace is a wave of community participation. On the one end of the pendulum, you have Chairperson of the BATF, Nanadan Nilekani, emphasising the movements "win-win" potential on an interview at Radio City. On the other end, there is his interviewer, Suresh Venkat who recently signed up as a JANAAGRAHA trainer. But the most telling voices come from resident and slum groups - voices which have now both a platform, and a legitimacy.
Says Mr Venkatramanan, Group Coordinator of RISE (a resident association in the Indiranagar area of Bangalore) and a well known architect, "In the past we were complaining about civic inadequacies, but proactively did nothing to solve any of these problems...We were left with no tools by which we could solve these problems. Writing letters...or making petitions were of no use.
JANAAGRAHA fills that vacuum."
"If all the Resident Associations can come together, they would be a formidable force. By taking up the issue of ward works throughout Bangalore, resident groups are all coming together to participate with the hope that now something can be achieved.. (RISE's association with JANAAGRAHA) also helped us to establish
contact with our newly elected Corporator ..."
The good news is that many other Corporators have also given their stamp to JANAAGRAHA's effort. The three community events which marked the campaigns kick off was marked not just by attendance, but also active participation of several corporators. Both the Jayanagar and Rajendranagar community events saw ward corporators Ms Shailaja and Mr B Mohan respectively pledging support to the movement. More recently,a letter to the JANAAGRAHA office from Aanya Abhyudaya Association (Resident Welfare Association of Ward NO 95-B in R.T. Nagar) brought cause for cheer. Among other boquets, the letter affirmed that "we are happy to inform you that our new corporator, Smt. Ashwathamma R. Ambikapani, is also quite enthusiastic and she has promised to see that the ..maximum number of requests for the area be attended and resolve the issues concerning the drainage,..water supply, street lights and proper roads."
JANAAGRAHA's bottom-up approach has also found favour with a crticial component of urban life - the city's slums. In the past 20 plus day since its launch, NGO's working in about 17 slums in the city have come on board as active participants of the participative budgeting programme. The groups cover a substantial network and cross-cut a range of socio-cultural and community issues and include APSA (the Association for promoting Social Action), REDS (who also work with the Ragpicker community), Paraspara Trust , AWAAZ, KSDC , Muslim Mahila Organisation , and SANGHMA . Dr Kshitij, who works with APSA points out that "APSA believes in the concept of JANAAGRAHA. The principles of citizen participation, collaboration, inclusiveness and decentralized democratization are also reflected in JANAAGRAHA's approach."
A third shot in the arm has come from the commerce sector. The Federation of the Karnataka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FKCCI) has applauded the campaign and has affirmed its efforts to support the programme. The MAINI group which recently made headlines by introducing the REWA car (the first car to run on electricity), in a letter to JANAAGRAHA's campaign coordinator, asserted that "we have already organized with about 300 of our senior employees in the group to take part in your movement ..."
Endorsement and participation has come from other quarters as well . The Dean of St Joseph's College of Business Administration has affirmed that the college has " 120 students in the 1st and 2nd year of whom many maybe ready and eager to contribute their mite.." Final year Communicative English Students from three other colleges in the city - Jyothi Nivas, Mt Carmel and Christ's - have taken "roads " on board as a part of their curriculum.
Against this backdrop , public expectations are clearly high . Participative budgeting through citizens participation is one item of the forthcoming BMP budget for Ward Works expenditures. But JANAAGRAHA, within it first month of operations would appear to have already lived up to its name - 'the life force of the people.' Moreover, given Ramanathan's track record and the movements' inclusive characteristrics , the prospect of achievement not only appears exciting but within reach. Among several other feathers in his cap, Ramanathan is also part of the BATF team and has played a frontline role in helping the BMP to revamp its financial system. Ramanathan takes his inspiration from Porto Allegre, a city in Brazil, which eleven years ago resembled in many ways, the Bangalore of today. Over the past decade, through participative government , "every measure of quality of life in Porto Allegre - from life expectancy, to education, to Sewer Coverage - has improved at a rate significantly better than the national average." Not surprisingly, today, the Porto Allegre model has been adopted in 80 other urban bodies in Brazil. The same could be true for not just Bangalore , but many other Indian cities as well.
Ultimately, JANAAGRAHA's promise lies in its inclusive character, and its premise that an atmosphere of constructive engagement is crucial. For too long, "we the people" and "they, the govt", have been on "never the twain shall meet" trajectories. Janaagraha is where the people meet the government mid-way. Good governance ultimately is all about making government work. This in turn demands a responsible partnership between a government and its citizens. In JANAAGRAHA we may have finally found the beginnings of a model which, by celebrating collaboration between citizen and government, makes the crucial difference.
Ashish Sen
Bangalore
[This article is republished with the permission of Ashish Sen. The author is with VOICES, Bangalore. Minor adaptations were made based on India Together's interactions with Janaagraha]