National Consultation on Citizens’ Engagement in Urban Governance

PRIA’s National Consultation on Citizen Engagement in Urban Governance was held on 14-15 December 2011 in Pune. The two-day consultation focused on promoting citizens’ participation in urban development programmes through various provisions of social accountability viz. Citizen Charter, Pro-active Disclosure (under the Right to Information Act), Grievance Redressal Mechanisms (like help lines, cells etc.) and Social Audit to help lines, cells etc.) and Social Audit to improve better services and quality infrastructure such as safe drinking water, roads, sanitation, street light, health, education etc.

After a warm welcome and sharing of objectives of the consultation the first session of the day began with the session on Community Participation: Issues and Challenges which highlighted how municipalities are trying to provide better services in the area of cleanliness,sanitation, water supply and drainage. Here speakers also shared about the need to address these issues through peoples’ participation and consultation.Sighting the examples of Right to Service which were enacted in some of the states the speakers stated that although some of the municipalities have issued their citizen charters but these types of reforms are posing new challenges before small and medium municipalities as they are facing capacity crunch in terms of both human and finances. During the discussion it was highlighted that people are heavily dependent on the councillors and their expectations are very high. It was also emphasized that care should be taken to develop infrastructure and services for people with different abilities. The session concluded by highlighting following issues-

- In theory citizen participation seems possible but in practice it is very challenging as every individual has its own agenda as that person comes from a different background and has different needs.

- Capacity of municipalities is a big issue as well as a challenge. It has been realized that in most of the cases the small and medium cities have been ignored by the state governments.

- In the current scenario market is playing a crucial role and governments are also overemphasizing this trend. However, because of this trend public services are deteriorating and ultimately this is causing problems for the poor people of the cities.

- In cites a tendency to ‘beat the system’ is growing and it is more utilized by the influential people. People often try to use these types of mechanism to fulfill their short term goals.

- People are ready to participate on the issues related to urban and slum development. Municipalities, and governments for that matter, should take some steps to ensure this participation by giving actual space to community.

- Implementation of Model Municipal Act (Nagar Raj Bill) could be one of the important steps in this regard where provisions of institutional reforms are visualized.

It was also highlighted that urban local bodies have a great role to play in sustainable urban development of the cities and they are considered responsible for the same. This responsibility is often unmet due to various constraints and challenges faced by the ULB. During the discussionit was shared that a Report card could be one of the mechanisms to ensure the accountability of the municipalities as well as the elected representatives of the urban local bodies. Mr. Milind Mhakse (Praja Foundation, Mumbai), Mr. Rama Kant Singh, (Councilor, Chhapra, Bihar), Mr. Jagdish Bhai Desai (President, Nagar Panchayat Dholka, Gujarat) were the key speakers of the session and it was chaired by Mr. Vinay Kumar Pappu (Dy. Mayor, Patna Municipal Corporation, Bihar).

In the last session of the first day, colleagues of Mahila Milan (Ms. Savita, Ms. Chaya and Ms. Jyoti) and SPARC (Ms. Monali) shared their experiences related to slum development project that has been initiated in Yarvada (in Pune).

They shared some examples related to citizens’ participation in construction of houses, toilets and other infrastructures under various slum development programmes (VAMBAY, JnNURM etc.)programmes (VAMBAY, JnNURM etc.) The second day’s programme started with a session on ‘Participatory Urban Planning’. In this session presentations on different aspects related to urban planning were made by the speakers.

While sharing their experiences in the context of participatory urban planning following issues were highlighted by the speakers –

• At present, in urban planning, contribution and participation of community is very limited.
• Disparity in quality of life exists even in poor areas, along with a general rich and poor division. Accessibility of basic services especially to the urban poor is limited, for example water, toilet facility etc.
• Non notified slums with not legal entitlement face various hurdles.
• Necessary and authentic data related to urban planning is missing in most of the exercise related to urban planning.
• Very limited provisions are made for the street vendors in urban planning,
• Elected Representatives are also not sensitive towards community participation.

In light of the above it was opined by the participants that there is a greater need for civil society platforms to be established through CSOs/ NGOs etc.It was shared that up

-scaling and mainstreaming of methodology related to citizen centric planning must be done. Again the need of capacity building of staff and civic bodies on participatory planning was also highlighted in the session. The key speakers of the session were Ms. Vinika Koul (PRIA, New Delhi), Ms. Sweta Gupta (AIILSG, Mumbai), and Mr. Raju Bhise (YUVA, Maharashtra) and the session was presided by Mr. Kantibhai R. Dave (President, Sanand Nagar Palika, Gujarat).

The second and last session of the day was on Future Role of Civil Society in Urban Development. In this session, speakers highlighted that the upcoming schemes of the governments have been able to give some space for community participation (JnNURM, RAY etc.). In this context, the CSOs can be eyes and ears for ULBs bringing attention to the inadequacies in services which need to be provided to the citizens and for that the approach of CSOs has to be collaborative and not merely confrontational as opined by the speakers. It was also emphasised, very prominently, that the role of CSOs in overall urban development should be like a ‘Governess’ who owns a baby but can never claim it. The key speakers of the session were Ms. Sita Shekhar (PAF, Bangalore), Mr. Manoj Rai (PRIA, New Delhi), Dr. Mukesh Kanaskar (AIILSG, Mumbai), Dr. Khatibullah Sheikh (SNPUPR, New Delhi) and the session was chaired by Prof. (Dr.) Sneha Palnitkar (AIILSG, Mumbai).