Spaces for Citizen Engagement in Urban Mobility Project
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Urban governance in India has aimed to enable citizen engagement through many ways, such as decentralization of power through the constitution, partnerships with civil society and recently through digitization. These mechanisms have created spaces for citizen engagement that can inform decision making in urban management, including urban mobility.
The study of these spaces reveal that:
There are two types of spaces, those that are invited and others that are created. The former are generated when authorities ‘invite’ public views or in other words only when the authorities decide to have public views. Various Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and citizen groups try to make most of these spaces and at the same time, try to ‘create’ their own spaces.
Citizen engagement is moving from passive feedback to participation and consultation
Small and medium cities have been using online spaces for civic engagement more vigorously than metropolitan cities
We had a detailed look at the spaces for citizen engagement in some of the mobility projects in India. They have been identified as citizen engagement through the constitution, citizen engagement through community based organizations and citizen engagement for projects by city governments.
Citizen Engagement enabled through the Constitution
The 74th Constitutional Amendment was an important step towards increased public participation. It mandated the establishment of ward committees for cities with a population of more than 300,000. They were designed to take the concerns of people at the ward level to the councilors . These were to function as formal spaces for people to debate the needs of the area and hold the councilors accountable.
Public participation was further regularized and advocated at ward level with the launch of JNNURM in 2005 in the form of consultations required for City Development Plans. It enforced community participation and public disclosure laws by the state government, thrusted through the Community Participation Law (CPL). Despite these steps, the representation of citizens in key decision making for the city remained minimal. But it did result in an increase in the overall confidence and dialogue on the approach of citizen engagement in urban development in both the public and private sector.
Citizen Engagement through Community Based Organizations
While the 74th CAA provided a constitutional mandate for citizen participation, Community Based Organisations (CBOs) have been engaging with citizen participation as part of their work for many decades. Some of the CBOs, non-profits, service agencies and community groups have been working toward improving access to resources based on the felt needs of people at the grassroots.The research on practice of these initiatives remains limited to a few states which were early ratifiers like West Bengal, Kerala, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka. One of their primary roles has been in facilitating citizen participation in local or municipal decision making. Since citizen’s interest is their key concern as civil society organizations, they have been able to create spaces of engagement with more public trust in the long term and focus on multiple goals at one time. Moreover, they also tend to have a wide range of expertise in using participatory tools that are tailored for target groups like women, children, adults etc.
However, as CBOs do not possess the decision making power, they use independent actions like campaigns, fundraising, volunteering, Public Private Partnerships etc. They are also well connected with decision makers and become a mode for citizens to communicate with their local governments. Given their local nature, urban development and revitalization especially in disadvantaged neighborhoods is one of the major themes focused by CBOs.
New Dimensions through the Smart City Mission
India’s Smart city Mission (SCM) since its inception has focused on public participation through the use of technology. It attempts to include citizen voices to build sustainable and inclusive cities. Cities are being encouraged to use systematic consultations with residents and stakeholders such that proposals and strategies come directly from the people.
Due to the specific focus on city development, urban mobility is one of the major themes of the program and the SCM has been one of the largest examples of facilitating citizen engagement in recent years. It has created a space for mass participation by augmenting ICT based tools, citizen consultation and cities are also using creative approaches like essay competitions, online polls, awareness campaigns and through social media. It continues to create experimental avenues for citizen engagement, such as the Streets for People challenge, Cycle for Change and a host of other initiatives that create space to seek opinions and inputs of common citizens.
Changing Modes of Citizen engagement
Historically, Citizen engagement has been undertaken through traditional in-person means such as asset mapping, in person focus group discussions, interviews etc. Over the past decade, this has slowly evolved to using technology to enable citizen participation. The use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is not just limited to the SCM. Government departments, parastatals and private bodies have been also using ICT to design large platforms for encouraging citizens to “discuss” and “do”. ICT is enabling dialogue between these bodies and citizens through open discussion forums, creative competition, polls and surveys. The Union Government of India initiated citizen engagement at national level through its website, ‘MyGov.in’. It aims to establish a link between government and the citizens by engaging them in activities like open discussion forums, creative competitions, polls and surveys and participating in a dialogue with the decision makers. Government bodies are also using ICT to invite citizen inputs in draft policies, like the Karnataka Active Mobility Bill.
Organized platforms for citizen engagement are just a few of the various spaces that are used for citizen engagement. News media is one of the oldest platforms that has been used by citizens to communicate with their local governments. Informal neighbourhood groups and resident networks use news media to highlight local issues in maintenance and to voice their demands and concerns. Other modes like litigations and petitions have also been used, although not frequently, as bottom up approaches to influence urban governance. For example, in 2006, a coalition of resident welfare associations in Delhi went to court to defend their neighborhoods against what was seen as degrading informalisation which led to the infamous Delhi Sealing Drive. Not very differently, Uber used its large consumer base to sign electronic petitions against Maharashtra City Taxi Rules that threatened the survival of the company.
OBSERVATIONS
Move from Feedback to Engagement
Citizen engagement reflects the willingness of government agencies to include citizens as a part of decision making. The conventional engagement had been in the form of involving communities at local level for passive feedback. In recent years, focus on public participation has seen a shift from feedback to consultation.
Online civic participation in small cities
A study found that small and medium sized cities have been able to engage more effectively through online mediums than metro cities. This indicated that civic intimacy between citizens and governments can be related to the scale of urban spread. The competitive approach of the smart city mission has also been a major factor for such cities to use aggressive approaches to enjoy more resources and opportunities. Better access to the internet and a larger population of youth and active age groups have a positive impact on eParticipation. But increase in access to the internet did not necessarily lead to higher online participation in civic affairs, mainly as the medium is perceived for entertainment.
Need to Look Beyond 74th Amendment
June 2018 marked 25 years of the passage of the 74th Amendment Act but its aim remains unfulfilled as only few states have implemented the law. Most states have not been able to establish ward committees or make them functional. The primary step should be to strengthen the existing framework for decentralized decision making. Contemporary approaches followed by SCM and CBOs need to be further explored to improve the urban communication landscape.
Way forward: Bridge the gap
As public participation emerges as a chance for citizens to voice their opinions in decision making, planning processes are also becoming responsive to this change. There is a need to bridge the gap between ‘invited’ and ‘created’ spaces of citizen engagement through more collaborations between the government and community based organizations.