Urban India is at various stages of malfunction and disrepair. An esti- mated 30% of India’s 1.3 billion people currently reside in cities. e rate of urbanization is a rapid 2.4% per year, thereby making it imperative that cities are equipped to handle the steadily growing influx of people. Currently, however, cities in India are found lacking in terms of adequate planning, infrastructure, public services and sustainable development. Most of urban India is overburdened and grappling with the consistent growth in population. Most people would agree that our cities need urgent attention – roads, traffic, garbage, power, water-supply, environment, crime, safety and the whole gamut of Quality of Life aspects that frustrate us daily as city- residents. But these are only the symptoms. ey are visible elements of a systemic failure in the governance and management of our cities. Any number of band-aids cannot prevent the malaise from spreading, unless the underlying structural deficiencies are treated. Figuring out a way by which the challenges of cities can be distilled into a frame of reference, will align action towards coherent change. DYSFUNCTIONAL CITY-SYSTEMS THE CHALLENGE for Urban India We call this our City-Systems framework and view the challenges of our cities through the lens of its four defining aspects. ese four interrelated aspects are the building blocks for transforming our cities and creating a more sustainable future for growth. 1) Well-structured Urban Planning and Design 2) High levels of Urban Capacities and Resources 3) Empowered and Legitimate Political Representation 4) Transparent, Accountable, and Participatory Cities Quality of life is a direct result of the City-Systems that underlie each of the four themes – the invisible, complex and interrelated elements of laws, policies, institutional frameworks, and processes. To fix the quality of life in our cities and towns, we need to therefore fix our City-Systems. Urban Planning and Design Empowered and Legitimate Political Representation Transparency, Accountability and Participation Urban Capacities and Resources CITY-SYSTEMS FRAMEWORK
Transcript
Urban India is at various stages of malfunction and disrepair. An esti-mated 30% of India’s 1.3 billion people currently reside in cities. The rate of urbanization is a rapid 2.4% per year, thereby making it imperative that cities are equipped to handle the steadily growing influx of people. Currently, however, cities in India are found lacking in terms of adequate planning, infrastructure, public services and sustainable development. Most of urban India is overburdened and grappling with the consistent growth in population.
Most people would agree that our cities need urgent attention – roads, traffic, garbage, power, water-supply, environment, crime, safety and the whole gamut of Quality of Life aspects that frustrate us daily as city-residents. But these are only the symptoms. They are visible elements of a systemic failure in the governance and management of our cities. Any number of band-aids cannot prevent the malaise from spreading, unless the underlying structural deficiencies are treated. Figuring out a way by which the challenges of cities can be distilled into a frame of reference, will align action towards coherent change.
DYSFUNCTIONALCITY-SYSTEMS
THE CHALLENGE
for Urban India
We call this our City-Systems framework and view the challenges of our cities through the lens of its four defining aspects. These four interrelated aspects are the building blocks for transforming our cities and creating a more sustainable future for growth.
1) Well-structured Urban Planning and Design 2) High levels of Urban Capacities and Resources 3) Empowered and Legitimate Political Representation 4) Transparent, Accountable, and Participatory Cities
Quality of life is a direct result of the City-Systems that underlie each of the four themes – the invisible, complex and interrelated elements of laws, policies, institutional frameworks, and processes. To fix the quality of life in our cities and towns, we need to therefore fix our City-Systems.
Urban Planning
and Design
Empowered and Legitimate Political
Representation
Transparency, Accountability
and Participation
Urban Capacities and Resources
CITY-SYSTEMSFRAMEWORK
Indian cities today are perched precariously on the precipice of rigidly regulated master plans on the one hand, and completely uncoordinated free-for-all market determined growth on the other. The result is visible in the chaotic expansion of our cities and in the discordant, makeshift nature of public infrastructure being built.
This atrophied approach to spatial planning results in master plans that play no meaningful part in shaping the form and future of our cities, relegating them to regulatory references that merely dictate, ‘what can you use this piece of land for, and how much can you build’.
Similarly, the current development pace has promoted haphazard infrastructure which has not taken into account social science or aesthetics. Ownership and neighbourhood community is built on a sense of place and identity. Investment in the details of urban design is an investment in nurturing ownership and building communities. We believe that most existing Indian cities require large-scale investment in rejuvenation of public spaces and up-gradation of neighbourhoods and key centres of activity.
Most importantly, we need to realise that the whole spectrum of robust macro spatial planning and detailed local design must be the bedrock of the world-class cities we want.
Urban Planning and Design
Empowered and Legitimate Political
Representation
Transparency, Accountability
and Participation
Urban Capacities and Resources
Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) are the ‘last mile’ connection between government and citizens. They are responsible for providing the infrastructure and services that affect our daily quality of life as city residents. Yet, this crucial final arm of government is failing constituents due to a lack of capacities and inadequate resources.
There is a critical shortage of manpower in ULBs especially at the senior management level. This is compounded by the fact the Urban Management is yet to emerge as a specialised professional domain in India. Municipal Corporations in India therefore do not have a compre-
hensive, standardized and well-defined set of roles and job descrip-tions across urban services and functions, which would ensure that they are right-staffed. Further, a pool of appropriately and adequately
skilled and trained manpower is not available for urban services and functions (E.g. personnel specifically trained in municipal financial man-
agement, municipal solid waste management, and municipal revenue mobilisation etc. are not available in the Indian job market).
Only by addressing these twin challenges of sufficient specialization and ad-equate staffing, will UBLs be able to deliver a better quality of life for our cities
and towns.
The edifice of a democratic society is built on having elected representatives that are both empowered and legitimate. Today in urban India there remain insti-
tutional impediments that prevent the realisation of this democratic ideal. Predominant challenges include: inadequate power of elected rep-
resentatives in the city council despite efforts to decentralise power nationally through the 74th Constitutional amendment; the persis-tent influence of crime and money in electoral politics; the lack of institutionalised engagement between elected representatives and citizens, which leads to a sense of disenfranchisement and places
serious doubts over the representative legitimacy of politicians; the lack of an objective reporting system for of elected repre- sentatives’ performance in assemblies and parliamentary sessions; and persistent low voter turnout in urban areas.
Other important impediments also remain, such as the inaccuracy of voter lists – which have the power to influence election results in closely fought constituencies. With urban migration causing annual transience rates of 20%, the Election Commission finds itself unable to keep electoral rolls up to date. Because of this, many citizens find them-selves unable to vote on election day even if they want to. How can we realise the democratic ideals we desire with urban electoral turnout at just 40%?
Transparency and Accountability are the founding stones of any robust govern-ment, and citizen participation is key to a strong, representative democracy. Unfortunately, the current situation in India’s cities and towns does not reflect this. There remains a wall of opacity between the Government and the citizen, with average city residents unaware of the workings inside the ‘black box’ of the administration. Most tax payers do not know where their money is spent, nor what, if anything, the government plans to do to improve their quality of life. Often, the government itself is unaware of citizens’ chief pain points, and due to the lack of rigorous data is unable to track the state of its own finances and level of service provision.
This situation is compounded by the lack of pre-agreed service delivery benchmarks, and mandatory performance disclosures, which also make it hard for government and citizen to identify which reform efforts are needed most pressingly. From the safety of this opacity, corrupt practices, leakages, pilfering, preferential contracting and cronyism are able to flourish, to the detriment of our cities.
Relegated to passive bystandards, urban citizens are unable to voice their concerns, take ownership over their neigh-bourhoods, and work together with government to create the world-class habitats in which we all wish to live.
URBAN PLANNING AND DESIGN URBAN CAPACITIES AND RESOURCES
EMPOWERED AND LEGITIMATE POLITICAL REPRESENTATION
Now let’s take a closer look and the dysfunctionality of India’s City-Systems from the perspective of the City-Systems Framework.
A CLOSER LOOK AT THE CURRENT SCENARIO IN URBAN INDIA A health check against the City-Systems Framework
TRANSPARENCY, ACCOUNTABILITY, AND PARTICIPATION
Urban Planning and Design
Empowered and Legitimate Political
Representation
Transparency, Accountability
and Participation
Urban Capacities and Resources
TARGETINGOUR INTERVENTIONS
THE CITY-SYSTEMSFRAMEWORK
As a Roadmap
CITY-SYSTEMSFRAMEWORK
URBAN PLANNING & DESIGN POLICYFostering sustainable urban development through robust planning and design policies that respond to contemporary demands and respect federal structures / democratic principles.
URBAN PLANNING PRACTICEBuilding spatial plans that anchor the long-term political, social, economic and environmental vision for a city and its region / guide all public agencies towards delivering on that vision.
URBAN DESIGN PRACTICEFixing India’s urban roads networks – life blood of the city and chief pain point for citizens.
URBAN CAPACITY BUILDING (UCB)Training better Bureaucrats/Administrators to strengthen local government in
India, while ensuring Urban Local Governments are adequately resources to meet the demands of India’s Urbanisation.
BALA JANAAGRAHABuilding tomorrow’s active citizens through local level civic education.
PUBLIC RECORD OF OPERATIONS AND FINANCE (PROOF)Creating Transparent and Accountable Urban Local Government through reporting and disclosure. Building a growing constituency of citizens who are engaged in their cities’ budgets.
COMMUNITY POLICINGImproving the safety of our neighbourhoods and bridging the gap between citizens and police through citizen participation.
ICHANGEMYCITY.COMFostering the urban civic ‘community’ - Allowing citizens to connect with one another, and with their civic agencies / local governments.
IPAIDABRIBE.COMUsing the voice of citizens to tackle ‘retail’ corruption in government services.
JAAGTE RAHO!Empowering urban voters through clean voter lists, leading to higher turnout and
higher quality elected representatives.
What interventions Janaagraha and Jana Urban Space (JanaUSP) Foundation undertake, and why.
Under the four dimensions of the City-Systems Framework there are a vast number of interventions needed to improve the quality of life in India’s cities and towns. Many are already being undertaken by various stakeholders in the non-government and government spheres – some to great effect, some less effective, many still critically under-implemented.
At Janaagraha and JanaUSP we cannot hope to run all the interven-tions needed to improve India’s City-Systems. Rather we undertake a subset of targeted interventions, which we believe:
• Are most critical• Are under-represented or not being addressed by other stakeholders• Are something for which we have a core-competency• Represent the most ‘bang-for-buck’, in terms of scalability, replica-
bility, and impact – based on our strategy of running interventions that have lasting impact and create permanent solutions.
The targeted interventions we have chosen to undertake are plotted against the four dimensions of the City-Systems framework here, along with their Statement of Purpose (SoP).
Our approach involves working with our primary stakeholders, Gov-ernment and Citizens, to devise solutions that are easily to scale and replicate via 3Ps .
PoliciesPlatformsPartnerships
While each of the dimensions of the City-Systems framework comprises of a whole gamut of issues and challenges facing Indian cities, our ef-forts are focused on programmes that we pilot extensively and prove to be sustainable, scalable models for coherent change.
Urban Planning
and Design
Empowered and Legitimate Political
Representation
Transparency, Accountability
and Participation
Urban Capacities and Resources
C I T Y - S Y S T E M SA C H I E V E M E N T S
16,500 students 11 cities
236 schools Delivering local - level civic education to schoolchildren across India.
reached across
during 2013-14.
in
BALA JANAAGRAHA
Improving the safety of our neighbourhoods through volunteer-driven Com-munity Policing. Launch of programme in 7 police stations across Bangalore (one for each police divi-sion), in partnership with Bangalore City Police.
COMMUNITY POLICING
Ward Quality Score (WQS)
Budget Briefs
Comptroller Auditor General (CAG)
Informing quality of life debates with never-before-seen hyper-local data at the neighbourhood level.
Linking budgetary allocations to infrastructural adequacy, service delivery, and quality of life indicators. Two editions of
Establishing a Performance Reporting Framework (PRF) for Urban Local Bodies to increase government transparency, and accountability to citizens. Seminar on PRF convened in conjunction with
compiled and released for all 198 wards of Bangalore, to link quality of life indicators to budgetary outlays.
produced for all wards of Bangalore, and shared with municipal councillors.
of India, as part of our deepening relationship with the premier audit Insti-tute of the central government of India.
PROOF
National Urban Spatial Planning and Development (NUSPD) Guidelines
Tender SURE (Specifications for Urban Road Ex-ecution) volumes 1&2
Improving Urban Planning practice via National-level policy reform.
Improving urban road execution policy through standardisation and speci-fications.
produced by JanaUSP and submitted to Ministry of Urban Development for dissemination to states as blueprint for spatial plans nationwide.
accepted by State Government of Karnataka, with 200 crores allocated, beginning with a 68 Crore outlay for 7 pilot roads in Bangalore.
URBAN PLANNING AND DESIGN POLICY
Jaipur Master Plan
Tripartite agreement with Tata Group and Government of Orissa
Spatial Plans
Paving the way for a well-planned Jaipur through to 2025. Produced
Laying a solid foundation for the future development of the Bhubaneswar/Cuttack Region in Orissa. As part of a
under State Urban Agenda for Rajasthan (SAURAJ) at request of then Chief Minis-ter Vasundhra Raje.
Swati Ramanathan (Chairperson Jana USP) will serve as principal advisor for Urban Planning to the Government of Orissa – focussing on the formulation of spatial development plans.
developed by Jana USP for Chhindwara, and Valluvanad / Perinthalmanna at request of Kamal Nath (Minster of Urban Development) and Government of Kerala, repec-tively.
URBAN PLANNING PRACTICE
2 Pilot TenderSURE roads
200 Crores
‘Mumbai Mile’
Traffic Management Plan
Phase 01 TenderSURE roads
Government of Karnataka
Bringing the Tender SURE concept to life for the first time on the ground.
Securing support for Tender SURE at the government level.
Expanding the Tender SURE concept to other Indian states. Memorandum of Under-standing (MoU) with Lodha group to develop showpiece
Building PPP models that engage the stakeholders of our urban roads. MoU with Electronic City Industry Association (ELCIA) to produce holistic
Giving Bangaloreans a world-class central road network. Seven interconnected
executed in Bangalore (Vittal Mallya Road, and Walton Road) with permission from Government of Karnataka, and funding from Prestige Group.
to roads designed and executed as per TenderSURE design specifications. allocated by
on Senapathi Bapat Marg, Mumbai.
for Electronic City tech-park.
designed and under construction in Bangalore with 68 Cr government support.
URBAN DESIGN PRACTICE
Fostering and engaging the urban civic community.
on www.ichangemycity.com and counting.
Bringing the civic community and civic agencies together to solve urban challenges. Over resolved at the neighbourhood level through citizen action on www.ichangemycity.com – Janaagraha’s hyper-local civic change network.
IChangeMyCity.com
6000 real life civic issues
Harnessing the voice of citizens to bring an end to retail corruption. Crossed
on www.ipaidabribe.com with 2500+ reports, from across 645 + cities, to the value of 66.21 Cr Rupees in bribes reported.
Expanding the IPaidaBribe.com global network. Replica platforms launched in
20,000 registered users, 200 groups, 1 million + visits
TRANSPARENCY, ACCOUNTABILITY, AND PARTICIPATION
reduction in loading time
Sharepoint
Implementation of performance improvement methodologies for both on-line platforms www.ichangemycity.com and www.ipaidabribe.com leading to a
Implementation of Document Management System
at the enterprise level.
TECHNOLOGY
3 Janaagraha Urban Case Studies
Destination Organisational Charts
Improving the capacity of the Indian Administrative Services (IAS) to run our cities.
Ensuring adequate resources for the ‘last mile’ of government (Municipal Bodies), which directly impacts citizens at the neighbourhood level. New advocacy stand launched to produce replicable
produced under MoU with Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Ad-ministration (LBSNAA), Mussorie, for urban curriculum taught to officer trainees and returning officers.
for Municipal Bodies India-wide, in partnership with AonHewwitt.
URBAN CAPACITY BUILDING
Citizenship Index (CI)
Crowd-sourced Retail Bribery Index (C-RBI)
Informing discussions on quality of citizenship in urban India with objec-tive data on social inclusion and exclusion. Path-breaking
Using data to advocate for reduction in retail corruption on government services.
project conducted in collaboration with Brown University, USA.
constructed from online and on ground survey data to paint a picture of corruption trends across government departments, India wide.
APPLIED RESEARCH PROGRAMME
Salesforce Implementation of
100% track record of meeting the organisation’s growing annual budget year-on-year through attracting and retaining donors.
for improved donor relations management.
PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT (P&D)
Peopleworks
review and appraisal systems.
robust leadership group
Implementation of
Implementation of industry best practice
Recruitment of
with competencies and institutional alignment.
for HR management at the institutional level.
HRVM
14% increase in voter turnout
MoU signed with Election Commission of India (ECI)
Citizen survey across 7 Assembly Constituencies in Delhi
Updating urban electoral lists to encourage higher voter turnout and more legitimate elected representatives. 25,000 additions and 50,000 deletions from Shantinagar electoral list leading to 75% accuracy rate and
Working for government acceptance of Proper URban Electoral (PURE) Roll Management model.
Bringing the PURE Roll Management concept to other Indian states.
in Karnataka State elections 2013.
to roll out the process across all assembly constituencies of Bangalore.
which revealed 20% error rate in electoral lists.
JAAGTE RAHO!
URBAN CAPACITY BUILDING SUPPORT PROGRAMMES
EMPOWERED AND LEGITIMATE POLITICAL REPRESENTATIONCITY-SYSTEMS
