Shaping vibrant cities vision

CITIES S H A P I N G V I BR A N T

NEIGHBOURHOOD VISION CAMPAIGN 2003 A citizens’ platform for Participatory Ward Planning

Shaping Vibrant Cities Neighbourhood Vision Campaign 2003 A citizens’ platform for Participatory Ward Planning BANGALORE, INDIA

Published in April 2004

ISBN 81-901511-4-2

Copyright©2004 Ramanathan Foundation

FIRST PUBLISHED IN INDIA BY

Ramanathan Foundation 565, 3rd Block, RMV Extension, 2nd Stage Bangalore 560 094

AUTHOR:

Elizabeth Clay LAYOUT AND DESIGN:

Resource Communications Pvt. Ltd www.resourcedesign.co.in PRINTED AT:

MYTEC Process Pvt. Ltd www.mytec-india.com

The publisher and author intend for this document to be used freely by community groups worldwide to plan local community development activities. Any part of this publication may be reproduced with due acknowledgement to Janaagraha.

FOREWORD JANAAGRAHA, is a citizens’ movement in the city of Bangalore, the capital of the southern state of Karnataka, India. The fundamental premise of Janaagraha is that participatory democracy is central to good governance.

Janaagraha means the Life Force of the People: it stands for a positive, constructive firmness that allows citizens to engage with their government.

Since its launch in December 2001, Janaagraha has achieved a great deal of success in mainstreaming the idea of citizen participation. Over 10,000 people have taken part in the different campaigns involving multiple stakeholders, and 250,000 residents of the city (one in 20) have pledged support to the idea of Janaagraha through a signature campaign.

We have presented our work in international forums of the World Bank and UNDP, on best practices in civil society action. Interest in our work is growing in other cities, both within the state and beyond.

Janaagraha’s experiences have validated the power of well-structured citizen participation.

However, at the same time, I have seen many wrenching discontinuities in the government’s urban planning process, and have come across issues over which citizens have little control.

This led me to think about the definition of a great city. Isn’t there more to shaping our cities than pleasing architecture and landscapes? Why is it that we are not preserving our heritage buildings? How do we go beyond the transactional nature of our cities? Is the wild growth of slums a symptom of a deeper planning malaise? How DO we plan new areas?

What about the impact on the village markets, the Sunday bazaars that I have seen often at the edge of the city? What about our own cultural identity, which seems to be getting submerged in a sea of structural glazing?

It became clear that we needed to extend the idea of citizen participation from budgetary numbers to neighbourhoods, into the heart of the planning process itself. Citizens are the most permanent stakeholders in building the shape and character of their city, as well as in determining the quality-of-life it provides. Yet, in India, urban dwellers are consistently under-valued as resources because there is no defined process by which they can meaningfully contribute to solving urban problems. The sense of alienation is deep. Few citizens are willing to engage with government in any form or shape. By ignoring the role of the citizen in the city’s decision-making process, government encourages citizen indifference and apathy towards anything outside the walls of their homes.

This cycle of ‘US’ and ‘THEM’ is unproductive. The ‘Mobius Strip’ is an apt metaphor.

Citizens and Government are currently on two opposite sides of the strip. But give the strip a single twist and bring the two ends together into a circle and we have a seamless surface.

This could be an end-goal—a true partnership in nation building through neighbourhood engagement. But without appropriate expertise, how can unguided citizen participation be expected to engage in complex planning matters? Partnerships between the citizens and the government in neighbourhood initiatives are increasingly and innovatively being explored in many parts of the world. Porto Alegre in Brazil and Cleveland, Ohio in the United States are examples of city-wide initiatives. In India, Kerala has shown the way for participatory processes that have succeeded in rural areas.

The WARD VISION CAMPAIGN involved citizens in the neighbourhood planning process.

It was an ambitious experiment in both scope and time-frame. Over 2,000 citizens participated in constituencies that represented 10% of the city’s wards. An additional 1,500 people

volunteered in different aspects of the campaign. In designing the process, I have explored best practices around the world and innovated for our unique environment. The citizens’ Vision Document for each ward was only one of several intended objectives. This document is a process record and analyses the successes and shortcomings of the Ward Vision Campaign.

Where did the idea for the campaign come from? What were the boundary conditions that determined the contours of the campaign, and why were these chosen? What constraints did this impose on those who defined and participated in the campaign?

These are important questions to answer in any process documentation. While we intend to have a companion volume that will bring the voices of those involved to address these and other aspects of the campaign, we did not want to leave the reader bereft of this context.

And so, in a nutshell, the following points acted as the design guideposts for the campaign as it came alive on paper, well before it began its life on the ground: 1. As a civil-society initiative, it needed to generate sufficient response from the political and administrative arms of government, to be translated into reality.

2. In the scale of participatory planning exercises, this was a mid-range endeavour: neither the re-design of a local intersection or one landmark building, nor a city-wide exercise.

3. It was critical to ensure adequate participation from all sections of the neighbourhood, especially the poor, who generally tend to be intimidated by and left out of such processes.

4. Citizens in Bangalore form a multi-lingual, heterogenous society, with minimal experience in participatory planning. Maps, therefore, needed to be the centrepiece of the exercise, as a common tool.

5. There was the need for a logical sequence of workshops because of the: a. Large range of activities: beginning with problem-solving to ending with a reasonable vision document. b. Enormous amount of information being thrust on participants. c. Significant volume of work that needed to be done between joint discussions.

6. Volunteers with a wide range of skills would drive the entire campaign, and hence needed detailed instructions and training along the way.

7. Eventually, a core group of community champions should be the ones taking things forward, beyond the life of the campaign.

8. Solutions in the real world are complex, and require expert inputs. Hence, community access to such information would be important, both one-time and ongoing.

We have taken much from the world of successful practices in participatory planning; hopefully, we have added something to this body of knowledge. And more importantly, have created a toe-hold to move power closer to citizens, as they determine the quality of life in their neighbourhoods, jointly with their elected governments.

Building great cities is a long and challenging process, and will require the combined energies of many people, possibly across generations. However, the statistics are creeping up on us. India is undergoing rapid urban growth. We already have 28% of our population in urban areas, and by the year 2030, an astounding 50% of India will be urban. The urgency cannot be ignored.

Swati Ramanathan Campaign Coordinator, Co-founder Janaagraha

AUTHOR’S NOTE THE Ward Vision Campaign was an ambitious experiment and a triumph of the faith and hard work of everyday citizens. Just before we began planning the campaign, I traveled through my hometown of Boston in the U.S., meeting with organizations that had executed participatory planning initiatives there. Each of the experienced organizers and leaders I spoke with was shocked and impressed with the scope of the campaign: 10 communities, thousands of citizens and the entire thing to be coordinated by volunteers.

As a volunteer, I can testify to the fact that this campaign took tens of thousands of people-hours to execute. Everyone’s contribution was vital: from the core team in Janaagraha’s office, working day and night for six months, to community members walking door-to-door to invite others to participate, to the students and working people who spent several Sundays helping to improve communities, even other than their own. Ward Vision channeled both the positive energy in the city and the intense frustration into constructive action.

Guided by visionary leaders in each ward and founders Ramesh and Swati Ramanathan, the campaign took twists and turns, but achieved its goal: residents completed a plan to improve their ward and are collectively more confident about working with the necessary stakeholders to see it implemented. Citizen involvement in local decision-making is critical to creating vibrant cities that furnish the needs of all residents. Bangalore is at least ten steps closer to a fully participatory democracy, and each community that initiates a similar program in its own ward will not only begin to improve that area, but help improve public governance for all.

I am indebted to those who encouraged me to stay in Bangalore and be involved in this great initiative, particularly Swati, and of course to other Janaagraha volunteers and the communities who made me feel at home all over the city.

Elizabeth Clay

The author can be contacted at eclay@justice.com

WARD VISION COORDINATING TEAM Swati Ramanathan, CAMPAIGN DESIGN AND COORDINATOR Ramesh Ramanathan, CAMPAIGN COORDINATOR Elizabeth Clay, ASSISTANT CAMPAIGN COORDINATOR, CAMPAIGN DOCUMENTATION Balaji Gopalan, COMMUNICATIONS MATERIALS AND PLANNING Ashutosh Wakankar, COMMUNICATIONS PLANNING Sunita Nadhamuni, CAMPAIGN VOLUNTEER COORDINATOR Anuradha Athreya, VOLUNTEER COORDINATION Ravee Nerur, VOLUNTEER COORDINATION Col. S.K. Rudra, ADMINISTRATIVE COORDINATOR Ishwar Daitota, COMMUNICATIONS COORDINATOR Indu Kumar, ADMINISTRATIVE SUPPORT Deepak CN, MAPS, STUDENT TRAINING, MATERIALS AND LOGISTICS Preetha Radhakrishnan, STUDENT TRAINING, REVENUE ESTIMATION SUPPORT Sapna Karim, MATERIALS AND LOGISTICS Jayashree Panicker, DATABASE MANAGEMENT Shreeja Rajan, DATABASE MANAGEMENT Bheema Naik, URBAN POOR COORDINATOR Karin Joanknecht, PHOTOGRAPHER

Ward Coordinators

Venues

Ward Ward Ward Ward Ward Ward Ward Ward Ward Ward

Woodlands, Rotary House of Friendship, Century Club, ING Vysya Bank, S.Y.A. Pre-University College, Sumangali Sevashrama, Siddhartha College, St. Aloysius School, Mount Carmel College, Miranda School, Jyoti Nivas College, Regional Institute of Co-Operative Management, Vidhya Bharathi School, SBM Jain College.

50 54 55 68 74 78 85 94 96 100

Mr Mr Mr Mr Mr Mr Mr Mr Mr Mr

Venkatram Damodar Mukund Anil Kumar Nagraj M. Krishnamurthy Murali Shivshankaran Y.H. Rao R.C. Dutt

Vendors Scribble, DESIGN Thematics, GIS TECHNOLOGY Malati Saroj, STREET THEATRE

Special Acknowledgement to: Ray and Keshavan, Design Co.,

DESIGN OF PARTICIPATORY PLANNING BOOK AND POSTERS

SUPPLY OF EXHIBITION PANELS

Jayakar Jerome of the Bangalore Development Authority, BASE MAPS FOR PROPERTY MAPPING EXERCISE AND WORKSHOPS

SCE, MAP GRAPHICS AND PRODUCTION MYTEC Process, PROCESSING AND PRINTING

Resource Communications,

DESIGN OF NEIGHBOURHOOD VISION CAMPAIGN 2003

We would especially like to acknowledge the great work of the entire team at Resource Communications whose hard work and extraordinary talent have brought this report alive.

CONTENTS 1. Introduction 2. Core Communities

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- Definition of Core Community - Training - Role in Ward Vision Campaign

3. Community Communications -

4. Ward Vision Campaign 2003 -

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Communications Approach Reaching Out to Everyone Learnings Communication Ideas

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Background Work Ward Yatra Urban Poor Workshop Volunteer Training Workshop 1 Workshop 2 Citizen Anchor Workshop Workshop 3 Workshop 4 Workshop 5 Presentation to City Administration Key Outcomes of the Campaign

5. Glimpses of the Wards

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- Writing the Vision - Wards 50, 54, 55, 68, 74, 78, 85, 94, 96, 100

6. Ward Planning 2004 and Beyond

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- Introduction for All Communities - Planning Ward Vision - Continued Engagement

7. Annexures

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ABOUT THE DOCUMENT THIS document is intended both as a final report of Janaagraha’s Ward Vision Campaign and a guide for citizens across Bangalore and in other urban areas who want to engage in participatory community planning. (Additional materials required to hold such an exercise are available at Janaagraha.)

Section One provides an overview of the context for this campaign, background of Bangalore and Janaagraha, and the related and converging trends of decentralization and citizen participation in local governance.

Section Two is an introduction to the ‘Core Community’, the group of active citizens in each ward that coordinated the campaign.

Section Three describes the outreach approach used during the 2003 campaign and includes a chart of possible communications strategies for any citizen action group.

Section Four is a summary of each workshop and event during the campaign. It examines each step by looking at 5 elements: Goals, Process, Outcomes, Learnings and Highlights.

Section Five contains excerpts from the Vision Document of each of the ten participating wards, including their introduction and recommendations for one major issue facing their locality.

Section Six includes suggestions and a possible timeline for other communities who want to participate in the process to develop a Ward Vision document for their area. This section also contains details about the major campaign outcomes that the wards will carry forward in the coming months and years.

Monetary Units Lakh: One lakh of Rupees is 100,000 Indian Rupees, approximately 2,300 U.S. Dollars.

Crore: One crore of Rupees is 10,000,000 Indian Rupees, approximately 230,000 U.S. Dollars.

Bangalore Local Government Ward is the smallest administrative unit of the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP), the municipal government in Bangalore, and there are 100 wards in the city. In 1996, the BMP annexed fringe areas of the city under its administration, creating New or Partial Wards.

Each ward has an average population of 50,000 residents and elects a Corporator for a term of five years.

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INTRODUCTION

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INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION J

ANAAGRAHA is a citizens’ movement for improving public governance through strong participatory democracy. All of its campaigns and activities have focused on empowering and encouraging citizens to proactively engage with local government from the planning process of public works to monitoring implementation and creating a platform for financial accountability. The Ward Vision Campaign is another step in the progression towards full and formal citizen participation in the future of Bangalore.

Founded in December 2001 by Ramesh and Swati Ramanathan, Janaagraha began with a single, central campaign: Ward Works. Inspired by the participatory budgeting initiative in Porto Alegre, Brazil, the premise was that local citizens should have a voice in deciding how the municipal budget is spent in their own ward.

Janaagraha provided community groups with tools to assess local infrastructure and draw up a feasible plan to use a fraction of the budget allocation for their needs, for example paving major roads, patching potholes or covering open drains.

Since the first campaign, community groups across the city have increased their involvement with local government to plan and prioritize local engineering works.

The single-issue of roads that resonated with all Bangaloreans was valuable as a starting point, since it was locally financed. However, citizens naturally wanted to employ similar participation methods for other issues of concern in the city.

The Ward Vision Campaign was developed as a formal process for citizens to draw up their priorities on a range of issues. Going far beyond grievance redressal, the process included five workshops in each ward with deep participation and leadership from local residents. Janaagraha devised this campaign because it furthers the movement towards a fully participatory democracy and meets the four major campaign criteria that Janaagraha set in 2001:

Impact • A successful campaign cements the idea of participatory planning and participatory democracy in the participating wards. The cumulative population of these ten wards is over 5,80,000.

• The timing of this campaign is opportune, in that the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) is beginning the process of defining the Comprehensive Development Plan (CDP) for the next 10 years of Bangalore’s growth. Outputs of this campaign should be a key factor in influencing the content and tone of the revisions to the CDP. Sustainability • The campaign began in ten wards that are already undertaking Monthly Review Meetings with residents and government officials. These meetings are an important space for accountability and will continue to be the anchor around which follow-up activities for the campaign will revolve.

• Both the Community Training and Janaagraha Community Development Fund (JCDF) are meant to ensure the sustainability of citizen involvement after the end of the campaign

The Ward Vision Campaign was developed as a formal process for citizens to draw up their priorities. Going far beyond grievance redressal, the process included five workshops in each ward with deep participation and leadership from local residents.

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• The campaign included a final workshop exclusively focused on long-term sustainability of the action initiated during the campaign.

Replicability • The success of this campaign will result in a ripple effect across the city, with many more wards wanting to generate their own Ward Vision plan. The strategies and materials used in the pilot campaign are available for other community groups to adopt in their wards.

Scalability • The methodology, material and learning generated from the campaign is Intellectual Property that can be used in many other local governments across the state and country, to garner similar successes in participatory planning.

• The campaign represents an opening-up of the envelope of citizen participation beyond the first campaign of Janaagraha, which dealt exclusively with roads.

This campaign will lead to a much larger canvas of engagement for citizens in the activities of local government, and should provide for many scaling up opportunities.

Bangalore History Bangalore Beginnings: Legend has it that King Ballala of the Hoysala dynasty got lost on a hunting trip in the jungle. Weary and famished, he came across a poor, old woman who offered him her only food—some boiled beans. Grateful to her, the king named the place “bende kaalu ooru”, “the town of boiled beans.”

However, historical evidence shows that “Bengalooru” was recorded before King Ballala’s time in a 9th century temple inscription in the village of Begur.

Bangalore was formally founded by Kempegowda in the early 16th century. At that time he built a fort and mapped out the area of the city he envisioned with four watchtowers. In the 17th and 18th centuries, power shifted between the Bijapur Sultan, the Wodeyar Royal family of Mysore and the British. Finally in 1831, charging Krishna Raja Wodeyar III with poor management, the British took over the administration of the Mysore Kingdom, based in Bangalore. Under British rule, modern facilities like the railways, telegraphs, postal and police departments as well as social clubs and Victorian style buildings were built. In 1881, the British returned the city to the Wodeyars.

City Expansion: New extensions were added to the old town by creating Chamarajapet and Sheshadripuram in 1892. An outbreak of the plague in 1898

INTRODUCTION

caused the creation of two new bigger extensions in 1898, Basavanagudi and Malleshwaram. Kalasipalyam and Gandhinagar were laid out between 1921-1931. During the postIndependence period Kumara Park came into existence in 1947, and Jayanagar was inaugurated in 1948. The former Cantonment, named as Civil and Military Station after 1881, had several revenue villages in it including Binnamangala, Dodkunte, Domlur, Nilasandra, Blackpalli and Ulsoor. The names given to the roads in the Cantonment area were according to the military arrangement and campus. Thus, there was Artillery Rd., Brigade Rd., Infantry Rd., Cavalry Rd., etc. The South Parade (presently Mahatma Gandhi Road) was to the south of the Parade Ground. Much of central Bangalore remains military property as it was laid out during the British rule. Now the Government of India Defence Ministry continues to use these areas, which along with the city’s parks provide ‘lungs’ for the city, while also occupying prime real estate.

Bangalore in the 21st Century: With a total population of 5.5 million across 100 administrative wards, Bangalore is one of the fastest growing Asian cities and currently the fifth largest in India. In the 1980’s and 90’s many major developers came to the temperate city to buy up central properties and bungalows, and turn them into large apartment complexes. Bangalore was known as ‘Pensioner’s Paradise’ and the ‘Garden City’ of India for the last few decades. However, since local entrepreneurs and the technology giant Texas Instruments discovered its potential as a high-tech city in the early 1980s, Bangalore has seen an explosion in the technology sector. It is now home to more than 250 high-tech companies and growing supportive service industries such as call centres. Homegrown giants like Wipro and Infosys are symbols of the IT boom in India and Bangalore’s new global prominence. Bangalore is now more commonly known as the ‘Silicon Valley’ of India; with its ever-expanding IT parks and campuses and a new international airport planned many hope that this moniker will last. However, the rapid population growth and the consequent demand on infrastructure and natural resources makes some long-time residents wonder if all this urban growth is really progress.

Decentralisation in India: Deepening Democracy The 73rd and 74th amendments to the Constitution pushed decision-making down to the level of local government, making local citizen involvement both meaningful and essential to improving villages, towns and cities. India’s move to decentralised government in 1992 was part of a trend of dozens of developing countries in the 1990’s.

The 73rd Amendment, for rural India, included protocols for active citizen participation including the Gram Sabha, the assembly of all adult residents in the

Bangalore is now more commonly known as the ‘Silicon Valley’ of India.

However, the rapid population growth and the consequent demand on infrastructure and natural resources makes some residents wonder if this is really progress.

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village, which can exercise the powers and perform such functions as the legislature of a state. This institution is over and above the structural differences between rural and urban governance; for every 40 rural citizens there is an elected official, while there is one for every 4000 urban citizens. In major cities like Bangalore that relationship is even more threadbare, with one representative for 40,000 citizens.

So while the rural governments have the systems to reach Mahatma Gandhi’s dream of 3,00,000 self-governing villages, no formal platform for participation exists in growing urban India.

Growth of Participatory Initiatives/Participation Typology and Residents arriving at Ward 94 workshop Framework Legislation to increase the power of local governments, alone, does not guarantee good governance. We are in the midst of a global paradigm shift towards increased citizen participation in government activities including planning, implementation and monitoring of development projects.

Participation takes several forms based on length of engagement and depth of participation. The initiators of most large-scale participation programmes have Sherry Arnstein is an expert in the field of citizen participation in local been the government (e.g. Government of Kerala or Delhi, City of Reno, Nevada) development initiatives. Her “Ladder of or donor agencies such as the World Bank. While in some cases the initiators Participation” is a common framework for may involve citizens because they believe that citizens have an intrinsic right to looking at the depth of citizen participation with government. be heard, others simply understand that users have better knowledge of infrastructure and service needs, therefore it is practical for them to be a part of the process.

Ladder of Participation Janaagraha is actively working to1 Manipulation and 2 Therapy: Both are non participative. The aim is to cure or wards the final steps: partnerships and educate the participants. The proposed plan is best and the job of participation is to full citizen control over local works and achieve public support by public relations. services. By strengthening accountability 3 Informing: A most important first step to legitimate participation. But too frequently mechanisms, informing citizens and the emphasis is on a one way flow of information. No channel for feedback. creating forums for cooperation between 4 Consultation: Again a legitimate step attitude surveys, neighbourhood meetings and government officials and citizens the public enquiries. But Arnstein still feels this is just a window dressing ritual. campaigns transcends the superficial participation approaches.

5 Placation: For example, co-option of hand-picked ‘worthies’ onto committees. It allows citizens to advise or plan ad infinitum but retains for power holders the right to judge the legitimacy or feasibility of the advice.

6 Partnership: Power is in fact redistributed through negotiation between citizens and power holders. Planning and decision-making responsibilities are shared e.g. through joint committees.

7 Delegated power: Citizens holding a clear majority of seats on committees with delegated powers to make decisions. Public now has the power to assure accountability of the programme to them.

8 Citizen Control: Have-nots handle the entire job of planning, policy making and managing a programme e.g. neighbourhood corporation with no intermediaries between it and the source of funds.

Arnstein, Sherry R. “A Ladder of Citizen Participation,” Journal of the American Planning Association, Vol. 35, No. 4, July 1969, pp. 216-224.

INTRODUCTION

Goals of the Ward Vision Campaign • For residents of the ten participating wards to create a vision document for the betterment of their ward that reflects the needs of all citizens • To create a formal space for citizens to be involved with local planning and policy decisions • Further development of community leaders’ capacities and widen the base of actively involved citizens, including the economically weaker sections • To foster working relationships within the communities for active and confident engagement with local elected officials and administration • To support each community in achieving its goal of successful community organizing and dialogue for a common goal

Ten participating wards 50 Vishveshwarapuram 54 Srinivasanagar 55 Padmanabhanagar 68 Ejipura 74 Jeevanbhimanagar 78 Vasanthnagar 85 Sarvagnanagar 94 Kadugondanahalli 96 Hebbal 100 Sanjaynagar

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Approaches A participatory planning campaign is not only about the eventual outcome, but also about the methods to get there and the lessons and gems found along the way. To achieve the goals set for the campaign, Janaagraha (both the volunteers and active community members) employed a set of broad strategies and guiding principles from the initial stages.

Building Local Capacity: Ward Vision was the first of Janaagraha’s campaigns that was steered by the community members in each participating ward. Communitylevel ownership of both the process and the outcome is critical to the long-term sustainability of citizen action for ward development. In the months leading up to the campaign, Core Community members participated in formal team building and meeting-management training sessions. Strengthening local capacity was both an end goal for the campaign and the guiding principle for all activities.

Working on a Human Scale: The motto of this initiative, “Change your Ward to Change the World”, highlights the local scope of the campaign. Problems at this level are seen and felt by residents on a daily basis, and small changes can have a tangible impact. The plan was for a 3-Year time frame because each Corporator had three years left in his term as of December 2003 and would be politically accountable to his constituents in 2006. Also, the participants are able to monitor progress more rigourously than if a 10 or 20-year vision was adopted.

Volunteer talking to community members in Ward 96

The motto of this initiative, “Change your Ward to Change the World”, highlights the local scope of the campaign.

Professional Approach: A systematic method is central to all Janaagraha activities.

This included the following elements in the campaign: • Diligent planning and preparation of supporting materials before each workshop and event • Staying on schedule and keeping commitments • Exhaustive training of volunteers for all roles and responsibilities Providing Tools of Participation: One major barrier to public participation is the lack of information available to the citizen about certain issues. Between May and September, Janaagraha volunteers prepared useful tools for all aspects of the campaign: Best Practices: The coordinators researched participatory planning initiatives in other parts of the world. One volunteer visited Kerala and another Boston, US to collect information of other experiences in participatory planning.

Civic Information: Other volunteers collected ward details such as local election details, number of schools and hospitals and infrastructure information to create Ward “Fact Files”. A list of 250 problems across 25 issues was defined for citizens to easily note their concerns in a system that would be quantifiable. Janaagraha also published a book that gives on-the-ground realities of urban issues in Bangalore from Tree Planting to Stray Dogs to Water Services. All of the information went into the planning of the campaign and was distributed to participants.

City-wide community event

INTRODUCTION

Maps: The series of workshops were planned as the best possible forum for collecting citizen inputs on a mass scale, and property maps and stickers were provided so that neither levels of literacy nor language would be a barricade to involvement.

Using Accurate Data: What distinguished this campaign from standard grievance redressal mechanisms or “wish lists� was the use of detailed and specific data about each issue. As background work for the campaign, over 500 college students completed a comprehensive property survey of nine wards. This equipped each community with high-quality maps for use in the workshops, and information for potential revenue estimation. During the first workshop, problems were identified and collected systematically so that reports could be generated and sent to the agencies and elected officials. Each issue was broken down into quantifiable problems at a specified location. This enabled the community and agencies to work towards constructive solutions. For prioritization of engineering works the citizens costed each problem using worksheets that provided benchmark costing guidelines.

Involving all sections of the community: Janaagraha is committed to enhancing the decision-making role of citizens for the development of the wards and the city. The fundamental belief in the role of the resident encompasses a commitment to inclusiveness so that all voices are heard. This includes reaching out to those who are typically marginalized in decision-making, such as the urban poor and young people. Also, communities are made up of more than residents; there are institutions and business owners who have an interest in the future of the ward and can work together with residents to improve their locality.

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Comparative study of the Janaagraha Participatory Design and Planning Campaign of the Bhagidari and Kerala Initiatives

INTRODUCTION

Comparative study of the Janaagraha Participatory Design and Planning Campaign of the Bhagidari and Kerala Initiatives (contd)

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Major Innovations in Ward Vision Campaign Participants came into the workshops with minimal or no background on how the process works. Hence, well-accepted tools and methods of collaborative planning such as charettes, maps and transact walks were used, with many innovations and adaptations. Some aspects of these were: 1. Breaking down each ward into smaller, recognisable areas or neighbourhoods.

For example, a ward may actually be composed of 10 areas, each of which is a cluster of neighbourhoods. At the point of registration, citizens identified their area, and participated in the entire workshop process as residents of that particular area. This allowed citizens to “connect” more easily to a familiar space, rather than the entire ward. It also creates a group identity in an area.

In addition, there were many opportunities to connect as a ward as well.

2. The process began with issue identification, and moved to solutions only after group discussions had taken place, so that participants could see the granularity inherent in many of the issues, and the possible differences in perception of the same issue by different people.

3. Expert panels were constituted to provide the necessary information to the participants on any particular issue. Janaagraha collected information from the city administration and as well as architects, lawyers, engineers and other professionals. For example, expert notes were available on roads, street lighting, solid waste management, water supply, sanitation, building zones, building bylaws, illegal slums, parking, tree-cutting, civic amenity sites, stray dogs etc. These expert notes served to inform the participant, and reduce the scope for “phantom” experts to hijack discussions. Expert notes captured multiple points of view where there were divergent opinions on an issue; costing methodologies; policy clarifications; innovative approaches, if any; time required, if relevant; agencies involved.

4. These expert notes were made available to participants only after detailed discussions on issues had taken place, in keeping with the pedagogical approach of experiential continuum, i.e. allow the participants to go through the experience of coming forth on their issues, discussing these among themselves, and then be in a more prepared state of mind to receive the information.

5. The entire process was an inside-out one, growing in increasingly larger concentric circles. All activity started at the individual level, then moved into group discussion, then the neighborhood discussion, and finally a discussion at the level of the entire ward.

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CORE COMMUNITIES

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| Definition of Core Community | Training | Role in Ward Vision Campaign |

CORE COMMUNITIES J

ANAAGRAHA is a stage for civic engagement, and the citizens in each locality are the actors. While Janaagraha provides tools for productive participation, each area needs its own directors to drive the process. Throughout the campaign, the Core Community had the critical role in the direction of their wards’ activities.

The Core Community is the group of citizens in each ward who took the initiative and the commitment to lead the Ward Planning Campaign. In each of the wards, a dedicated group ranging in size from 5 to 25 was the driving force that made the programme a success. Members of the Core Community come from all backgrounds: retired engineers, teachers, homemakers and IT professionals are only some of the roles these individuals play outside of Janaagraha. While some are life-long Bangaloreans, several of them have moved here after decades in other parts of the country. Many of these individuals are community champions who had been engaging with local government for a few months or years through meetings or Mr Shivashankaran speaking at a panel discussion by frequent visits to agency offices. However, some of the most dedicated and effective members had minimal experience with government before they began.

A CC leader takes on a lot of responsibility, but the role can have significant rewards, both personally and for the community. Alongside are comments “The most important role as a Core Community leader is to mobilize people. The from some of the leaders: people should be convinced that any issue can be solved collectively.”

In July, Janaagraha founders intro–Srinath, Ward 50 duced the idea of the Ward Vision “We all should share the same vision & look at the big picture. Share the burden of Campaign to 15 active community work. Be responsive to appeal & give constructive criticism. Organise Events as often as groups in Bangalore and spelled out the possible to various age groups.” intense six-month commitment from the –Nagraj M., Ward 74 core group of citizens. Ten wards com“Organised activity of Core Community is a must. Without organisation, Ward Vision mitted to the campaign that evening. details cannot be attended.”

Core Community members spent any–Shivashankaran, Ward 94 where from four to twenty hours per “I believe that the formation of a very strong federation depends on the way the core week on the Ward Planning Campaign, group internalises participatory democracy. If the core group understands this properly depending on specific factors in the and then put it across effectively to their group there would be a lot more participaward. The campaign was primarily fotion: there are lots of people out there who are waiting to be convinced.”

–Mukund, Ward 55 cused on getting a wide group of citizens involved in the planning process, but it was also an opportunity for leadership development.

Training The ten wards that participated in the Ward Vision Campaign each availed of an opportunity for training sessions by Competency Development Services (CDS).

Janaagraha hired CDS to develop training modules to help pull together a heterogeneous group of citizens to work together. CDS is a company that provides training in managerial skills traditionally to the corporate sector. To prepare for these unique training sessions they spent two months researching the wards, attending Monthly Review Meetings and interviewing community members. They

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assessed the needs of the communities and created training modules accordingly.

The training sessions included “Managing Meetings” and “Team Bonding” and were intended to strengthen the groups’ ability to work together productively for a common purpose with the principle of cooperation rather than confrontation.

In each ward between eight and thirty people participated in the training sessions, which lasted for three days. The average rating of the program a 4.1 on a scale of 5 and participants gave the following comments:

Responsibilities “Very educative and informative; good program learnt a lot of things; facilitator is With this campaign, Janaagraha made a superb in analysing program.”

–Ward 55 unique shift of transferring the burden of success or failure onto the commu“Training program to be repeated every 6 months.”

–Ward 55 nities. They were partners in the process, “The program was delightful. The games were highly innovative... Learnt a lot, very not merely participants. The Janaagraha good and educative.”

–Ward 78 office provided materials and tools that “Very good, more practice is required” –Ward 96 were necessary in the process, as well as volunteers, but the bulk of the work “I have learnt a lot in the seminar conducted, it was very valuable. It inspires to team and the reward was for the ward and spirit and leadership. I wish the same to be extended to other wards and citizens will be educated about their responsibilities and respect of civic amenities.” its residents. The Core Community was –Ward 94 responsible for the following major parts of the campaign: • Outreach to the entire ward: distributing flyers, door-to - door invitations, contacting other associations • Marking neighborhood areas and corrections on the map • Regular contact with Elected Officials and local Administration • Organizing the venue for all ward-level workshops • Facilitating “mini-workshops” (Issue Identification sessions for 10-20 people in one neighborhood of the ward) and other meetings • Staying in touch with workshop participants • Coordinating the writing of the Ward Vision Document

Mr Murali explaining costing at Ward 85 workshop

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COMMUNITY COMMUNICATIONS

| Communications Approach | Reaching Out to Everyone | Learnings | Communication Ideas |

3

COMMUNITY COMMUNICATIONS

COMMUNITY COMMUNICATIONS C

OMMUNITY organizing practices focus on mobilizing people to take up common issues. Encouraging people to participate, and to stay dedicated is the foundation of participatory democracy and citizen-led development. Community Communication for this campaign included all of the strategies to inform and interest citizens in local development activities. While in previous campaigns, the bulk of communications has come directly from Janaagraha, in this campaign the Core Community was encouraged to take more ownership over communications decisions, especially direct outreach to other residents.

Communications for the 2003 Ward Vision Campaign The outreach and organizing for the Ward Vision Campaign was planned over several meetings with all ten communities, volunteers and media professionals. The actual communication method for the Ward Vision Campaign had two components: 1. Janaagraha launched a city-wide advertising campaign and provided flyers, hoardings (billboards), banners and leaflets to the ten wards. All communications material was printed in both English and Kannada.

2. The Core Community members took up the majority of the local communications effort.

• Visited residents door-to-door to talk about the campaign • Met with other associations and social groups • Advertised on local cable and in local newspapers • Planned local events (street theatre, cricket matches, festival events) • Distributed flyers

Five-step workshop process in book distributed to communities.

Janaagraha’s Communications Activities July-August: Momentum (a brand strategy firm), organized an offsite discussion to discuss the communications strategy for the campaign. Other brainstorming and planning sessions were held with experts in the field..

Janaagraha Book/Flip-Chart was completed and distributed to Core Community to help them explain the idea to newcomers.

Aug 15th: 1,40,000 Citizen Quotient Quiz inserts in newspapers (ultimately distributed to six of ten wards) Aug 17th: For WARD YATRA: Frequently Asked Questions on Ward Vision campaign leaflet, Fact File with map of ward Sept 6th-21st: Tempo Hoardings (on the sides of trucks) went around most of the wards for one to four days; Half-page advertisement in seven major newspapers; Radio City (leading FM station) Advertisements, Contest and announcements by Radio Jockeys.

Pamphlets in Tamil and Urdu created and distributed by Pillana Garden Association in Ward 94

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While newspaper ads and hoardings can inform a wide range of citizens, to get them really interested and committed, they must have contact with those who are involved. This also gave the opportunity for flexibility and variety in the approaches. In Kadugondanahalli, a particularly diverse ward, the Core Community realized that having materials only in English and Kannada would not reach out to a majority of the ward, so they created and disseminated thousands of simple pamphlets with pictures in English, Kannada, Tamil and Urdu.

Targeted Outreach: Reaching out to the Urban Poor For a variety of reasons, mainstream outreach methods may not effectively reach the urban poor. People who are illiterate will have difficulty with text-filled pamphlets and may feel that they would not understand the workshop or meeting. To reach out to the urban poor and ensure that their problems were included, Janaagraha held a workshop specifically for slum-dwellers in the ten target wards at the beginning of the campaign. In some wards, particularly those with less development overall, either the CC visited the slum areas to talk about the campaign or Janaagraha volunteers active in those areas met with some residents there. NGOs active in each area were also informed of the campaign and asked to invite their groups to participate fully. (See section on workshop for the Urban Poor) Local success in reaching out the to poor depended on the following elements: • Size of slum population in the ward: In wards with a large population of slumdwellers there was some representation at the early workshops. In the wards with one or two small, unofficial slums, there was no representation.

• Level of door-to-door outreach: In the wards where door-to-door outreach was the primary method of communication (rather than flyers or local newspaper ads), slum-dwellers were more informed of the campaign.

• Sustained engagement of one or more recognized leaders in a slum community: Even where the urban poor were present, only when they were involved as Citizen Anchors were their needs directly expressed in the final document.

Where they participated, but did not frequently sit with the CC to draft the document, middle-class citizens spoke for them, rather than the slum-dwellers speaking for themselves.

• Commitment of local CC for inclusion: In a few wards the community was proactive in reaching out to the poor because they were committed to helping those with the greatest need engage with local government on the same platform, rather than being concerned only with their own streets. This has proved to be the most important community characteristic to predict a lasting involvement of the urban poor with the local Residents’ Association or Federation.

Targeted Outreach: Reaching out to Youth Young people are the future of their communities and the city. Everyone from schoolchildren to young professionals has a place in community initiatives. In this campaign, over 120 college students and many young working people from across the city served as volunteers in the workshops. The citywide advertisements (such as Radio City spots) did reach young people. However, few attended as residents,

Street Theatre

Bala Janaagraha Civic Exhibition

COMMUNITY COMMUNICATIONS

perhaps because they were not subsequently approached by young people who were involved or they believed that community action was only meant for heads of households.

Through the Bala Janaagraha program, 1100 school students held a civic exhibition in December 2003. They had researched urban issues facing their ward, complimented by field trips to various municipal sites, and wrote reports and created models of how their ward could improve. The students’ excellent and thoughtful presentations proved that young people are paying attention to their surroundings and when invited, they can be a part of developing a positive vision for the future.

Advertisement in most major newspapers introducing the Ward Vision Campaign

Learnings The goal of the total communications approach was to inform and attract as many ward residents as possible to attend the first workshop through a blend of mass media and personal contact. In half the wards the initial turnout was not as high as the communities had hoped (under 200 ward-level participants). This may have been due in part to shortcomings in the communications approach.

Representation: While a few wards had a good level of representation across the boundaries of neighborhoods, economic class and age, across the board the most active participants were predominantly middle-class men over the age of 55. Different people bring unique perspectives on the condition of the neighborhood; therefore homogeneity among participants is imprudent because the final outcome may not reflect the needs of all residents. In future endeavors, communities that want comprehensive representation will need to do some targeted outreach and ensure access for the urban poor, young people, and women from all neighborhoods.

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Decentralized Approach: The goals and methodology of this campaign entailed that most activities were done at the ward level, with coordination from Janaagraha across the wards. In some instances, because of imprecise coordination, deadlines were missed and activities were planned but not executed. When several groups are coordinating a single project, each party should take clear responsibility over each portion to ensure that nothing falls through the cracks.

Ad-hoc Outreach: Many of the Residents Associations have a fixed group of members and do not regularly reach out to the larger community to invite them to meetings or talk about their work. Similarly, Janaagraha had not done any major advertising in over one year. Outstanding community organizing must be continuous.

If residents only hear about an initiative once, they are likely to be skeptical. Longterm outreach efforts would most effectively unearth the practical needs of the community and create a sense of trust among residents.

Frequently Asked Questions about the Campaign, in Kannada, distributed by local communities

COMMUNITY COMMUNICATIONS

Community Communications Ideas

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Community Communications Ideas (contd)

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WARD VISION CAMPAIGN 2003

| Background Work | Ward Yatra | Urban Poor Workshop | Volunteer Training | Workshop 1 | Workshop 2 | Citizen Anchor Workshop | Workshop 3 | Workshop 4 | Workshop 5 | Presentation of Ward Vision Documents | Key Outcomes of the Campaign |

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THE WARD VISION CAMPAIGN AUG -DEC 2003

THE WARD VISION CAMPAIGN AUG -DEC

2003

Background Work July-September 2003

Extensive background work went into developing the materials and tools of the Ward Vision workshops. Hundreds of volunteers, from college students to senior professionals and government officials, helped form the foundation of the campaign so that the communities would have access to the most up-to-date information and techniques for problem and solution identification.

Creation of Citizen Handbook for Participatory Planning Effective participatory planning that transcends a “wish list” required citizens to have a base of knowledge on current policies and processes at work in Bangalore.

While citizens, as users have a good understanding of the gaps in infrastructure and services, they may not have the “formal knowledge” behind the decisions made by government officials. There was no single source for citizens to understand the existing laws or the procedures for many civic issues, for example how to change the land use of a house or the correct process for cutting down a tree blocking a footpath. During the campaign, Swati Ramanathan conceptualized and released a book to fill in some of the gaps in information.

Book release at Strand Book Fair The “Citizen Handbook” is a compilation of information on 21 important civic issues from Roads to Rainwater Harvesting. Information on each issue was collected methodically, and cross-checked with many of the leading experts in Bangalore.

Five Chartered Accounting interns: Chaitra, Swetha, Anoop, Anjali and Pawan from Singhvi, Dev & Unni worked full-time on collecting and documenting this information for 6 weeks. Each student visited the relevant government agencies, non-governmental organizations, companies and individuals to find the existing policy on the subject, as well as critical debates and innovative ideas.

This handbook was planned to be a “ready reckoner” on urban issues, giving citizens the basic information necessary to understand the broader context Comments on the book: of their local grievance and think about “The extensive compilation of research is a solutions. Each chapter gives backguiding lamp for citizens. With all its ground information and also includes formulas to awaken people from their slumber, this Handbook is a ‘knowledge Problem & Solution Grids (a matrix to house of life’ and a must for every match each problem with the possible household.” solutions) and then further defines the –Vishnuvardhan, Kannada film matinee idol solution according to implementation “This handbook will empower citizens to time, financial requirement, agency and understand and participate in the decision stakeholders. making processes which shape their city.”

–Dr H. Sudarshan, Vigilance Director, The book was printed in October Karnataka Lokayukta, GOK 2003 and its chapter-wise contents were provided to the Citizen Anchors for their further information on the subject. Writers Shashi Deshpande and Vyasaraya Printed in English and Kannada, Designed by Ray & Keshavan, Illustrated by Rajandra Bagate Ballala officially launched the book to

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the public at the Strand Book Fair in December. Many citizens have been pleased with the book and have found it very useful for understanding complex urban issues.

SWOT Analysis of the Wards Facts and figures are critical for active citizens to make thoughtful assessments of the current situation. However, evocative pictures are also important to create a comprehensive understanding and impression of the ward. Janaagraha invited Surana College President and students 30 Mass Media and Communications Voices of the Volunteers students to make posters of the ten Student comments at the Volunteer Appreciation Ceremony wards, looking at the Strengths, Weak“It was a real learning for all of us, going to different wards, meeting the residents, nesses, Opportunities and Threats with clicking photographs, not just for the sake of clicking but for understanding the pros and photographs. cons of our darling city Bangalore.

Pictures, unlike statistics stir up the Though we covered only 10 wards coming under the BMP, it has always been an feelings of residents, feelings of disapamazing experience for all of us. pointment or pride about their own streets or parks and new interest about These certificates are a real surprise and huge motivator for us to do more and more other parts of their ward. These posters for ourselves, our society and of course, Namma Bangalore. were displayed at local events and the Believing that hand in hand we can create a better Bangalore, we thank you once workshops. again for inspiring us and appreciating our works.� –Dewakar, Surana College

BDA/Janaagraha Student Survey and Maps While the first phase of Janaagraha was about numbers, this campaign was about space. Maps are critical to thoughtful, effective planning processes and significant work went into making the maps both attractive and informative.

High-quality, state-of-the-art digital maps with up-to-date spatial data at very good resolution were used as the central planning device. These maps of 1:1000 scale, and had details at the individual property level. The property level details compiled by the student survey were combined with information on tree locations, major landmarks, water and public transportation information at the ward level.

Several benefits accrued from the use of the map as the primary tool for the workshops: 1. Maps are language-independent 2. Maps cut across social boundaries 3. Maps allow citizens to relate to the spatial character of their areas, see patterns that were hitherto not visible, and begin to take ownership over their neighborhoods.

4. Citizens can make additions/ modifications/ deletions to the data on the maps, since they have the latest information. These can be used to enrich the database of the city.

5. The information being generated through the planning process will be invaluable to the BDA in the development of the Comprehensive Development Plan (CDP) and land use maps for the city, one that includes the legitimate outputs of the citizens.

THE WARD VISION CAMPAIGN AUG -DEC 2003

6. Maps are an important community visual tool for participation and negotiation between different parts of a ward, so that more equitable decisions can be reached.

As an example, the distribution of civic amenities like parks and playgrounds can be easily seen.

7. The various revenue sources in the ward can be estimated fairly accurately from the maps themselves. With property-level details being available by type of property, property taxes can be estimated; trade license revenues can be estimated, as can advertising and parking fees.

8. Most plans and projects of various agencies can best be visually represented on the maps: water supply plans, garbage routes, park development etc.

Participating Colleges 1. Garden City College 2. R.B.A.N.M. College 3. Mt. Carmel College 4. S.B.M. Jain College 5. Yelahanka Sheshadripuram College 6. Jyothi Nivas College 7. M.S. Ramaiah Institute of Management

Over 500 college students particiVoices of the Volunteers pated in a comprehensive survey of nine Student comments at the Volunteer Appreciation Ceremony of Bangalore’s wards. Swati Ramanathan and Janaagraha volunteers gave students “Mahatma Gandhi said “Be the change you want to see in the world.” While this thought has a lot to do with empowerment, it also talks a great deal about responsibilhalf-day training sessions and continuity, and accountability. Our stint at Janaagraha was a refreshing reminder of the fact that ous support throughout the process. Stuwe are a part of society, and are both responsible and accountable for the society we dents from each college worked for live in. approximately one full week to complete While the project itself was arduous to some extent, I am positive that without exception, all of us found it interesting, mainly due to the novelty of the activities, and the areas in their ward. They surveyed in addition, due to the fact that we were made aware of the ‘big picture’, and made the use of every property as well as to feel that we were an integral part of that picture. This empowerment, and sense of several street features in the wards. participation, and direct influence upon the functions of the Bangalore Development Authority, inculcated in us a feeling of belonging, and responsibility, which motivated us The BDA and Janaagraha held a towards working better.

Student Volunteer Appreciation Event Indeed, the fortnight that we spent volunteering for Janaagraha’s campaign made us for the participants on August 30th. aware that management does not confine itself to commerce and industry alone, but Prizes were given to the best groups in can also be utilized as a tool to improve the living standards of people and provide them with the basic civic amenities which are so difficult to come by in a vast nation each college and certificates and t-shirts like India.” were awarded to each student.

–Nilesh Iyer, M.S. Ramaiah Institute of Management Janaagraha also signed a MoU with the BDA to create great property-level area maps. A French company SCE was responsible for map production and nine wards were able to use these maps for identifying problems in specific locations at their first workshop. An agreement with Eicher allowed the use of their very high quality road maps. These maps, which include major buildings and landmarks, were used in the Fact Files distributed to all citizens.

These surveys are not only critical in the present campaign, but are relevant from a historical context and will make a difference for the future. It has been 200 years since the Great Trigonometric Survey in India that was a landmark event in the science of mapping. In both the United Kingdom and India major exhibits were planned in 2003 to commemorate this event. Their theme was neighborhood mapping, and these surveys represent some of the best grassroots work done in neighborhood mapping today.

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Voices of the Volunteers Student comments at the Volunteer Appreciation Ceremony “To begin with, we always think about what our city or our corporation provides us with rather than in what way we can help them, and even if we think about this we never know where to begin helping. And for all such people, which includes us, Janaagraha was the means. We thank Janaagraha for that.

The first day when we just got introduced to this surveying information, we felt it was something which was big for us. And this made us accept it with a challenge.

We JNC volunteers had a great time surveying. It was fun walking through places, acting responsible and explaining to some people that we are not plotting a burglary.

It won’t be fair on my part if I say it was all fun and no problems at all. We did face some obstacles, which we overcame with a challenge. This enhanced our talent to handle difficult situations. Some of them were, when some of my friends had to survey the bar areas, slums and places where there were less decent people and more indecent ones. Some of us had got vast localities through which we had to walk and walk and walk. I think because we completed our assignment overcoming these obstacles we now have a sense of accomplishment.”

–Charitha Niluki T.A, Jyoti Nivas College

Students get trained in surveying methods

THE WARD VISION CAMPAIGN AUG -DEC 2003

Workshop Tools 1. Issue/Problem Booklet: Before attempting to systematically collate the problems of thousands of individuals, we needed to create a uniform classification. The possible concerns were first separated into 4 CATEGORIES, 22 ISSUES, then between 6 and 30 PROBLEMS within each issue.

2. Stickers and Individual maps: The property and street-level maps that were updated with the student survey were made available for each participant to use in his issue identification. With maps as the central planning device, we devised stickers to represent each issue. The stickers were color-coded by category, then given a simple icon. Accompanied by numerical stickers on the small map given, this would express a problem at a specific location.

3. Database & Data Capture Sheets: Once identified by each participant, the problem needed to be recorded for inclusion in the vision document and appropriate follow-up by agencies. The coordinating team developed forms that would capture necessary information from the stickers and maps or directly from the participants. The format given at the workshops was linked to a database created at Janaagraha’s office to store all of the problems identified and generate reports for each stakeholder including problem summary reports for the ward.

4. Problem & Solution Grids: Through the research on issues, we identified the range of possible solutions to the problems that could be identified. This would become an important tool, as citizens could easily identify the problems, but not instinctively find the possible solutions or understand the different stakeholders and requirements involved. This tool provided quick, issue-by-issue awareness for the citizen. The Problem & Solution Grid was a basic matrix matching each problem with one or more solutions. Complementing this, a second grid “Determining factors for each solution” detailed each solution by: • Finance (one-time or ongoing expenditure) • Policy-Related (need for awareness, enforcement or change in current policy) • Citizen Involvement (one-time or ongoing) • Implementation Time (<6 mo., 6-12mo., 1-3 yrs., >3 yrs.)

• Jurisdiction of solution (individual, neighborhood, ward, multi-ward) • Agencies concerned 5. Costing Grids: These worksheets were based on the benchmark costing of major engineering works adapted from Bangalore City Corporation’s own schedule of works. This sheet allows citizens to enter the measurements of a road or drain, or the number of streetlights needed and estimate the cost of works for the street or ward. Janaagraha put this into a user-friendly format that encouraged use by lay-persons.

Category: Environmental Resources (Green) Issue: Trees

Problem No 1: No trees on street or park Problem No 5: Tree is touching electrical lines (See complete Issue/Problem List at end)

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Ward Yatra Date: August 17th, 2003

Goals: As the opening event of the campaign, the aims were to: • Sensitize community members to the administrative boundary of the political unit called the “ward” and about the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats (S.W.O.T.) facing all neighborhoods within it, from the most developed blocks to the slum areas.

• Increase awareness and excitement about the Ward Vision campaign in all sectors of the community.

• Start dialogue between active residents (many of whom were acting alone) Process: Each community planned their own Ward Yatra and each was unique.

They all began by meeting at one location in the ward early Sunday morning with banners, signs and Janaagraha materials. After a sizable group had arrived (and in most cases the Corporator), the swelling groups began to walk through main streets and back roads of the ward passing out flyers and talking to residents who came out of homes and shops to watch the processions. The infectious excitement created by some the groups on each street encouraged others to join in and ask questions. Many community groups had invited leaders and local personalities to participate as residents of the ward. In some cases the community chanted slogans, but in other wards they marched quietly. Citizens talked to one another about the condition of the roads and drains, and were able to feel that they were not alone in wanting a better community to live in. In all communities the local police were informed, and they participated in the walk. The walks ranged in time from 45 minutes to 2 hours.

After the walk, each community met back at a central school or park for a short presentation by the organizing associations and special guests. Janaagraha provided maps of the ward with bright markers for participants to write comments and observations that they saw along the yatra route. The Core Community in most wards also provided breakfast for all participants.

Outcomes: The primary outcome of this was that more residents of the ward were aware of the local Residents Associations and Janaagraha. The Ward Yatra was an important communications exercise, because it really touched the pulse of the community and streets. Meeting people face to face or seeing a group of residents taking time on a Sunday morning generated more interest than a flyer or hoarding.

The other benefit of the Yatra was that participants linked up with other community members to understand the problems across their ward rather than only their neighborhood. It started the campaign with the need for problem solving and introduced the plan for constructive engagement through the workshops. Many of those who attended the Yatra also attended the workshops.

Ward Yatras

THE WARD VISION CAMPAIGN AUG -DEC 2003

Learnings: Depending on the size of the ward, it may be useful to have more than one yatra so that all areas are covered rather than only 2 or 3 neighborhoods in one morning.

Highlights: In 8 out of 10 wards the Corporator joined the communities during the Ward Yatra.

Most of the wards invited groups of local school children and college students to get involved. The students helped hold the banners, distribute flyers and other tasks for the events. The energy of youth enlivened the walk and gave them a tangible experience with community organizing. Many community members have reported that local youth enjoyed the event tremendously and are keen for other such programmes.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Ward Yatra was a defining moment for us. We were all up until 2 am making placards! Without that nothing more would have been done.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x201C;A. Shivashankaran, Ward 94

Deccan Herald coverage of Ward 100 Yatra. The campaign received good media coverage in 7 languages and 14 newspapers in Bangalore and across the country

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Urban Poor Workshop Date: September 6th, 2003

A large segment of the city’s population lives in slums, and each of these slums, “legal” or “illegal”, is part of a ward. The everyday needs of these communities are related to basic infrastructure such as water supply, community toilets, sewerage, and health. We hosted a preliminary workshop for residents of all 41 slums in the ten focus wards.

Goals: There were four distinct goals for this preliminary workshop of the Ward Vision Campaign.

• Create a forum between community and Government that transcends grievance redressal and instead analyzes specific answers and solutions from each agency.

• Orient the urban poor to the methodologies to be used in the larger Ward Vision workshops including exercises, use of maps, and methodical identification of problems and solutions. This will make their participation a fruitful experience that will lead to the full inclusion of their concerns.

• Understand the complex nature of both the problems and solutions (as some will be different from middle-class areas) and take steps towards addressing them.

• Encourage the slumdwellers to participate in the five workshops held in their ward between September and December.

Process: For this pre-workshop, as distinct from the rest of the campaign, the smaller sessions were divided by issue rather than neighborhood. The ten issues were identified through discussion held with multiple NGOs. None of these concerns are new to slumdwellers, in fact the lack of infrastructure defines the slum area.

This format enabled them to connect with residents from other areas facing the same problem and talk with experts and government officials in each area for two hours.

1. Conductor welcomed participants and presented list of sectors (including Health, Education, Water, Toilets and 6 other issues); Communities divided their group so that there was representation for the most pressing issues. Everyone moved into smaller rooms to discuss the nature of the problems within one issue area.

2. In 10 sector rooms: Each room discussion focused on a single issue only.

Discussion of Problems and Solutions affecting each slum within that particular sector(using pre-determined grid, guided by facilitator, documented by volunteer).

3. Interactive session between communities and agency head and/or sector expert to discuss feasibility of solutions in each slum represented. Large maps of each of the focus wards with the slums marked off were also available to facilitate conversation about specific problems in each area.

Outcomes: The turnout at this workshop was strong, with over 250 participants representing 31 (of 41) slums in the ten wards. From this workshop concrete outcomes

THE WARD VISION CAMPAIGN AUG -DEC 2003

Outcomes of Urban Poor Workshop for four slums. During workshops, issues were identified with local NGOs.

based on the discussions were identified. The table above includes the major problems discussed by slumdwellers in each area that was represented.

Janaagraha compiled the issues identified at these sessions and sent them to the responsible city agencies and the Core Community in each ward.

Learnings: For this workshop, we invited experts in each field who had some experience with the concerns of slumdwellers in Bangalore. Though there was a set agenda for the session, some of the facilitators did not fully understand the process and though general problems were discussed they did not talk about specific possible solutions. Involving them early in the brainstorming process might have improved everyoneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s understanding of the goals and limitations and strengthened the focus of the workshop sessions.

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For the problems identified here to be solved, persistent follow-up is required.

Janaagraha sent the reports generated from this session to the heads of each agency, but the communities themselves must do the follow-up. Few problems are solved from one meeting, and the workshop was aimed at getting this segment of the population to participate in the larger campaign where they would have an opportunity to continue engaging with officials.

Highlights: Where leadership emerged in some of the discussion rooms, other residents felt comfortable opening up and speaking candidly about their concerns and issues. In some areas this leadership carried into the workshops and a few individuals ensured that the concerns of the poor were included in the final vision.

This targeted workshop introduced many existing local leaders to the idea of Janaagraha and built bridges with the Residents Associations and Federations of the middle-class to begin the process of collective problem solving.

Three slums in Jeevanbhimanagar

THE WARD VISION CAMPAIGN AUG -DEC 2003

Volunteer Orientation Date: September 7th, 2003

Goals: The goal of the orientation was to explain the structure and goals of the Ward Vision Campaign to the volunteers who would be helping to run the workshops.

Specifically, the focus was on the first workshop, and training them for their specific role so there would be a consistently positive experience across the wards.

Process: 1. The volunteers registered, then proceeded to sit in groups of the wards they would be working in, so they could meet their fellow volunteers. The program began with a presentation by Swati Ramanathan on the Ward Vision Campaign and its ultimate goal of improving Bangalore through citizens’ input. The rest of the orientation would be structured like the 1st workshop, so that the volunteers would experience what would happen on that day.

2. As the beginning of the “mock workshop”, Swati began by doing an open house and asking the volunteers to name major issues in their areas such as Roads or Stray Dogs.

3. Next, the personal maps were distributed. Swati led an open house on problems (the specific concerns within issues). The booklet with all issues and problems was distributed for the volunteers to see which concerns could be addressed during this campaign. With this information, they began marking issues and problems on the maps.

4. The large area maps were carried to each group and the volunteers did a trial in groups of transferring the problems from the personal maps to the area map.

5. The coordinators then discussed the roles and responsibilities for the first workshop and subsequent workshops and distributed a note of “Hints for Facilitators”. This was followed by several questions by the volunteers.

As with all of Janaagraha’s activities, volunteers handle every aspect, from making the background materials to setting up the maps and facilitating community sessions. While community members played the largest role in organizing the venue, it was important that on the day of the workshop they had the opportunity to play a role as residents and concerned citizens voicing their issues, not mired in logistical details.

Over 400 people participated in the workshops as “Workshop Volunteers”, “Data Capturers”, “Facilitators” and “Conductors”.

Anuradha speaks to student volunteers

Outcomes: The outcome of this workshop was 250 new volunteers who were prepared to take on their roles in the upcoming workshops. Bangaloreans from across the city including students from eight colleges, professionals from many IT companies learned about how to play their roles.

Learnings: At the orientation at Rotary, the group was very large and the setup was not ideal for the detailed type of training that the facilitators needed. While the style was adequate for the volunteers with a less complex role, the facilitators needed more individualised training. Though many questions were addressed in the Q&A portion, some volunteers gave feedback after the first workshop that they did not feel fully prepared for their task. On the other hand, those who had a smaller training had the opportunity to ask all their questions.

Highlights: The campaign was a great opportunity to tap into the goodwill of Bangalore’s citizens. Many people from all backgrounds were willing to be involved and were enthusiastic and curious about the power of local participation in making

Throughout September, there were several evening training sessions at Janaagraha’s office. Swati, Sunita and Elizabeth conducted these smaller meetings for facilitators and conductors.

Volunteers were constantly updated by phone and email on changes to processes and important learnings before their workshop.

45

changes in the community. The volunteers infused much needed youth energy into the entire campaign; most volunteers were between 18-40.

This was also an important trial run of the structure of the first workshop, from the open house, to the issue list and stickers on the map. Most volunteers were impressed by the process and maps and felt that such a structure would help them collect quality information from a large group of citizens.

Volunteers at orientation session “The training session and the tools provided by Janaagraha were very useful in enabling me to do a good job at Workshop 1. In fact, I have been trying to plough back into my work life some of the learnings on how to run a meeting. The spreadsheet with timings, participants and roles was awesome.”

–Krishna Hegde, Volunteer, Ward 100 “Volunteering definitely helped me...it enriched my mind with some great ideas and methods, and gave me a good oppurtunity to interact and deal with “people”, which I enjoy a lot. Most of all, being very passionate about my country, it feels great to be a part of this citizen movement, hopefully for the better.”

–Srikrishna, Volunteer, Ward 54 Volunteers

THE WARD VISION CAMPAIGN AUG -DEC 2003

Workshop #1: Issue Identification Dates: September 14th and 21st, 2003

Goal: For a large group of residents to identify the problems in their ward, and connect with other community members facing the same issues. At this introductory workshop, some citizens will be introduced to the local Resident Associations and the idea of Janaagraha.

Process: Resources 1. The Vision campaign experience Material began as soon as the participants Panel Boards: In each ward, volunteers erected 7’x16' panel boards in the central space of the venue to post important materials. arrived at the venue on Sunday morning. In each ward the Core Issue/Problem Booklet: List of over 200 possible problems for systematic identification.

Community had identified a location Neighborhood Map: This map of the ward is demarcated into 8-13 different blocks, so for all five workshops to be held, that citizens could begin their issue identification with their immediate neighbors. usually a school with several classIndividual Maps: Each resident was given a 16"x20" map with the streets and properties rooms and one large auditorium. in their area, for them to identify local issues.

Near the entrance, large panels were set up with information for residents Stickers: Each resident was given a sheet of coded stickers for their individual map. to look at, including transport and Data Capture Grids: The issue-specific DC grids were the repositories of the problems water supply maps, maps of the slum identified by the residents to be returned and entered into the database. areas and the SWOT collages made Volunteers by the students. Participants were Workshop Volunteers: At the first workshop between five and ten college students allowed to write their own thoughts served as volunteers to help set up the panels and rooms, and guide citizens in the on the SWOT of their ward. At the process. registration tables, community memFacilitator: The volunteer facilitators each led a neighborhood room session. They bers helped each resident identify his explained the program to the residents and guided them through each step. neighborhood block area in the ward Conductor: The volunteer in charge of leading the workshop with a welcoming remark for small group discussion. and by helping to coordinate all the facilitators.

2. In all wards, the programme began with a welcoming address by the Conductor and Core Community leader. The conductor briefed the crowd about the agenda for the day and the idea of the Three-Year Vision document that would be the final output of the process. The crowd then dispersed into separate rooms for each neighborhood area.

3. Inside the neighborhood rooms, the facilitator began with the “Open House”, giving all community members a chance to bring up the issues facing their area for 20 minutes. All of these issues were written up on a large piece of paper at the front of the room.

4. Next, the participants were given a pamphlet of the “Issues” and “Problems” (see Annexure) that could be identified. They were also provided with detailed area maps and stickers that the facilitator explained. Each participant was given time to mark their problems on their own map for 15-30 minutes.

47

5. After each person in the room noted their own issue, the facilitators helped the group to unite their problems onto one large map at the front of the room.

Citizens rotated to place the stickers on the large map and this gave the group a chance to see the most common problems.

6. Volunteers who had been helping in the room transferred the information from the maps onto Data Capture Grids that were returned to Janaagraha.

7. In most wards, the first workshop lasted 3-4 hours and ended with lunch at the venue organized by the Core Community group. In a few wards the discussion continued after lunch.

One citizen’s problems on property map.

Issues highlighted are with respect to roads, rainwater harvesting, water supply, tree planting and law and order.

Outcomes Participation: Across all ten wards there were almost 2000 citizen participants, with turnout ranging from 70 to 430. During the planning of the campaign, the communities had split the ward into eight or more distinct neighborhoods. In the workshop, the neighborhood groups discussions ranged in size from 6 to 50 participants. Volunteer energy was extremely high.

Data: At these workshops an enormous amount of data was generated about the issues affecting citizens’ lives in these communities. The ten wards are a mix of Old, Partial and New Wards and faced all types of concerns related to infrastructure, services and quality of life issues in their areas. Of the 10,000 problems identified across the wards, the issues that were noted the most often include:

“I was especially proud to be a Janaagrahi.”

–Preetha, Volunteer, Ward 94 “It is different that the problems are identified by the people themselves who are residing in the respective areas.”

–PP Sashidharan, Ward 96.

THE WARD VISION CAMPAIGN AUG -DEC 2003

• Roads • Drains • Solid Waste Management • Stray Dogs • Traffic Within these, dozens of specific problems were noted. The greatest number of neighborhoods frequently reported the following problems: “Roads have many potholes. Roads have uneven surface. Side Drains Clogged with debris. Stray Dogs barking at all times.” The newer wards of the city mentioned, “No individual water connections. No Under-Ground Sewerage Lines. Currently only mud road.” While basic infrastructure proved to be the most critical to people across the city, many other issues that citizens rarely get the opportunity to be involved with were also noted as important such as: Building Violations, Land Use Conversions, Rainwater Harvesting, Public Transport.

Learnings: Throughout the campaign, five wards held workshops first, and five wards on the following Sunday. After the first workshop and feedback from Janaagraha volunteers and community members changes in the programme were incorporated and communicated within the day for the next week’s sessions including distribution of materials prior to the break out sessions, adding more maps in each room and making the agenda more flexible to suit each neighborhood. More learning came out of the feedback forms and the community meetings in the weeks following the workshops.

Some volunteers did not sufficiently understand the process and could not guide the communities efficiently. Community members in two wards were also concerned that some volunteers did not speak Kannada. It is very important that the facilitators and the additional volunteers who guide the session can speak in the local languages of the neighborhood.

Feedback on the maps was mixed. In some of the wards the participants had difficulty locating roads and landmarks. Some Core Community members reported that putting the stickers on the maps was very “time-consuming” and “difficult”.

Based on the feedback forms approximately 3/4 of participants were very pleased with the structure of the programme and found the maps useful. A mock-workshop with a representative group of citizens could have helped identify the exact sources of difficulty for some citizens and prevent them in the main workshop.

Highlights: While the immense amount of data coming from the workshops was the important quantifiable outcome, there were important highlights from the first workshop. It was an important triumph for the Core Community groups in each ward, some of whom had spent weeks reaching out to other residents of the ward to get them involved in the movement. Notably, the Abhyudaya Federation in Padmanabhanagar and the Pillana Garden 3rd and 4th Stage Resident Welfare Association brought in 440 and 450 residents respectively.

Core Community members from Padmanabhanagar had decided to be facilitators for a neighboring ward as well as their own and underwent the same training

Mr Ramakrishna of Ward 85 makes a point during the workshop

49

as other facilitators, while playing an active role in planning their own event and doing outreach. A team of 6 facilitators and co-facilitators did a great job in adjacent Srinivasanagar. In their own ward, with a high number of participants, they did an exceptional job of planning, managing and facilitating the workshop winning heaping praise from the few outside volunteers who were there. In other wards there were occasional complaints that the facilitators did not know the locality.

This ward certainly proved that committed local volunteers are the optimal choice for leading the workshops. Community facilitation encourages useful cross-ward interaction and gives the facilitating group a new perspective on community behavior.

In subsequent workshops, many Core Community members also played the role of facilitators.

Residents were deeply respectful and thankful to all the volunteers and facilitators who worked without any compensation or benefit. Even in the wards where lunch was not provided, the CC provided all the volunteers (between 10-20 in each ward) with a full meal.

“The workshop made us realise that we can take up the issues and problems as a community and help solve them.”

–TD Bhojwani, Ward 74, Jeevanbhimanagar “It may be possible to count the pebbles on the beach, it may be possible to count the stars in the sky. But, it is almost impossible to evaluate the contribution of Janaagraha and Federation [Abhyudaya] in the development of Bangalore and Ward 55.”

–BV Shankar, Ward 55, Padmanabhanagar “The possibility of indulging in ecstatic participation in town planning issues was something I looked forward to. I was well aware that just like how the consumer shouldn’t expect the product purchased to conform in any way to the advertised properties of the product, I shoudn’t relate the existing governmental policies with the actual implementations! The whole reason why I was there was to try and correlate these together in consensus with other residents of my ward. Being a facilitator for the workshop in addition to being a resident helped in understanding the process better. At the end of it, I was assured that comunities can make a difference for sure after witnessing their zeal in articulating issues affecting them.”

–Sandeep, volunteer and resident, Ward 100, Sanjaynagar

THE WARD VISION CAMPAIGN AUG -DEC 2003

Between the Workshops A wealth of new data was created at each workshop that needed to be organized for it to be valuable to communities and local government officials. Between the workshops, Janaagraha volunteers offered important technical and logistical support that enabled the communities.

Issues and Problems Database (Between the 1st and 2nd workshops): Before the first workshop, the JAGRATI (Janaagraha Technology Initiative) team developed a basic database to collect all of the problems from the data capture sheets used in the workshops. Over two weeks, six volunteers entered 10,000 problems and produced issue-wise reports for the communities, Corporator and appropriate agency.

Correspondence to Zonal Officers (Between the 1st and 2nd workshops): This campaign was the first time a large group of citizens reported all of their civic problems through a single, citizen-led system. Volunteers helped the communities send reports of the problems to the appropriate local officers. These reports were sent directly to the Zonal Deputy Commissioner or Executive Engineer, followed by phone calls and office visits to explain the workshops and involve the agencies through written response or by attending the second workshop.

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Workshop #2: Exploring Solutions Dates: October 12th and 19th, 2003

Goal: For the participants of the campaign to analyze the possible solutions to the problems identified at the first workshop. Citizens had an opportunity to interact with officials from various city agencies and discuss local concerns in a constructive manner. Finally, at this workshop “Citizen Anchors” volunteered for specific issues that they were responsible for addressing in the ward’s 3-year plan and build the ranks of community leadership.

Process: 1. As before, the programme began with a welcoming address and a briefing of the day’s program by the CC leader and Conductor. The first session was based on costing issues at the neighborhood-level, while the second was on noncost issues for which citizens could split up depending on their interest. In the wards with a large turnout, they again split into neighborhood rooms, while in other wards all participants stayed in the large room for the first session.

2. The first discussion was around the “Costing” issues: Roads, Footpaths, Drains, Parks and Streetlights. These issues were separated because they are planned at the ward level and the costs can easily be estimated by citizens using the BMP’s own costing parameters (see Annexure). The reports generated from the first workshop were made available, and the facilitator helped guide the group through a sheet on solutions. Finally, for each neighborhood one or two persons volunteered to be the “Citizen Anchor” and collect the costing details for the next workshop.

3. Participants were then invited to go to other issue rooms to discuss possible solutions to Non-Cost Problems divided into sections: Land and Property, Environmental Resources, Water and Sewerage, Solid Waste Management and Law and Order. They used the Problem Solution Grids (see Annexure) to guide discussion on the context and complexities of their particular concerns.

4. In all wards at least one agency official was present. When they were there, they participated in discussions on their issue and discussed future plans and answered the citizens’ questions.

5. At the completion of the second session, individuals volunteered to be Citizen Anchors for these issues. Instead of measuring roads and drains, they pledged to learn more about the issue, talk to other community members and write a note for the Ward Vision document. Each CA was immediately provided with important materials to begin her task: • The relevant chapters of Participatory Planning: A Citizen’s Handbook • The full report of the problems identified locally in their issue at the first workshop • Costing Grids for Roads, Footpaths, Drains, Parks & Streetlights • The Problem & Solution Grid

THE WARD VISION CAMPAIGN AUG -DEC 2003

Outcomes: Participation: The participation in the 2nd workshop was not as high as the first. On average, each ward had 30-50% of its initial turnout. However, those who participated in this session showed genuine commitment and continued to attend the subsequent workshops.

The significant outcome was the sign-up of Citizen Anchors in every ward.

In total, 217 people signed up and half of the Anchors took on multiple issues.

Note given to all Citizen Anchors I have volunteered to be a Citizen Anchor? What happens next?

As a Citizen Anchor, you have chosen one or more issues that are important to you and to your community. At the 2nd workshop of the Ward Vision Campaign in your ward, the workshop facilitator will provide you with two important documents (please collect them before you leave): 1. A Report on all the problems identified by citizens of your ward on this issue during the 1st Workshop 2. The chapter on this issue from the Participatory Planning Handbook. This is the most up-to-date information about the rules and polices surrounding each issue, with inputs from government and non-government experts on the subject.

Over the next few weeks, you will play a leadership role on this issue in your ward.

What if I am not an expert? How can I learn more about this issue?

To be a citizen anchor you do not need to have special knowledge about the subject, but you should be committed to engaging with local government to see improvement in your community. The information from the Participatory Planning Handbook will be very useful on the specific topic. In addition to that, you are encouraged to follow-up after the workshop with the experts and find more information. If you and other citizens are interested in having a brief training on that topic, we can help you identify good resources.

How can I make sure that our problems are addressed?

• The first step to making sure the problems of your ward are heard is to include the problems and best solutions in the Three-Year Plan. This plan will be developed at the end of the workshops and will respresent your ward’s vision. Each issue will be part of the document as a “note” which will include the most pressing problems, the solutions that you and the other citizens feel are best and your expectations about the timeline.

• These workshops are a very constructive step towards improvement of the ward, but citizens will need to have continued contact with the Agencies to see that improvments are made. Janaagraha will facilitate meetings with the agencies for Citizen Anchors across the wards.

• The Monthly Review Meeting (MRM) process helps to ensure that the projects are undertaken by the agencies, and that they are implemented well by increasing citizen knowledge and government accountability. MRMs are already happening in your ward, and citizens meet with BMP Engineers to check on the progress of works in the ward. By inviting other agencies into this forum, you will promote long-term accountability.

Data: At this session, no major new data was collected, instead the Citizen Anchors were given the report of all problems identified on their issue and chapters of the book Participatory Planning to give them information on the topic.

53

Learnings: Two crucial learnings came from the second workshop. The turnout was lower than some of the communities had expected. In some cases the citizens may not have understood, or been interested in the longer process of civic participation, but were more comfortable giving a note of their problem and leaving it. They saw this as a grievance redressal and expected the problem to be solved by others. Also, the Core Community members had not reached out to the residents as vigorously as for the first workshop and there was less advertising to remind them. Important festivals were also a factor in some areas.

The second important lesson from the workshop itself was that the structure of the session and the size of the room can determine the tone of discussion.

In two wards, the agency representatives were brought to the stage or front of the room to answer questions. In both instances, the number of residents was over 50. The sessions (both on Water & Sewerage issues) quickly degenerated into heated grievance redressal sessions rather than constructive discussions. The agency officials became defensive and the communities did not feel that they were getting honest responses.

These concerns underscore the constant effort needed to encourage all stakeholders to accept the spirit of coorperative partnership between citizens and government.

Highlights Productive Interaction with the Agencies: Most discussions across the wards where the official was present were very valuable. In many wards, representatives from the BMTC, BWSSB, BMP and/or the Bangalore Police sat in the classrooms during the discussions. There was nearly 50% attendance of local-level agency officials across the city. Small groups of five to twenty community members brought up the common concerns of the ward, rather than individual gripes and had a productive talk. Agency presence and participation was taking place for the first time at the local level and helped gain credibility for the Core Community and their RWA or Federation from newly active residents.

Emergence of Leadership-Citizen Anchors: Over 200 residents (most who were not already part of the Core Community) were ready to take responsibility over one issue and make sure that it was fully addressed in the ward vision document.

This showed a level of commitment that is crucial for long-term community empowerment and citizen participation. Seventy-seven percent of participants thought the idea of Citizen Anchors was a ‘Very Good’ or ‘Excellent’ idea.

“The sense of commitment was more prevalent in the participants of workshop. The initial cynicism changed to confidence and optimism while the workshop progressed. The presence of the government officials on a Sunday really made the participants to believe that there’s more than watching cricket on a holiday!”

–Sandeep, Volunteer, Ward 100 “Gave me a feeling that I was doing something useful for the community, a feeling of involvement.”

–Navneet, Volunteer, Ward 74

THE WARD VISION CAMPAIGN AUG -DEC 2003

Between the Workshops: Citizen Anchor Workshop Dates: October 22nd, 2003

Goals: The aim of this special city-wide workshop was to explain to all the new Citizen Anchors what their role would be and give them guidance in planning their documents.

Process: 1. The Citizen Anchors and Core Community members from each of the ten wards were invited on a Wednesday evening to participate in this additional workshop at a central location. The large room was set up with tables for each ward, and the large room was soon overflowing with participants.

2. Campaign Coordinators Swati and Ramesh began by talking about the goals of the Ward Vision Campaign and the final documents that this group would write. They led a group reading of the Community Board #8 Annual Report from New York City, US, an example of formal citizen planning at the community level. Each of the 59 community boards in New York City represents a specific geographic district. The board, comprised of up to 50 unsalaried members, makes recommendations on issues ranging from land use, zoning, and the city budget to municipal service delivery and local planning.

3. Next, the CAs rearranged themselves according to issues: Engineering (wardwise), Land and Property, Environmental Resources, Water and Sewerage, Solid Waste Management and Law and Order. In these groups they again looked through the Problem & Solution Grids and came up with lists of the top five problems and solutions in that issue. They also discussed what other information they needed to make an accurate assessment for their ward.

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Issue experts were invited for a set of meetings for all Citizen Anchors in the following weeks.

Almost 100 CAs participated in one of these sessions.

Expert Panel on Stray Dogs and Solid Waste Management (with CUPA, Stray Dog Free Bangalore, Almitra Patel and SAHAAS) Meeting for Citizen Anchors at the BDA on Zoning, Building Violations and Civic Amenity Sites with Mr Mukund, Town Planning Member 2 discussions on Rainwater Harvesting, Lakes and Water Conservation with Mr Hariharan of Bio Diversity Conserve India, Ltd.

Outcomes: This workshop was a critical supplement to the 2nd workshop where the CAs volunteered. In this session they were able to ask questions of the Core Community and Janaagraha volunteers to fully understand their role and how it fit into the entire campaign. The issue specific brainstorming sessions were meant to open up the broad scope of possible solutions including the role of the community in implementation.

Highlights: This workshop was a tremendous success from beginning to end. With a higher than expected turnout the room buzzed with energy. The participants were enthusiastic about their chosen issues and looking forward to learning more about them. Though this event was not part of the original 5-workshop plan, in hindsight the campaign would not have been the same without it. The seamless incorporation of this element is a testament to the ability of the campaign team to think on its feet and be flexible throughout the process.

This workshop was a tremendous boost to the Core Community, some of whom were becoming weary after nine busy weeks of activity. Not only were these newcomers ready to help with the workload, but it was an important boost for the community spirit to know that so many people were interested. The infusion of new participants at this time showed that there were committed people in each ward who only needed to become aware of useful activities to join in, and that people will get involved on issues that are most important for them.

Mr Hariharan explains details of rainwater harvesting

THE WARD VISION CAMPAIGN AUG -DEC 2003

Workshop #3: Costing and Revenue Dates: November 2nd, 9th and 16th, 2003

Goals: Inform communities about the potential revenue that their ward can generate through property taxes based on the Janaagraha/BDA property survey. For Citizen Anchors (specifically for costing issues) to share their extensive measurement and costing work with the other citizens.

Process: After the second workshop, the communities would no longer be broken into neighborhood groups at the workshops, and only one conductor would be present (rather than several facilitators). The workshops were less uniform across the wards, but all addressed the following issues as well as they were prepared.

1. The Citizen Anchors for the costing issues shared their neighborhood-level costing reports (see next page) and came up with a total cost needed for the ward.

2. The Anchors for other issues read their Ward Vision note or discussed their findings to that point.

3. The groups discussed the Revenue data provided by Janaagraha (chart below).

This sheet (provided for each ward) gives details of the number and types of properties, the current tax collected and the potential tax revenue based on a recent survey. In a few wards government officials were present, including Ward-level Revenue Inspectors, and they confirmed the validity of the survey results.

Outcomes: The first major outcome was the combined list of all costing needs across the ward. This comprehensive list, generally between 1 and 4 crores, became a critical jumping off point for the communities to identify priorities and plan for discussions with the administration and their elected representatives.

Less tangible, but also important was the sharing of knowledge about potential property tax revenue in each ward. Many communities realized that if they could

Ward No.

BMP Revenues

Janaagraha Estimates

50

2.39

7.50

54

1.79

8.00

55

3.44

10.50

68

2.80

8.00

74

4.36

8.00

78

7.76

19.50

85

1.22

3.00

94

0.61

2.50

96

1.20

7.50

100

1.86

4.50

Total

Rs 27.43 crores

Rs 79.00 crores

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increase the revenue collected, and keep some those funds in their ward, they could pay for all of their potholes, silted drains, broken footpaths and other such needs in 2-3 years. Some community members asked for property lists from the Revenue Department to find out who was already paying. This meeting was a starting point for the idea of Ward RECI-P (Revenue Enhancement with Citizen Participation).

Learnings: In some wards, the Citizen Anchors were not completely prepared with their cost information, and the compilation of necessary data was delayed. It is important that someone follow up with all CAs on a regular basis, otherwise one or two late entries can delay the entire process.

Highlights: Many full-time Janaagraha volunteers as well as Core Community members said that this was the best workshop and felt like â&#x20AC;&#x153;a family gatheringâ&#x20AC;?.

By this point, the attendees were committed to the full process and were accustomed to the Sunday morning functions. The content was also quite good because the reporting of the costing information was very concrete and tangible, an obvious outcome of meaningful, hard work. The revenue data was also quite revealing and gave the citizens a feeling of optimism that funds were available, and they need the incremental funds for local development.

Costing Sheet for Citizen Anchors to fill out for all works in that neighborhood

THE WARD VISION CAMPAIGN AUG -DEC 2003

Meeting with the BMP Commissioner Date: November 7th, 2003

During the campaign, the idea of Ward RECI-P escalated in importance for the citizens, as they realized that their total infrastructure needs could not be met with their existing fund base. The aim of this meeting was to express their thoughts to the BMP Commissioner Srinivasa Murthy and impress upon him the value of citizen participation in increasing revenue generation and keeping incremental funds collected for local area development. Mr. L.C. Jain, ex-member GOI Planning Commission and a supporter of Janaagraha, was also invited to participate as he is an eminently respected advocate of decentralisation.

The day prior to the meeting, the community members met to plan their strategy of engagement with the Commissioner. During the mock session, they were firm and even aggressive about the right of citizens to be involved in local property tax issues and pushed the mock-Commissioner to answer them directly.

Nine out of the ten communities were represented by their Ward Coordinator at the meeting in the Commissionerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s office. Mr. Shivashankaran of Ward 94 began by talking about the Ward Vision campaign and how these active communities had come to the point of wanting to help increase the revenues in their wards.

The Commissioner listened to the citizens, and began by saying that he was happy that Bangalore had such active citizens. Next, he firmly stated that they needed to get the interest and endorsement of the Corporators, starting with their own. Many of the community members spoke up and said that their Corporators were interested, but that they wanted to hear if the Commissioner was supportive of the idea. The Commissioner stuck to his point that he could not single-handedly push through this agenda, and he also mentioned other upcoming plans to increase property taxes and levy garbage cesses at the end of the year. He also felt that it would have to happen at the city-level, and not as a pilot for ten wards. The citizens continued to ask questions, and the Commissioner stayed positive, but did not budge on the issues at hand.

Mr. L.C. Jain suggested that the best next step would be to approach finance policy makers at the State and Centre with a paper on the proposal. Within days, Janaagraha planned a high-profile panel discussion for December on the idea of Ward RECI-P that would include urban development and finance experts from Karnataka and beyond.

Between the Workshops Costing and Prioritising Grids (Between the 2nd and 4th workshops)

Dozens of citizens carried out the exacting task of detailing the engineering problems and calculating the cost for each work. Janaagraha volunteers collated all of the data collected by the citizens, entered it into a single format for simple wardlevel prioritisation.

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Workshop #4: Prioritisation Dates: November 16th-30th, 2003

Goal: For the participants in each ward to prioritise the list to engineering works required in their ward.

Process: Following the pattern with the previous workshops, the Core Community took increased control over the structure of the workshop and facilitating the sessions.

At most of the prioritisation workshops the participants met with the Corporator, Deputy Commissioner and revenue officers and briefed them about the costing and revenue figures that had been calculated.

All of the following models were suggestions that had to be modified for each ward. The Core Community Leader guided the process of identifying a good model, then neighborhood-level prioritisation when necessary. Finally the outcome was a ranked list of works included in each Ward Vision Document.

Model A: Each year, give each area, (whether or not it has been represented in the workshops) an equal amount of funds for development and repairs.

Model B: Put certain portion of funds every year (20-50%) for the common and critical areas and distribute the rest evenly to all areas.

Model C: In the first year use all funds for addressing the common areas, in years 2 and 3 distribute the funds among neighborhood areas.

Model D: Decide on a minimal level of development (paved roads, pukka drains) and give all funding in the first (and maybe second) year to works to bring all areas in the ward up to that level.

After every area has these basics, funds can be distributed among all areas for repairs, park development and other projects.

Learnings: In planning the workshop, an alternative high-tech strategy had been proposed to make the process of group prioritisation more scientific. The Interpretive Structural Modeling software counts the preferences of all participants on each possible pair of options. We tested the program in the Thursday Campaign meeting and the consensus was that not only was the software just as time-consuming as extended discussion, but it did not allow for the nuances of these works that could be thrashed out in conversation. This was an important choice to use a low-tech method that encouraged in-depth participation.

This was an important workshop for a broad range of citizens to participate in, at the least, all the participants from the Issue Identification workshop. However, the turnout had dropped to 20-70 active participants who did not fully represent the needs of the ward. Though a wide sweep of works were costed, ultimately the prioritisation is a critical step that most citizens should be involved in. Most Core Communities were consumed with the details of costing and arranging the participation of the Corporator rather than on community outreach despite repeated urgings from Janaagraha to keep all participants informed of the progress and dates.

THE WARD VISION CAMPAIGN AUG -DEC 2003

Workshop #5: Taking it Forward Date: November 30th, 2003

Goals: The final workshop, Taking it Forward, was focused on generating ideas about how the workshop outcomes could make a difference on the ground in each ward. The Ward Vision documents created by each community are not meant to sit on a shelf, but instead be living charters that can help the citizens to make the standard of living better for everyone in the ward.

Process: The fifth workshop was held jointly for all wards on Sunday morning at Jain College in Basavanagudi. After a brief statement from the school’s director, Mr. Chenraj Jain and refreshments, the discussion began at 10:30 am.

First, Mr. Mukund (Secretary of Abhyudaya Federation) and Ramesh discussed the Federation. This body is the highest level of informal governance, an apex body of the ward, and can represent all citizens and institutions in the ward. Several wards already have federations, and each is operating differently.

Ramesh and the communities decided to prioritize the morning’s agenda and focus on the following important topics in the remaining hour: 1. Building a relationship with the Corporator.

2. How to take forward the Ward RECI-P idea 3. How to get more people involved and make the Ward Vision meaningful.

4. Community participation in Ward Vision Document Presentation to Commissioner on Dec. 6th 5. Janaagraha response to recent events Each topic was open for the eighty community members from all ten wards to give their ideas, suggestions and share past experience.

Outcomes: After 15 minutes of discussion, the following is a list of ideas of how the community can build positive ties with the Corporator.

• Include Corporator in Federation • Inform Corporator regularly of meeting minutes from Association/Federation • Start small project in the ward and include the Corporator • Show your strength in numbers • Give felicitation/public praise to your Corporator for a special event or completion of a work Action steps on taking Ward RECI-P forward • Make formal presentation to the Mayor (and possibly other Corporators) • Request lists of properties paying taxes • Inform other citizens in adjoining wards (under same Revenue jurisdiction) • Panel discussion (planned for Dec. 17th) • Make presentation to CM

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Also discussed were how each community could get more people involved. Since the Ward Vision was completed by a small percentage of the ward, it is important that more citizens take ownership over the Vision document. Each ward needs to make its own plan of action for this task. Below is a list of ideas on how the goals can be achieved.

• Contact opinion leaders in Ward, get them to endorse the Vision • Send letter about Vision (in Kannada) to Ward Committee members • Letter to new members (of Federation) • Do program that shows immediate benefits • Formation of sub-committees to take up certain issues in Vision (led by Citizen Anchors) • Publicize Ward Vision through regular meetings (eg. every Saturday evening at local school ) • Translate vision into local languages • Printed copied of the Vision to be put in public places • Send notices about WV to Bala Janaagraha parents (or through other schools) • Publicize in special Janaagraha Times section and give out to residents

Over 300 citizens at presenting of Ward Vision Documents event

Learnings: Unlike the other workshops that were held in each ward with hundreds of citizens, this was a single session for all ten wards. In addition, most of the attendees were Core Community members who were giving their thoughts and comments. However, this was a very important workshop and great ideas were expressed. It would be important for a similar discussion to happen at the ward level where the work will actually take place.

Highlights: The multi-ward arrangement of this session allowed communities to share ideas and learn from each others’ experience. Mr. Mukund and Ramesh led an inspiring discussion about Abyhudaya and the potential of a strong Federation.

Other communities gave their experiences and asked questions. Finally, several other wards expressed the interest in starting their own Federation within a year.

Presentation of Ward Vision Documents On the evening of December 6th, approximately 300 citizens from the ten wards packed the Rotary House of Friendship to present their completed Ward Vision documents to city government officials. Those present were the Mayor P.R. Ramesh, Commissioner Sreenivasa Murthy and Special Commissioner Subash Chandra. Senior officials from major city agencies were also present including the Managing Director of the BMTC. The agency representatives listened as 6 citizens spoke about the structure and outcomes of the campaign. The citizens were firm and forceful in discussing the value of their participation and impressing upon officials why they should be involved.

Mayor, Commissioner and Special Commissioner of Bangalore

The Commissioner spoke about some of the citizen-centric approaches adopted by the BMP. Mr. P.R. Ramesh, the newly elected mayor, appreciated the role of Janaagrahis and assured that their Ward Vision documents will be examined and wherever possible included in the development plans and implemented.

THE WARD VISION CAMPAIGN AUG -DEC 2003

Key Outcomes of the Campaign Citizen Participation in Planning is an Accepted Concept: The Ward Planning Campaign created a forum for citizen engagement with local authorities for planning and maintenance of infrastructure and services. This was the first Indian example of citizen-led participatory planning in a large urban setting and with its success disproves those who claim that it can’t work here. Through positive media coverage, agency participation and the dedicated outreach of active citizens, Bangaloreans are aware of the process and believe that it is the right of the public to have a voice in planning. Beginning with ten percent of the city, the stage has now been set for increased citizen engagement for local development.

Participatory Planning: A Citizen’s Handbook Citizens are kept out of the planning process directly through the dearth of formal spaces for involvement, and indirectly because they have not been provided with the necessary information to examine the issues in depth. While some of the most active citizens or those with technical expertise might have learned the details of water supply or zoning laws, that information was not available in a single place. The book was envisaged to give campaign participants background information on the major issues they would have a chance to address in the campaign.

Inter-ward Communication: Thursday Community Meetings The regular Thursday afternoon meetings began in August as campaign meetings to discuss the planning of the workshops and events. During Janaagraha’s previous campaigns, the meetings had been “internal”, only for the full-time volunteers.

Ward Vision was different, and the Thursday meeting was the primary space in which this new dynamic was expressed. At most meetings each of the wards was represented by two participants, with more attending in the “workshop weeks”.

Generally the meetings were led by the founders Ramesh and Swati, but towards the end of the campaign, the community members rotated in leading the meetings as well. At the end of the campaign, citizens decided to keep the Thursday meeting as a regular forum for inter-ward discussion and idea sharing, and it is now active community leaders who set the agenda each week and lead the meeting.

Harnessing Volunteer Energy In this campaign Janaagraha had the opportunity to involve hundreds of Bangaloreans who did not live in the focus wards as volunteers. These individuals both employed and expanded their skills by providing or capturing important data and facilitating these workshops. In the feedback we collected from volunteers, many felt that

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this was a unique opportunity for them to give service to others, and also to be a part of something that would improve their city. Inspired by the Core Communities in some wards, several volunteers have gone on to found or join Residentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Associations in their own neighborhoods.

Agency Awareness and Participation In Janaagrahaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first two campaigns, Ward Works and PROOF, the focus was on citizen engagement with the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike. This campaign, by looking at all issues gave citizens a chance to interact collectively with other major agencies such as the Bangalore Water Supply & Sewerage Board (BWSSB), Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) and the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA). Some agencies were very open and enthusiastic about the opportunity to work directly with citizens, while others were hesitantâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;but it was a very good first step towards structured engagement across the agencies. Since the workshops, communities have invited some of the other agencies, to Monthly Review Meetings to begin the same structured accountability mechanism that has worked with the BMP.

Citizens working with Executive Engineer in Sanjaynagar

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GLIMPSES OF THE WARDS

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| Writing the Vision | Wards 50, 54, 55, 68, 74, 78, 85, 94, 96, 100 |

GLIMPSES OF THE WARDS Writing the Vision In November, the Core Community members and Citizen Anchors set down to work on the ultimate task of the campaign. Each ward went through a different process of writing the vision, but by December they were all complete and bound.

Janaagraha hosted informal CA meetings with all of the wards to give suggestions and share tips and encouraged wards that had finished the document to show their drafts to others.

In Wards 54 and 55, community members met every night for two weeks to discuss each issue in depth and came to a consensus before writing it down. On the other side of the spectrum the Ward Coordinator wrote the document alone, taking the inputs from the CAs and making the document uniform.

The typical structure of each citizensâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Ward Vision Document is: 1. Introduction to the Ward and Campaign 2. Prioritised grid of Costed Issues 3. All other (Non-Costed) issues 4. Annexures (Maps, Costing Sheets, Student Documentation, Campaign Summary, Slum Details)

The next ten pages show a snapshot of each wardâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Vision Document, beginning with a part of the introduction or preamble to the document, then giving their vision or suggestions for one issue that was important in their area.

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Population: 31,899 Old Ward

WARD 50: VISHVESHWARAPURAM A Citizen’s Dream This document is a transcription of dreams. Dreams of thousands of citizens of Ward 50—Vishveshwarapuram. Dreams which demonstrate the commitment to be partners in the development of their neighborhood. This document bears the signatures of that zealous handful of people who volunteered to represent their ward in a movement, or rather, a ‘momentum’ called JANAAGRAHA.

TOTAL COST OF NEEDS IDENTIFIED:

64 lakhs

CURRENT REVENUE:

2.39 crores

POTENTIAL REVENUE:

7.50 crores

Major issue: Stray dogs One of the larger problems of Ward 50 is stray dogs. Their population has grown unchecked in the last few years and is a menace to riders of two wheelers, passers by, children playing on the street and the public in general. Stray dogs cause accidents, create havoc at night and spread rabies, besides other problems. India has the highest number of stray dogs in the world. It is estimated that Bangalore had 200,000 stray dogs by the end of year 2000.

Vision: To make Ward 50 (and the city of Bangalore) free of stray dogs through proactive and sustained efforts of BMP with able participation by NGOs and Citizen Forums. It would not be possible to have just one ward of a city free of stray dogs; dogs are territorial in nature and each dog fights for and controls a particular area. Elimination of stray dogs in a particular area will result in dogs from other areas migrating or spreading to that area.

Results of Local Survey and Suggested Solutions: 1. About 60% of the respondents opined that stray dogs should be totally eliminated from the streets. Balance 40% did not show awareness of the problems associated with stray dogs. Interestingly, this 40% was made up of street vendors, slum dwellers and homeless with very less formal education.

Solution: Streets should be free of stray dogs in 3 years. Until such period, stray dogs must be vaccinated/ sterilized and kept in dog pounds for adoption for a limited period of time. Un-adopted and old / sick dogs must be euthanized.

2. 45% say that measures taken by BMP and the animal welfare organizations to check the population of stray dogs are grossly inadequate. Those who have lodged a complaint are not happy with the response received for the complaint. Solution: BMP together with NGOs must establish telephone help-lines for receiving complaints and must attend to complaints promptly.

This facility must also help dog bite victims. Private veterinarians must be enlisted for additional help in vaccination and euthanasia.

3. General opinion prevailing is that BMP should take full onus for solving the problem and that it has has not set any target for achieving its goals but just working at its own slow pace. People also said that they would support a movement if it is initiated and actively driven by the BMP; it was also felt that citizens’ forums and individuals are too small to attempt a solution. Solution: Eliminating stray dogs from the streets of Bangalore must be driven by BMP but must be monitored by NGOs and Citizen Forums.

Other solutions: 1. Streets to be free from garbage dumps. Garbage must be collected door-to-door and transferred directly to garbage trucks for removal.

2. Vaccination, Leash / Collar and License must be made mandatory for all pet dogs and adopted dogs.

3. BMP should publicize its efforts towards making Bangalore free of stray dogs. Campaigns must be taken to grass-root level to children in schools and colleges.

4. General insurance companies must fully reimburse cost of treatment in cases of dog bites.

Population: 82,072 New Ward

WARD 54: SRINIVASANAGAR The neighborhoods of Srinivasanagar Areas 1 & 2: Channamanakere Achkat is located in a valley providing beautiful scenic view and fertile landscape. Drainage systems can be planned with ease and effectiveness. Water table is reasonably accessible. Roads have been neglected for a long period and need attention.

Area 3: This is not a developed area with a larger extent of slum pocket needing improvement.

Areas 4 & 6: These are reasonably well-developed areas as per plan. The areas require improvement in illumination and solid waste management.

Area 5: This is a very undeveloped area requiring comprehensive planning.

Areas 7 & 8: These areas have been mostly developed on revenue lands without proper developmental plan. The roads as well as house constructions have been carried out in an unplanned way. Many of the civic amenities are missing and open drainages are causing danger to life. This needs an intensive development program.

Area 9: Many mud roads in this area need asphalting.

Areas 10 & 11: These are reasonably developed areas needing further development to make them the best part of the locality.

Areas 12 & 13: This is an area developed by a private cooperative society but can be made better, if handed over to corporation.

TOTAL COST OF NEEDS IDENTIFIED:

1.75 crores

CURRENT REVENUE:

1.79 crores

POTENTIAL REVENUE:

8.00 crores

Major Issue: Public Transport Travel today is relatively faster and people in Bangalore are traveling more than ever before. An efficient public transport system can provide mobility to all sections of society. In spite of bad roads and ill maintained vehicles, even to this day public transport meets a high percentage of travel demands. The dream of mobility through private vehicles is fast turning into a nightmare of immobility and creating a lung busting pollution. Taxis and three wheelers are badly maintained and run on adulterated fuels causing severe pollution. Transport planners should pay attention to creating and maintaining an efficient public transport system.

Some suggestions in this direction are: 1. Introduce more fuel-efficient, less polluting buses with lower cruising speeds, alternate fuels and higher acceleration.

2. Introduce mini buses on narrow roads and in suburbs to act as feeder services to link main bus stops and ring road.

3. Increase the frequency and quality of service provided by BMTC buses.

4. Introduce following policies to discourage the use of private vehicles: a) Enhanced road tax on private vehicles, b) No parking zones on busy roads and lanes carrying public transport, c) Public transport operators to be taxed less, d) Higher parking fees to be levied on cars and two wheelers.

5. School timings to be changed suitably to avoid clash with office goers. Operate two trips exclusively for school children from each locality.

With specific reference to ward 54 following suggestions have been made to improve quality of service.

1. Introduce a circular route which starts from Girinagar 2nd stage->30th main road of BSK II stage. This route can either be extended to Jayanagar or go to South-end Circle via Tata-Silk Farm and Nagasandra Circle.

2. Extend buses terminating at Hosakere Halli water tank to Chowdeshwari Talkies.

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Population: 1,12,184 New Ward

WARD 55: PADMANABHANAGAR Ward 55, our ward, is the largest ward of our great city and has over the years grown substantially as well as haphazardly.

Community Vision: Ward # 55 values its people, strives to provide opportunities for all, and protects and enhances quality of life for present and future generations.

Each generation makes its own contribution to the legacy of the community.

The Wards dream of a community that can endure for the following generations is embodied in our Ward Vision. While part of the vision is to continue the qualities people value most about living in Ward 55 today, its focus is on what the ward could be like 10 years from now, in the year 2015—despite inevitable change.

Ward 55 is not “in this” alone. It has important roles to play in helping the region achieve its successful future. By directing growth into a compact community form, Ward 55 will support other communities as viable, distinct places, with their own identities.

TOTAL COST OF NEEDS IDENTIFIED:

19 crores

CURRENT REVENUE:

3.44 crores

POTENTIAL REVENUE:

10.50 crores

Major Issue: Roads Roads provide connectivity and are one of the most essential requirements of any area. network are as follows: 1. It should provide easy connectivity among various areas of the ward.

2. It should be capable of taking the expected volume of traffic not only for the present 3. The size of the roads should be such that it is capable of accommodating all kinds of road including the projected mix of public and private vehicles.

4. It should have proper provision to accommodate footpaths of sufficient width and side

The characteristics of a good road

but also for the foreseeable future. vehicles that are expected to use the drains.

In an ideal scenario, our ward should have one or two arterial roads which can take up heavy volume of traffic including large volume of public transport like BMTC buses, trucks, a crisscrossing network of main roads interconnecting the various areas of our ward and capable of handling medium level of traffic including a low volume of Public Transport and the remaining length of roads should be residential roads capable of handling small volume, intermittent traffic consisting mainly of light motor vehicles and 2 and 3 wheelers.

Population: 40,856 New Ward

WARD 68: EJIPURA This is a ‘New Ward’, a mix of a few older areas and many new layouts added to the ward since 1995, comprises some well developed pockets of Koramangala at one end and Indira Gandhi slum at the other end. In between there are a number of semi-developed, under-developed and undeveloped areas with varying degrees of civic facilities. The latter were once revenue pockets—these present rather a picture of neglect with narrow mud roads and overflowing and stinking side drains, whereas the older (corporation) areas present a complete contrast. Not that they have no problems but they differ qualitatively from those of the newly added areas. Thus a significant feature of the ward is that development has been uneven.

Another notable feature that needs special mention is the fast growing commercial activities and the consequent ever increasing population. It is understood that at the last count there were over 100 IT companies based in Koramangala (covering wards 67 and 68). This has naturally drawn large numbers of professionals to this area and its proximity to other hubs of IT units. Bad roads, unsatisfactory safe drinking water supply and lack of underground sewerage lines, inadequate arrangements for garbage disposal continue to be major problems; annual flooding and overflowing of rainwater mixed with sewage and chemical pollutants from the Storm Water Drain is a further source of misery to a large number of residents, many of whom naturally and legitimately expect much better conditions in keeping with the city’s reputation as one poised to become a global city.

CURRENT REVENUE:

2.80 crores

POTENTIAL REVENUE:

8.00 crores

Major Issue: Land and Property 1. Zoning and land use conversions. i. Copies of the booklet containing approved zoning plan and the rules and procedures for approvals for changes in land use may be made available to citizens and resident associations. ii. Zoning regulations (for all agencies) relevant to particular wards may be displayed at the Ward offices. iii. BMP could consider sending information reg. pending applications to the neighbours or to the local resident association.

2. Building violation and land encroachment. i. Make the rules citizen-friendly by modifying the same taking into account inputs from the public. ii. Preferably there should be a separate enforcement agency which includes citizen/RWA representative (not just for enforcing building laws but also other rules and terms of sanctions). iii. The final inspection should be by an independent officer (not connected with the ward engineering staff) and in case of any deviation, penalty as prescribed by the rules should be imposed and officers in charge of monitoring the construction (or those who approved plans not conforming to the building laws) should be held accountable. iv. Before approving plans to multi story structures they should get NOC from neighbouring residents and also ensure whether the infrastructure (Road/UGD/Water Supply/Electricity) will bear the additional load, if not completely deny the sanction. v. Rules may be amended to provide that houses not conforming to the approved plans would be denied permanent electricity, water and sewerage connections; these should be given only on production of a completion certificate or NOC by the authorized officers.

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Population: 39,670 Partial Ward

WARD 74: JEEVANBHIMANAGAR Ward 74 is located in the east zone of Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP). It has a total road network of 11 sq. km. It houses the big businesses such as Leela Palace and prestigious educational institutions such as National Public School and New Hoizon Educational Institute. It also houses the residences of several prominent citizens.

The citizens of ward 74 would like make this an ideal ward of Bangalore Mahanagara Palike. To achieve this, the citizens, various institutions, commercial establishments and residents’ welfare association would work in partnership with the local government machinery such as Civil Engineering Department, Health Department, Revenue Department and most importantly Corporator of the Ward.

The citizens and the government will be working together towards prosperity of the ward and not towards any kind of confrontation. This will be the main motto of Citizens Forum.

TOTAL COST OF NEEDS IDENTIFIED:

80 lakhs

CURRENT REVENUE:

4.36 crores

POTENTIAL REVENUE:

8.00 crores

Major Issue: Rainwater Harvesting and Trees In • • • • • • •

General Plant trees with proper planning, taking into consideration, water supply and other amenity lines running underground.

Consult the RWA for selection of saplings.

Coordinate cutting and collection of cut branches.

Penalize the contractors if the debris are left for more than a day.

Make rainwater harvesting mandatory to new and old buildings.

Implement rainwater harvesting in all the neighborhood parks with the help of RWAs. Create awareness among the public.

In Particular Tree planting: The Department of Forest and Horticulture departments of BMP should work closely with the Civil Engineering Department.

• The Citizens Forum would like to analyze the cost involved in keeping such departments (horticulture/forest departments) going in terms of revenue expenditure as against to the benefits they are providing (value addition) to the communities in general.

• What is happening in our ward is residents are planting trees and maintaining gardens on the footpaths randomly.

• During the footpath work, by the civil engineering department, above mentioned encroachments will have to be severely dealt with and fines imposed on the residents responsible for such action.

• Also care should be taken to see the new saplings being planted are not the ones that have roots which will damage the roads, footpaths and drains (classic example: Double Road intersecting with CMH Road).

Rainwater harvesting: Should be made mandatory to all residential units having bore well facility (as a first step) and then extend the rule to all the single family residential units as well.

• All parks should have rainwater harvesting mechanism (cost involved: Rs.16,200 for 6 parks, 1.5 cu mt each).

Population: 36,928 Old Ward

WARD 78: VASANTHNAGAR It is clear from the below chart that the revenue potential is vast and untapped.

Vasanthanagar ward though small in size (2.35 Sq km) has the distinct advantage over other wards in terms of location. Centrally located, this old ward is surrounded by defense and government land and no further expansion in size is possible. All basic amenities are already well set in place and our only current goal will be to best utilize and maintain the existing infrastructure.

Bangalore is growing everyday in leaps and bounds. The problems are becoming manifold. The stakeholders in general and the BMP in particular cannot afford to remain in stupor any longer. Unsolved problems of the citizens for a lengthy period of time leads to social unrest and manifests in antisocial forms, which will threaten the peace, and harmony of social life.

TOTAL COST OF NEEDS IDENTIFIED:

1.1 crores

CURRENT REVENUE:

7.76 crores

POTENTIAL REVENUE:

19.50 crores

Major Issue: Solid Waste Management What needs to be done?

I will quote from the Shuchi Samachar News letter of Swachha Bangalore: ‘’Citizen Participation is critical for a sustainable solution to a clean, garbage free city’’. Civic minded citizens should volunteer to devote time to take on the responsibility of partnering with the BMP to ensure cleanliness of the Ward and monitor local conditions.’’

Therefore, to fulfill our vision for our Ward, we need: 1. To involve the residents…….this is critical for anything to happen. We first need to sensitize as many residents and commercial establishments as possible through a sustained Awareness campaign.

2. To facilitate the BMP Health Department in keeping the ward clean with the help of the BATF Swachha Bangalore. We will need BMP’s cooperation in planning a joint Awareness campaign to ensure its success. Several meetings will have to be held with them to “Plan the Work and Work the Plan’. This will eventually involve printing leaflets with virtually a door-to-door campaign to educate the residents…also through the various ward associations.

3. Composting—Meetings with the BMP Health/Horti Depts to earmark empty spaces preferably in the ward parks for vermicomposting from the biodegradable waste collected from the residences/roads. (Vermicomposting is preferred as there is no foul smelling liquid residue which would result in complaints) 4. Commercial establishments particularly eating places in crowded areas such as 8th Main Vasant Nagar, Tasker Town and Shivajinagar to provide dustbins for their plastic waste. Waste bins will also be provided at appropriate locations in these areas for pedestrians to throw litter. Hopefully, the very same shops/restaurants could be persuaded to contribute towards the costs of purchase and maintenance.

5. To enlist the corporate offices in the ward to contribute funds towards maintenance and purchase of garbage bins. The bins could have their names painted on them e.g. ‘’Donated by………for a Clean Ward 78’’ which will provide free publicity for them as well.

6. Residents groups will have to be formed in different areas for monitoring the above.

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Population: 39,948 Partial Ward

WARD 85: SARVAGNANAGAR Sarvagnanagar is one of the oldest wards in Bangalore, with defense area nestled in the centre and civilian-residential areas on the periphery including old Cox Town area. The total area, now comprises of 4.2 square km with the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike, recently adding new under-developed hamlets to it and expectedly the last two Programme of Works have focused its attention on these areas.

Spacious Colonial period Cottages and Bungalows on the main tree lined Roads of old Cox Town are giving way to Apartments, and property bifurcations are leading to smaller houses in other areas, with very little open spaces and hardly any place available for large parks and play grounds, as is the trend elsewhere in Bangalore.

Wheeler Main Road, apart from being an arterial access Road to far-flung and many other newer layouts, is becoming a Commercial hub, with Complexes mushrooming of late and the traffic bottleneck at the railway level crossing becoming very acute with each passing day. This has heavily taxed the road capacity, increased noise and pollution levels and overloaded the existing civic infrastructure. An allround approach is emerging to solve these myriad problems on co-operative basis from all stakeholders involved in the process of development and maintenance of infrastructural facilties.

TOTAL COST OF NEEDS IDENTIFIED:

1.14 crores

CURRENT REVENUE:

1.22 crores

POTENTIAL REVENUE:

3 crores

Major Issue: Storm Water Drains Sarvagnanagar, due to its proximity to the Ulsoor Lake has a unique set of problems due to inadequate rainwater drainage during heavy storms and overflow in flood plains adjoining existing storm water drains. The entire military areas were once flood plains and till recently these large areas used to have sheets of water for many days after heavy storms. However, one major area which is below flood level is the section of Wheeler Road between Komala Junction up to the other storm water drain near Post and Telegraph Office building adjoining India Gymkhana grounds. During heavy storms not only Wheeler Road on this stretch gets flooded but the adjoining houses are also inundated. This major issue is set to get more complicated, due to the immediate plan to construct a flyover.

(Some) Specific and immediate solutions have to be undertaken by Bangalore Mahanagara Palike: 1. Flood Levels on the section of Wheeler Road from Komala Junction to the Second Storm Water Drain near Post Telegraph Office, Buddha Vihar Road and Bachammal Road and their footpaths and side drains need to be Surveyed and Raised above Flood Levels.

Immediate nature—Major Cost Issue—Time One Year—Special Grant/Finance is required—Agency: BMP 2. Covering of Storm Water Drains from Police Station upto Sundaramurthi Road—Assaye Road Junction with slabs to prevent Solid Waste disposal from public and to prevent mosquito breeding and stench.

Time: 2 years—Agency: BMP. 3. Construction of a new wider drain diverting waste/ storm water from military area to the existing drain nearby, in Kadrenapalya and widening of drains in Bandappa Colony.

Time: One year—Agency: BMP 4. Installation of grills in these SWDs at regular intervals and periodic de-silting / clearing is of utmost importance.

Periodic—Agency: BMP. Dissemination of information to citizens regarding proper disposal of Solid Waste is very important and is to be undertaken both through the citizens’ associations and the BMP.

Population: 60,606 New Ward

WARD 94: KADUGONDANA HALLI Ward 94 was formed from some layouts developed by Bangalore Development Authority, some layouts by private parties, revenue pocket areas, and large slum areas. The level of available civic amenities including essential requirements such as roads, electricity supply, water, sewerage, schools, hospitals, is much below as compared to most of the other 99 wards of Bangalore.

In spite of the ward being under BMP for nearly 10 years, developmental activities have been neglected and only marginal improvements have been effected during the last two years. As there has been lack of public awareness of the ward development plans, communities have been only complaining about lack of amenities, and no worth-while documentation has been prepared either by communities or by the elected representatives, which resulted in neglect and irresponsibility by Civic bodies and the contractors in turn, turning out this ward as one of the least developed.

TOTAL COST OF NEEDS IDENTIFIED:

2.59 crores

CURRENT REVENUE:

61 lakhs

POTENTIAL REVENUE:

2.50 crores

Action plan for present and future activities Present Activities 1. Hold neighborhood meetings and act as catalyst to form neighborhood committees.

2. Hold discussions with trading community to get them actively involved and contribute their mite towards their obligations to local government as well as to the neighborhood welfare activities.

3. Interact with educational institutions for greater participation in social sector by the management, staff and students.

4. Interact with police officials for friendly and positive relationship, encouraging safety.

5. Form separate sub committee for the above and provide structured training to members to update their knowledge and encourage them to assume leadership.

6. Establish and promote inter-ward contacts, contacts with organisation such as Janaagraha, in order to have proper understanding, co-operation and cohesiveness at city level.

Future Plans 1. Plan connecting roads at suitable distances to cross the railway line and from Hennur Road to Nagawara Road.

2. Plan at least two more First Grade colleges and 10 more high schools and primary schools to cover every neighborhood blocks in Ward 94 by the year 2015.

3. Form Block Level committees to plan, implement and supervise local activities covering social amenities, cultural activities and sports activities.

4. Provide vocational training institutes in every neighborhood area to utilize talents of school drop outs, unemployed youth and retired professionals.

5. To arrange a sports stadium to seat 5,000 to 7,500 spectators with minimum infrastructure facilities and institute sports events, scholarship etc., or a systematic process by holding inter-block competition and inter-ward friendly matches etc., this can be a self supporting activity provide the local business community take the leadership.

6. Rearrange the Kadugondanahalli police station to jurisdiction to cover the entire ward 94 exclusively.

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Population: 73,772 New Ward

WARD 96: HEBBAL Earlier Hebbal was a notified area and a committee was responsible for taking up civic amenity works. During 1995 this area has been brought under the purview of BMP as Ward no. 96. This ward comprises mainly villages and revenue pockets, which have been developed by individual landowners according to their own plans, therefore there are no civic amenities.

To provide basic civic amenities the citizens of the entire ward, continuous efforts have been made by the corporator and the citizens. Still a lot of developmental works remain to be taken up to achieve minimum living standard. To achieve this, this vision statement has been prepared.

It is a common man’s dream to have minimum standard of living, such as pure drinking water, sanitation, good roads, transport, environment and other needed facilities for day-to-day living. Corporation is trying its level best to provide this to its residents for which they are collecting revenues. Participation of active citizens along with corporation to boost their activities, encouraging them in turn to reach the goal in a shorter period, is the objective.

TOTAL COST OF NEEDS IDENTIFIED:

8.52 crores

CURRENT REVENUE:

1.20 crores

POTENTIAL REVENUE:

7.50 crores

Major Issue: Civic Amenity Sites Except in Anandanagar, CIL & Amarjyoti layouts no other areas are having specified earmarked CA sites There are few private lands in some areas which could be identified and acquired by the BMP for the CA sites and for the welfare of the residents.

The following locations are proposed for the purpose 1. Kanakanagar—Big vacant land exists between 10th and 12th crossroads linked to 2nd main road for the use of park, playground, and shopping complex.

2. Kanakanagar—Big vacant land exists at the Sultanpalya-V. Nagenahalli main road which could be acquired for erecting a City Bus stand 3. CIL Layout—There is around half acre land of CA site behind water tank, which could be used for city bus Terminal station.

4. CIL Layout—There is around 100X200 CA site at 1st cross linked to V. Nagenahalli Road, which could be utilized for shopping complex including provision for post office and library.

Population: 52,189 New Ward

WARD 100: SANJAYNAGAR The health of an area is judged by the ease of driving and walking through it, the comfort of living in it, the safety, the quality of education and recreation.

The ability to attract increased revenue is invariably linked to the ability to attract more residents into the area, the attraction criteria being the very same factors.

The quality of the amenities is also a reflection on the citizens in that community, a factor which most of us ignore, pretending that the enjoyment of these facilities is our right and that it is the government’s responsibility to provide them. While this is true to a certain extent, we, the citizens, are mainly responsible for the abuse of facilities, sometimes directly, at times indirectly. The upkeep and upgradation of existing facilities, planning and development of new areas, and our involvement in maintaining standards in new projects, we believe, is our joint responsibility and achieving this is our main vision in the coming months and years.

This document covers major facilities like Roads, Footpaths, Drains and Streetlights, Solid Waste Management, Parks, Civic Amenity sites etc. and providing them is the process of planning. There are numerous ways in which these facilities are abused and norms flouted. The challenge, we believe, is in the prevention of such happenings which nullify all efforts and question our credibility as a social and ethical animal. In the long run, this is perhaps the crucial area where we, as citizens, can contribute, not by evolving mechanisms for monitoring aberrations, but by creating an atmosphere of self-discipline and responsibility that will eventually spread to all the parties involved in converting this vision into reality.

TOTAL COST OF NEEDS IDENTIFIED:

5.74 crores

CURRENT REVENUE:

1.86 crores

POTENTIAL REVENUE:

4.50 crores

Major Issue: Parks True to its name “Garden City”, Bangalore has a total of 630 parks and innumerable gardens. These parks beautify the city and give us a chance to witness flowers blooming throughout the year. These parks are built and maintained by the B.M.P. and B.D.A., but there are several shortcomings in this work. Parks are of different types, the most suitable for our ward being the tree and ornamental type categorised under “Daily Use and Neighborhood Beautification”. Daily Use Parks are designed to have bushes / plants putting out flowers throughout the year. The very sight of these lush, attractive, colourful and well-designed plants soothes the mind and makes the neighborhood a pleasant and happy place to live in.

Maintenance of such parks becomes easier if cobblestone jogging lanes or trails are laid out neatly and maintained with care.

These are to be integrated into a rain water harvesting scheme which includes collection of water in sumps or wells and pumping it back into the garden through sprinklers, thus making the whole park always look green.

These parks could be made ‘Pay Parks’ in which the entry fees would reduce the maintenance cost and ensure proper usage if only because their use has been paid for. The gardener in these parks should have the required incentive and involvement.

The community has an important role to play in the planning and maintenance of the park, in monitoring the gardener’s work, in the use of sprinklers and in ensuring that the park is always kept neat and clean. It is extremely important to prevent grazing by cattle, dumping of garbage, carry bags, containers of food items and all kinds of litter.

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WARD PLANNING 2004 AND BEYOND

| Introduction for All Communities | Planning Ward Vision | Continued Engagement |

6

WARD PLANNING 2004 AND BEYOND

WARD PLANNING 2004 AND BEYOND I

n July 2003, there were ten wards in Bangalore with the interest and the commitment to take up Janaagraha’s participatory ward planning campaign. These communities and the volunteers were pioneers in the efforts to coordinate these types of workshops and work towards the outcome of a Ward Vision document.

In this effort, the only guides were campaigns in Kerala and those in foreign countries, often led by governments rather than citizens. Now the fruits of their experiences, both the strong points and weaknesses are open for the use of other Residents’ Associations and committed individuals in their own neighborhoods and wards.

If you are considering this in your own area, the charts on the following pages will help you think about planning a campaign.

•

If you are from a ward that has strong Residents’ Associations, is participating in Monthly Review Meetings with local engineers and has a group of people ready to be part of the Core Community, then please use the Ward Planning Guide for Active Communities (on page no 79)

•

If you are beginning to get involved with your local government, or the Resident Associations in your area are not yet active or connected to each other, you may want to use the Ward Planning Guide for New Communities that will help give a vision for a new group of active citizens, and steps to move forward (on page no 81)

It is not necessary that everyone follow the exact structure of the 2003 Ward Vision Campaign. Each community has its own unique situation and pressing issues to deal with. The Core Community in each area may consider the state of basic infrastructure and services, the strength of local organizations as well as the level of engagement between the citizens and local government.

Whichever steps your community takes towards creating a Ward Vision, there will be regular support from Janaagraha. Full-time and part-time Janaagraha volunteers are enthusiastic about working towards a better city and look forward to working with all communities. Support will be available to you including the following: • Flyers and Communications materials • Good Quality Ward maps • Ward Planning Database at the Janaagraha Office that will generate reports from the problems identified by citizens • Regular meetings at the Janaagraha Office to talk with other communities • Interactive page on the Janaagraha website to host a “Ward Message Board” to post documents, community meetings in your area and discuss the issues As a Core Community, it is critical that you have realistic expectations of the possible campaign outcomes and that you express those to other residents. The campaign itself will not solve each problem in the ward. Citizens should not expect to write down their problem and get an immediate solution. The campaign is a platform for citizens to engage with local government and agencies so that problems will consistently be solved in a timely manner and citizens will have a role in local-level planning. Many effects of the campaign may not be felt in the first few months, but will take root now and bear fruit over the next few years.

Ramesh Ramanathan meeting residents

79

Ward Planning Guide for Active Communities

WARD PLANNING 2004 AND BEYOND

Ward planning guide for Active Communities (contd)

Estimated campaign timeline: 5 months

81

Ward Planning Guide for New Communities

WARD PLANNING 2004 AND BEYOND

Ward Planning Guide for New Communities (contd)

Estimated timeline: 6 months

Additional points for all Communities

83

Suggestions for all Communities Access: People will participate in the meetings and workshops only if they want to attend and they are able to attend. You can get them interested with advertisements and solid information about the work that will be done. However, if all of the meetings are inconvenient for them, they will never come even if they are interested.

When you hold mini-workshops and meetings, make sure they are accessible to all citizens.

• Locations should be convenient and spread throughout the ward • If there are multiple meetings ensure that the timings of some are convenient for working people and housewives • Any person in the area should be able to understand the basic content of the meetings and have their opinion heard regardless of literacy and language

With regular updates by phone calls or through newsletters, instead of feeling like attendees at an event, residents will begin to own the process and become active participants and eventually area leaders.

Constant Communication: At the beginning of the campaign in your ward, you will be reaching out to thousands of residents across the ward directly (door-todoor, small meetings) and indirectly (flyers, advertisements). Once the workshops begin and the Core Community is involved with the main issues and meeting with government officials, you should not forget to communicate with the first participants and the wider resident base. Through a constant communication stream you will earn trust. With regular information updates by phone calls or through newsletters, instead of feeling like attendees at an event, residents will begin to own the process and become active participants and eventually area leaders.

You can also use the media to spread the message of your community development activities throughout. Create relationships with reporters at the city-wide level, and make sure that any local newspaper is fully involved with the process.

Distribution of Responsibility: Once every few weeks at the Thursday community meeting, a community leader would come and begin to complain about the long hours of work he had put in, without any help from others. Others, who had been working tirelessly as lone soldiers for years, were less burdened each week.

This reflected not only a difference in the levels of participation, but also in the ability of the leader to effectively share responsibility. Some wards asked community volunteers to act as “Block Captains”, individuals who would inform the thirty or forty homes on their own street. Ward 54 used an intricate but highly valuable Telephone Tree, so that after the Ward Coordinator received information, he could share it with three people who would in turn share it with three more people each. The Ward Coordinator could trust that information would reach almost all of the active participants within a short time without having to make all the calls.

Sharing Experiences: As the Core Community in a recently active ward, you may face a few situations and challenges that are new to you. You can learn important strategies from leaders in other communities and with time, share your experiences with others. There are several very active citizens who will be happy to work closely with your group and offer suggestions and support.

Swati Ramanathan in a discussion with Meera Mukund of Ward 55

WARD PLANNING 2004 AND BEYOND

Continuing Engagement

Ward RECI-P: “A Recipe for Success” Incentives for Local Development

Expanded MRMs: Citizen participation Financial requirements: There are issues in the Ward Vision such as roads, streetlights and parks that require detailed costing to be done. For such issues, a reasonable needs to be more than just an idea; it costing methodology has been created to help citizens arrive at the total cost for their requires citizens to make participation needs. The requirements of the citizens in most wards is more than the current funds a continuous process of engagement with allocated for the development of the ward; this begs the question of sources of the government. Solid information forms additional funding. the basis for any kind of debate, discusThe proposal: The campaign breaks new ground here by examining the incremental sion or decision-making. In 2002, revenue opportunities for the BMP from within the ward itself, i.e. from its existing Janaagraha created a formal space for revenue sources: property taxes, building licenses, hoardings, parking fees, trade licenses etc. Compliance in the payment of these taxes/charges is currently low, due to a this regular engagement in the Monthly variety of factors. The central premise is that with citizen participation, compliance can Review Meeting (MRM). The leadership be increased substantially. However, citizens are willing to take on this responsibility only of the BMP sanctioned these meetings, if there is an enticement for them. They suggest a Revenue-Sharing formula where mandated attendance by their engineers incremental revenues being raised can be ploughed back into development activities in their ward, in the projects that they have identified. The rationale of this argument is and established that points raised in quite sound: when citizens begin to see their money working for them, they will be these meetings were official record. The willing to pay their fair share. This will result in buoyant revenues, and ensure that process began with all residents/resident these revenues are being put into projects that citizens have asked for, through associations of the ward and the respecdiscussions with their Ward Corporator. tive Engineering Department.

Benefits: There is a win-win-win for all parties concerned: These meetings have been underway • The BMP administration gets more revenues, and meets its development for over one year, and just as citizens obligations • The Corporator gets a larger share of development resources into his/her ward were ready to discuss their concerns • The Citizens get more resources allocated for the projects that they have identified with all agencies in the Ward Vision in their neighbourhoods Campaign, they also wanted the same, structured follow-up mechanism to be in Potential revenue enhancement: Considerable work has been done by citizens in estimating the potential revenues that can accrue to the BMP in the participating wards. place for all concerns. Since engaging It is estimated that in the 10 participating wards, the gap in Property Tax alone is in the campaign, many wards have around Rs 50 crores, about 200% of the current level. In addition, there are other hosted officials from the BWSSB, Bansources of revenue like building licenses, trade licenses etc. that can also be increased galore Police, BMP Health Department at the Ward Level. and BMP Electrical Department at their Revenue estimation methodology: A robust estimation methodology has been adopted meetings. In the coming months, the to arrive at Property tax figures.

Food and Civil Supply Department will Base GIS maps for each of the 10 wards were procured from the BDA. These maps contained NRSA aerial data as of 1998, with property-level images. However, also participate to keep residents up to this information was incomplete on two counts: date about ration cards and fair price • While it identified the aerial footprint of a property, it did not have details like shops in the ward. number of floors, building type, property usage etc.

For citizens to hold their elected • It captured development activity only as of 1998; many parts of the city have seen substantial additional activity since then representatives or service providers acWith the help of professional survey techniques, a detailed property-level survey was countable, they must have a space and conducted in 9 of the 10 wards. Over 700 students spent over 50,000 hours in a method to enforce their disapproval.

Establishing regularity is an important step towards this aim. The Monthly Review Meeting is a critical formal space for citizens to hold the agencies responsible for ward-level issues and press forward with the agenda of their vision document with the spirit of trust and partnership.

85

generating detailed information. All this create a comprehensive “data bank” of been used as the core information on prepared for each ward. Assumptions been made; these assumptions can be estimates.

information has been fed back into GIS maps to property-level information. This “data bank” has which property tax estimates have been about zone, age, and construction type have changed as required to arrive at more specific

Issues to consider: Creating a formula for ward-level revenue sharing is a complex exercise. A variety of factors like current level of development of the ward, current level of expenditures in the ward, compliance levels in the ward have to be taken into account. In the absence of this, all wards can claim the return of revenues back into their ward. This will create significant “equity” issues; one example is if highly developed areas like MG Road and the Central Business District suggests that their property tax collections went into development only of the Central Business District area.

Ideally, a MINIMUM INFRASTRUCTURE INDEX (MII) must be created, against which wards can be measured; if their WARD INFRASTRUCTURE INDEX is higher than the minimum, they would have to share a larger percentage of their revenues; if their index is lower, then they would get to keep their revenues, and get a subsidy from the central pool, until their index reaches the minimum level. Such an approach would ensure equity.

Criteria for the MINIMUM INFRASTRUCTURE INDEX need to be devised through discussions and consensus building. Examples of such criteria could be :100% water supply, 100% sewerage connection; 100% asphalted roads; 100% street lighting; community toilet facility for slum areas etc.

Suggested road ahead: While the idea of a MINIMUM INFRASTRUCTURE INDEX would take some time to take hold, an interim proposal could be considered, to allow for experimentation on an idea like WARD RECI-P.

Ward RECI-P (Revenue Enhancement with Citizen Participation): In the first two campaigns, Ward Works and PROOF, citizens were sensitized to the local budget and learned more about both the revenues collected by the city as well as the expenditures. In Ward Works, the citizens limited their priorities to the 50 lakhs (average) available to each ward, though the need was much greater for both repairs of problems and new infrastructure where needed. The requirements of the citizens will be more than the current funds being allocated for the development of the ward; this begs the question of sources of additional funding. Given the financial constraints facing the BMP as a whole, addressing the question of sustainable revenue enhancement assumes some significance.

This interim proposal could work as follows: The CURRENT LEVEL OF REVENUES from a ward can be the BASELINE BENCHMARK for that ward. ii. Any incremental revenues accruing through citizen participation in that ward can be subject to a revenue-sharing mechanism. iii. As an example, Ward No 100: 1 Baseline Property Taxes: Rs 1.86 crores 2 Revenue generated through incentives: Rs 2.50 crores 3 Incremental revenues generated: Rs 0.74 crores 4 Revenue sharing back to ward (75%): Rs 0.55 crores 5 Revenue sharing to common pool (25%): Rs 0.19 crores i.

This measure could create the positive effect of showing the benefits of citizen participation, while a more measured and calibrated approach of developing an Index could be done over the medium-term. Through such an exercise, equity issues are effectively addressed, since the baseline revenues will continue to be treated in the original manner, i.e. go into a central pool and get divided from there for all development activities.

Senior government officials participating in Ward RECI-P panel discussion. After detailed discussion, the panel supported the idea of citizen involvement in revenue enhancement

WARD PLANNING 2004 AND BEYOND

Federations and Janaagraha Community Development Fund (JCDF) The federation is the apex body of citizens’ associations in each ward. Across Bangalore there are seven existing Federations working to improve the community in various ways. Each Federation may be different, choosing to focus on activities critical for that area, but some of the general features are the same: 1. Federations represent the entire ward and take up local improvement activities and causes 2. Raise funds through membership from individuals, associations and local institutions and companies 3. Federations bring together residents associations, trade associations, institutions and other local groups 4. Conduct citizen awareness programmes on various topics including civic responsibilities and tax payment 5. Interact with other Federations and NGOs on issues affecting the city or area The Janaagraha Community Development Fund is a program to help finance Federations for the first few years of their activity. Funded originally by the Ramanathan Foundation, the 6 lakh rupees over three years helps Federations rent a local office, hire one support staff person, generate communications materials and hold meetings. After three years the Federation should be self-sufficient through its membership fees and donations. For a Federation to receive JCDF funds it must abide by certain standards that include: • Quarterly reports on activities with a steady growth in membership • Continued outreach to all sectors of the ward • No political party affiliation and members cannot hold any political office Strengthening the Federations where they exist and encouraging other communities to begin them is a central goal of Janaagraha. The Federation is the structure that can carry forward structured citizen engagement with various agencies and help the other local groups take up local awareness and improvement campaigns.

As the highest ward-level body of informal political engagement, it can work with the local administration and elected representatives towards development.

The Ward Vision Campaign was a step towards full citizen participation and the improvement of local services and infrastructure. In some wards, it was the first or second step, other communities had some experience, but for every community the end of the campaign meant moving closer to a more participatory democracy.

The Core Communities, now fortified with new members are reaching out to residents regularly, confidently engaging with local government and planning new initiatives and projects to improve their communities.

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7

ANNEXURES

| Problem and Solution Grid | Issue / Problem List | Summary Sheet of Revenue in Ward 55 | List of Facilitators |

ANNEXURES

Problem and Solution Grid. A sample issue: Solid Waste Management.

A tool to inform communities about current names and policies across all issues.

89

ANNEXURES

Issue / Problem list, distributed to all workshop participants

LAND AND PROPERTY Zoning and land use conversions 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Lack of awareness of policy requirements Change in land use causing undesirable living conditions Notifications of land use conversions not always seen by residents Commercial land use in a residential area Lawsuit on land conversion still in court, yet building being used Residential areas with commercial buildings: Noise, traffic, loss of privacy Single-family homes replaced with multi-storey aptmnts violates privacy, infrastrc burden Inadequate public spaces Public land used for unauthorizd religious construction Lawsuit on zoning violation still in court, yet building being used

Heritage site preservation 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Slums

Building violation and land encroachment 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

Lack of clarity on by-laws Violation of setbacks from n’bouring property Violation of setbacks from street front Violation of f.a.r.

Sanctioning of illegal plans Occupancy certificate to illegal construction Illegal additions / alterations to existing bldgs Construction material and debris blocking road Construction noise Private planting of trees on footpaths blocking passage Lawsuit on govt. Building violation still in court, yet building being used Encroachment on government land Encroachment on private land Building encroachment on public land / ftpths Lawsuit on govt. Land encroachment still in court, yet building being used

Civic amenity sites 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Insufficient public service buildings, post offices, library etc No community spaces like park, playground No success/ response from BDA on application for ca site Too expensive to lease a CA site from the BDA CA site violating prescribed use and conditions Empty CA site being neglected Illegal construction on CA site Continuing use after lease expiration

No suitable laws on construction, preservation and restoration Public heritage building / site being demolished / monitized Public heritage building / site in poor condition Privately owned heritage property / building not maintained Heritage buildings / sites house only government functions. not accessible to public Not enough skilled workforce to renovate heritage architecture Not enough funds for restoration Surrounding construction not sensitive to existing landscape around heritage properties Road cutting by new houses not repaired or improperly repaired

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Public / private land taken over illegally Complaints of illegal slums not addressed Notice of declaration of slums not adequate Slum not yet declared No documentary proof for declaration Lost proof of declaration—Form 3(p) Lonstant threat of eviction Improper/lack of housing No basic facilities for slums

Visual pollution 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Unauthorized movie posters and graffiti on public and Private properety Banners and buntings left unremoved by the political parties Banners, hoardings, etc put up in prohibited areas Unsightly hoardings approved in residntl n’hoods Unsightly hoardings approved in commercial n’hoods Hoarding larger than allowable size Hoardings allowed in pvt property by owners, spoiling the neighbourhood aesthetics Citizens not consulted about hoardings in residential areas

91

Issue / Problem list

ENVIRONMENTAL SOLUTIONS Parks 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

No water supply No / inadequate lighting Lack of security Unsavory activities Used as garbage dump Dense undergrowth and weeds Unattractive Lack of maintenance

Tree planting and tree cutting 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

No trees on street / park / playground / pvt garden Planting and maintenance of saplings in public areas Trees planted inconveniently in the middle of footpaths, road edges (in tree felling?)

Tree is blocking traffic Tree is touching electric lines Tree is infected No action being taken on request to cut tree Blocking footpath Tree dangerously close to falling Fallen tree to be cleared Unauthorised felling of trees

Rainwater harvesting 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

No utilization of rain water for individual homes Too expensive to implement for individual homes No sump / well / bore well to store rainwater Rainwater stored getting algae Rainwater insufficient to meet water requirements Not enough awareness on methods Government buildings and projects not utilizing rainwater harvesting techniques Parks not utilizing rainwater harvesting Rainwater harvesting not utilized for raising the ground water level

Lakes 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Lake very polluted Sewage entering lake High levels of silt Bio-diversity and fresh water species threatened Breeding ground for infection Not enough water Water covered with hyacinth, weeds No revetment Garbage dumping and clothes washing done at lake Not attractive as a recreation spot

Storm Water Drains (SWD) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Storm water drain flooding in low-lying areas and homes Inefficient storm water drain network Service lines and other obstructions block flow of water Regular disposal of household and commercial waste in SWD Sewerage pipes let into swd SWD is clogged with sewerage and solid waste SWD not de-silted for long Polluted storm water from drains getting into lakes SWD damaged SWD attracts pests (rodents, mosquitos, stray dogs)

ANNEXURES

Issue / Problem list

INFRASTRUCTURAL SERVICE Water supply 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

No water supply to individual buildings Poor water pressure in individual home and in public taps Supply of water at inconvenient timings Leakages from public taps Unauthorized public taps Unauthorized re-routing of public taps Theft from public taps Unauthorized BWSSB service connections Water meter tampering Leakages from BWSSB pipe lines Theft from networked pipe lines Non-availability of water to the poor High cost of water Irregular timings of water supply trucks Contamination of water

Sewerage 16 17 18 19 20 21 22

Damaged BWSSB pipe lines allowing sewage contamination into water supply system Water and sewage lines placed at close proximity Households without sewage connections Household sewage not connected to sewage mains Clogged sewage lines resulting in overflow from manholes Broken sewage lines Disposal of sewage into SWD

Footpaths 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26

Dense weed growth on earth footpath Uneven surface Footpath stones damaged No paving on footpath Broken kerb stones Missing kerbstones Obstructions on footpath No place for footpaths

Drains 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35

36 37 38

Shoulder drains Missing under footpaths causing water stagnation Clogged shoulder drains Side drains Drains are clogged with debris Side drains are kutcha and have weeds Flooring and sides of drain are damaged Some parts are not constructed Water stagnates in certain places Cover slabs broken Household garbage / construction debris thrown into drain Culverts Culverts are clogged with debris Culverts are damaged Service lines blocking culvert

Roads 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

Currently only mud road Currently only jelly layer Existing sub-base is eroded Improper slope, rainwater stagnant Road has many potholes Road has uneven surface Road dug up at the edges Repeated road cuts by optic fibre cable providers Road cutting by new houses not repaired or improperly repaired Poor quality execution of works Dangerous speeds Heavy duty vehicles on residential streets Street name boards missing / broken High/ low manholes from road surface High/ low culvert drains Broken culvert cover slabs Dangerous road bumps on road Leaking water / sewer pipes

Solid waste management 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

No door-to-door collection of garbage Littering around bins Improper segregation No pick-up from collection points No processing Disposal environmently unsound Commercial/ hospital waste not taken care of properly Slums in unhygenic state Streets unclean Mosquitos and other insects causing infections and disease No provision for house hold toxic waste Burning of garbage Construction debris dumped in empty sites

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Issue / Problem list

INFRASTRUCTURAL SERVICE

LAW, ORDER AND SAFETY

Public transport 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

No bus stops in neighbourhood Bus stops too far apart Buses don’t make the stop Not enough frequency of buses Round-about route between points Bus routes going into narrow residential roads Local buses for night-time travel not available Arbitrary cancelling of stops on route Bus timings not maintained Rash driving by drivers in order to meet timing causing frequent accidents Overloading of buses more than available capacity Buses stop at unpredictable locations making people run to board the bus No bus “bay” provided at bus stop causing traffic inconveniences Inconveniently located stop jamming traffic No route map and bus nos indicated at stops or inside buses Bus tickets too expensive Disorganized terminals / depots No guidance at terminals / depots Poorly maintained terminals / depots Parking of long-distance use buses inconveniencing local residents

Crime 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

High incidence of robbery (homes; vehicles; offices) High incidence of personal crime (theft of jewelry or personal items; eveteasing and other threats) High incidence of violent crime (assault; rape; kidnapping; murder) Inaction / brutality by the police No police station close to neighbourhood No beat cop Undesirable activities in neighbourhood (liquor shops; drug dealing; brothels)

Traffic 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Vehicles drive too fast/recklessly down local streets Speedbreakers not clearly marked Vehicles ignore traffic signs Vehicles cross centre lane on main road High incidence of accidents due to “blind turning” High incidence of accidents due to no/poor lighting Traffic problems on main road caused by high # of buses and stops Noise pollution Traffic congestions Increasing number of vehicles on the roads

Street lighting 1 2 3 4 5 6

Insufficient street lights Light pole without tube lights Flickering tubelight No street lights during load shedding causing danger to pedestrians and drivers Waste of power due to extended lighting during daytime Busy intersection requiring stronger lighting

Street vendors 1 2 3 4 5 6

Parking 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Commercial vehicles parking on residential streets Insufficient public parking Resdntl parking blocks traffic Commrcl parkng blocks traffic Unidentified vehicles parked in residential areas Parking fee too high Parking attendants have no I.D.

Public toilets 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Existing but badly maintained Existing, but at inappropriate location Use of open public spaces as toilet Lack of facility for temporary construction workers No public toilet (residential area) Existing toilet infrastructure, but no water supply User fees of public toilets too high

Vendors obstructing footpaths Vendors obstructing vehicular and pedestrian traffic Unfair harassment of street vendors by police Re-emergence of vendors after complaint & removal Littering by street vendors (eg: coconut vendors) Encroachment on footpaths by shops displaying wares

Stray dogs 1 2 3 4 5 6

Stray dogs barking Traffic inconvenience / accidents Stray dogs biting people, causing rabies; threat of diseases Impounding the stray dogs / inhumane treatment Increasing population of stray dogs Unsafe walking / riding (two wheelers) in the nights

ANNEXURES

Summary Sheet of Revenue in Ward 55

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Facilitators and Workshop Volunteers

“Janaagraha for me is like a re-charging station. I come here and get my batteries charged.”

— Smitha Srinath, Resident "One day or the other we are going to reach our goal. When we came to the area we were really desperate, we thought nothing would happen, but now that is changed. First it was an individual struggle because we didn't know whom to contact or the proper channels to go, now because of the local Association and Janaagraha we know where to go and how to go and all our dreams will come true. Through Janaagraha we got a strong platform to express our views.”

—Malini Soans, Resident "As far as the Ward Vision is concerned, that is our guideline for the next 3 years. For anything and everything for the development of the ward, we will consult the document, and accordingly we will have to mobilize to make the stakeholders understand this vision.

So the next three years is only action.”

—Krishnamurthy, President, PACE Residents' Welfare Association "Volunteering helped me understand the problems facing the city in depth. Prior to this, I either cribbed about the issue or took steps to insulate myself from the impact. Now I understand that I can play a role in its improvement.”

Janaagraha is a citizens’ movement in the city of Bangalore, the capital of the southern state of Karnataka, India. The fundamental premise of Janaagraha is that participatory democracy is central to good governance. Janaagraha means the Life Force of the People: it stands for a positive, constructive firmness that allows citizens to engage with their government.

In 2003, Janaagraha launched the Ward Vision Campaign, a participatory community planning initiative in ten areas of the city. Thousands of citizens participated in their own neighbourhoods or volunteered to help others, all working together for a better Bangalore.

—Krishna Hegde, Volunteer DESIGNED BY RESOURCE. PRINTED AT MYTEC.

"We are feeling that we are a part of the system, and we were thinking that we were out of the system. Now, we know that we are a part of the system and to make that part a strong part is our effort. That's what Janaagraha has done by giving a certain amount of structured activity and training so we get there as a team, and not as individuals.”

—A. Shivashankaran, President, Pillanna Garden Residents' Welfare Association

ISBN 81-901511- 4-2 PARTICIPATORY WARD PLANNING

#198, Nandidurg Road, Bangalore-560 046 INDIA Phone : 91-80-2354 2381 , 2354 2382 , 2354 2977 Fax : 91-80-2354 2966 email : info@janaagraha.org Website : www.janaagraha.org