The Social Life of Cities

Lalitha KamathTata Institute of Social Sciences

The 21st Century Indian City: Setting theAgenda for Urbanization in India

Mar 23-25, 2011 Delhi

• Understanding the emerging character of collective action and its implications for governance reforms like Community Participation Law (CPL)

• Current participation efforts seem no longer to be about broad inclusion or people’s empowerment. Imperative of ‘fast tracking’ Indian cities into ‘global cities’ have given new shape and meaning to contemporary practices of participation located in ‘second generation’ or institutional reforms

1. How does the state ‘perform’ people’s participation and public consultations in a (reform) context where it is increasingly forced to rely on private capital to build infrastructure?

2. How do new forms of participation/consultation articulate with existing institutions of people’s representation? Are these new forms being appropriated in different ways?

3. Are the new mandates for citizen participation and public consultation written into the reform agenda driving a further wedge into already fractured citizenship that characterises Indian urban polity?

‘Performing’ citizen participation• A new kind of public? Participation

– through proxies and intermediaries– through small, cohesive national networks– as spectatorship – Centered in metros or capital cities

• Normalized as part of officially mandated public consultation requirements

• Participation & consultation deployed instrumentally – serving the purpose of market reforms in municipal governance by nurturing their demand side

New meanings of participation

• Notion of participation vested in state-led PPPs like TNUDF and BATF– Citizen beneficiary contributions– “A city run by CEOs”– Appropriation by local (political) interests

• Formed the basis for national reform through the JNNURM’s CPL– Ushering in corporate citizenship?

How do we Govern this Global City?

The CURE - National Urban Renewal Mission

•Migration to a Robust Financial Management System in Urban Local Bodies (ULB)

–Implementation of appropriate accounting systems

•Passage of a Disclosure Law–State to amend Municipal Act making it mandatory to disclose information by ULB

•Passage of a Citizen Participation Law–State to amend Municipal Act to enable citizens to formally participate in decisions that impact quality of life

•Streamline Institutional Arrangements with ULBs–On Principal - Agency basis between ULB and service providers –Accountability platform for civic delivery agencies in the interim

Central to the above are Technology, Process-reengineering and Information management

CURE: Common Urban Reform Elements

CPL: Further fracturing citizenship?• the context in which it has emerged has created

concerns among groups. But what alternative process?

• the challenge of numbers; whom to include and how? – Documentation/identity for large ‘informal’ populations

(migrants, poor and ‘illegal’ groups)– Inclusion of registered RWAs, trade/professional

bodies, NGOs• what powers?• relations with other tiers

• New formations of middle class activism, notably RWAs, who have acquired prominence often at expense of poor groups & elected bodies– A fragmenting, exclusive rather than cohesive force?– Considerable heterogeneity; thematic common to both

upper/lower class RWAs is activism over land/property (former concerned with land use, zoning, regularization, protection of property values and latter with tenure security, titles, acquisition)

– Cultivation of political ties (‘apolitical’ to ‘politically neutral’ to actively supporting political parties)

– Confront ambivalence from state agents (seen as self-interested and limited, vehicles to further individual agendas, under influence of political parties)

– Some success in local issues but for larger matters forced to enter sphere of politics (supporting electoral campaigns, fielding candidates)

Questions• Can democratization be achieved by creating limited

formal mechanisms for citizens inputs that are disconnected from local political structures/interests?

• How far can a formalised system of participation really encompass the depth of contestation present?

• Can we consider encouraging the informal with the formal?

• What can we learn from people’s movement struggles rooted in claims on space, information, funds and services?

A note of hope…

Participation as social learning • Communities appropriating state platforms

and avenues for participation – unsettling notions of “invented” and “invited” spaces of participation

• Civil society using confrontational strategies and political society groups using ‘civilized’ strategies – blurring of lines between civil society and political society

Participation in small towns• Wide variation in awareness and activity of CS groups

across states– Bigger towns tend to be more active

• In general few active CS groups on urban issues, low level of information– Media organizations, TUs/employee unions and religious and

caste based groups more active– NGOs are few and mostly implement projects– Citizens groups that are active generally function with

encouragement of locally active political parties – Feudal structures (parties, families) have strong hold over

decision-making in the town, municipal elected reps implicated in economies around municipal services & functions