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From:
Sarvadaman Oberoi <manio...@gmail.com>Date: Thu, Jul 15, 2010 at 5:09 PM
Subject: A VOCAL CITIZENRY DEMANDING ACCOUNTABILITY IS ESSENTIAL TO CHANGE IN CITIES
To: Gurgaon DDCHOP47 <
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McKinsey Global Institute April 2010 Report
Chapter 4 First steps towards India's urban awakening
"A VOCAL CITIZENRY DEMANDING ACCOUNTABILITY IS ESSENTIAL TO CHANGE IN CITIES
While governments have an enormous opportunity to change the face of cities in India, their appetite for change will be bolstered, and many times triggered, by a citizenry that actively demands accountability for the fate of the cities in which they live. While many dispersed citizen movements exist around the country and many outstanding organizations focus on urban causes, the focus by and large has been on roads and potholes. The time is ripe for a fundamental awakening of India's urban citizens. The worst victims of the consequences of inaction will be those very citizens. And it is not just the poorest of the poor who will bear the brunt of urban deterioration if India fails to embark on reform, life will get tougher for every urban resident. History teaches us that change has happened on the ground in cities around the world when citizens
have asked for local representation and local accountability for the city's direction, the right amount of funding for the city's development, and improvement in the quality of services delivered. It is time for the citizens of India's cities to recognize that the fate of their future is in their hands. And that the only way to get the improvement that they seek In their lives will come from their advocacy for reforms, including having leaders who represent them, having mechanisms that tell them how well their city is delivering services, and having ways to hold their leaders and organizations accountable.
First, the citizens of India's cities need to understand the complexity of the urban transformation, gaining a perspective on the actions available to them to create real results on the ground. While this report offers a perspective on the urban chalienge and ideas for the way forward, citizens need to be convinced on both. Second, the focus of citizens needs to shift from smali, reactive, noninstitutional demands to a cali for fundamental institutional change. Too often, citizens have expended energy on specific projects or causes that, while worthy, have not had the transformational impact on the ground that India's cities desperately need. In short, India's urban residents need to stop asking their political leaders to "fix the roads" and instead ask them to "fix the institutions that fix the roads."
The demand for institutional change needs to be incessant. Citizens should demand implementation of the reform agenda at every election, every forum, with every state government leader with whom they come into contact, and through every media outlet that will be supportive of their cause. Unless there is a systematic campaign to create a groundswell of support and clamor for change in India's cities, the reform agenda seems destined to be stuck in a pincer between the complexity of the task and the reluctance of state governments to drive change. "
