PUCAAR

Citizen’s Assertion Campaign

Taking Politics Beyond Elections

PUCAAR (Peoples Union for Civic Action and Rights) an affiliate of COVA has initiated “Citizen’s Assertion Campaign” to enable common people to access from the government all the amenities, services and entitlements due to them as citizens and also to transform the political agenda of the country from identity politics to politics of development and empowerment.

It is a common and constant lament that politicians come to people once in five years – at the time of elections for seeking votes – and become unavailable and inaccessible to the people thereafter. Further, elections are being increasing fought and votes solicited in the name of community, caste and regional affiliations rather than on the track record of service to the people.

Communal and Caste Politics- Losses for the People
This is resulting in increasing the trend of divisive politics wherein political parties whip up hysteria and engineer riots to pitch different communities and groups against each other to reap votes and gain power on the basis of community identities. An analysis of all the tensions and riots that take place shows that most of them take place during the year before the elections- in order to consolidate community identities and win the elections.

As a result, people lose on three important counts. First, as the politicians come to power on the basis of caste or community identity and not because of their development ideologies or record of service to the people, they don’t feel the need to work for solving the problems of the people or work for their development, leaving people- and mostly from their own community who have voted them to power because of their majority- to languish in deprived and sub human conditions with little hope of their development or empowerment.

Secondly, as communal and caste politics is possible mostly with illiterate and unenlightened masses, politician depending on such divisive politics seek to keep their electorates illiterate with little efforts to promote schooling or empowerment of the people of their constituencies.

Finally, as riots are a guaranteed way to divide communities and groups, that could result in a wind fall of votes without really serving the people, political parties try to engineer riots before elections which results in deaths, injuries and loss of livelihood and properties of the innocent, common citizens from both the communities / groups.

While politicians win and gain power, people lose and remain undeveloped, disempowered and devastated by riots.

Citizen’s Assertion Campaign

Citizen’s Assertion Campaign is designed to take people beyond divisive politics and sensitize them to become conscious of the real problems and issues that affect them; motivate them to assert their rights and pressurise politicians and officials to redress their problems and compel politicians to compete for serving the people instead of just vying for their votes once in five years through divisive and corrupt politics.

This would take politics beyond elections and transform it to become what it should be: continuous service of the people and not a stratagem to divide people to gain power.

Political Agenda by the People
For 60 years, politicians have been setting the agenda, making promises galore without fulfilling them. Some of the things that are being promised by politicians like rice for two rupees per kilogram or colour television sets to each family if they are elected are ridiculous and cannot address the myriad and mounting problems being faced by the common people to secure their meaningful development or minimum empowerment.

As people live their problems, they understand them best. Hence it is time that people set the agendas for the development of the country – what problems are to be addressed and with what priorities. It is only when people set the political and development agendas then the real, meaningful and sustainable development of the country can take place.

Gram /Area Sabhas: Opportunity for People to Set Political Agendas
73 and 74 amendments to the constitution have provided a way for the constitution of gram Sabhas in villages and Area Sabhas in municipalities / corporations comprising of the registered voters of the areas who are empowered to deliberate on the problems and issues of the areas and develop plans for the redress and development. It is these plans recommended by the people in the Gram / Area Sabhas that are to be taken up by the Panchayats and the Ward Committees for drawing up and implementation of the development activities in the concerned areas.

In other words, there is already a provision provided by the constitution for the agenda for development to be set by the people. But this can happen only if common people understand the importance of participating in this process and come forward to participate in all such meetings to set the agendas for the development of their areas. If they do not come forward, then it will be left to the politicians to indulge in unbridled functioning and engage in activities that may not be serving the needs of the people or could even be detrimental to their welfare and development. Hence, there is a critical need to sensitise and motivate people to assert themselves and participate in setting the development and political agendas through active participation in Gram / Area Sabha meetings, monitor that the implementation of programs are as per plans and with out corruption and dictate the demands and agendas to the politicians at the time of elections.

Setting up Political Competition
For all the elections, many candidates from different parties contest, only one can win and all others lose- some by a few hundred or a few thousand votes. But after the election results are declared, we try to go only to the candidate who has won for the redress of all our issues and problems and do not think of also approaching any of the candidates or parties who have lost.

For a variety of reasons the elected representative ignores the representations or fails to solve the problems as he /she is involved / interested in many other matters. Disappointed with a few such attempts, most people stop approaching the elected representatives and become disenchanted with the entire political class.

We fail to realize that those who have lost the elections are also leaders, with the backing of political parties, cadre, some standing in society and influence with the government departments and officials. Being out of office, they will have more time available and having lost the elections they may end up with an increased desire to prove their influence and leadership stature.

Experiences have shown that if a representation is submitted to the elected representative and also to the defeated candidates of the area, the defeated candidates are more keen and faster in taking up the issues with the concerned authorities. Once the elected representative learns about the initiatives by the defeated candidate(s), he /she immediately plunges into action to take up the issue and the credit for its resolution. The chances of people’s problems being addressed and resolved become much higher if both the elected and defeated leaders are approached.

Precaution:
The mindset in our country is such that those who have come to win elections tend to think that they have acquired absolute power over the entire area and nobody else has any right to undertake any activity or development works in that area. If any one else, including the defeated candidates try, this could lead to friction. However, this mind set has to be challenged and changed. Given the opportunity to take up issues, the defeated candidates would be more than willing to face the frictions and take up the challenge.

The competition between politicians has to be taken beyond elections and into the domain of service to the people – even if it results in some frictions.

Ultimately, only political competition to serve people could lead to the development and empowerment of the people and save them from the dangers and costs of divisive politics.

Area Sabhas and Ward Committees
New provisions for the functioning of the Panchayats and Municipalities stipulated by the Government provide for the formation of Ward Committees comprising of up to 20 members and of Gram / Area Sabhas – catering to a population of 5 to 6 thousand voters – that are empowered to prepare development plans for their respective areas. These plans formulated by the area Sabhas are to be taken up by the Ward Committees for implementation. Hence the development of the area would be largely dependant on the plans prepared by the concerned Area / Gram Sabha.

Any registered voter of an area is entitled to participate in any of the meetings of the Area / Gram Sabhas and contribute to the deliberations and the preparation of the development plans for the area. At least 50 voters of the area have to be present at the Area Sabha meetings for the commencement of the proceedings.

However, this opportunity for the common man to determine the direction of development can be realized only when the people of the area come forward to participate in the deliberations. Such participation and its quality would depend on motivational levels and also the capacities of the people to participate. As most people are unaware of all these provisions, disenchanted with the political / bureaucratic system and are not trained in the preparation of development plans, analysis of budgets and monitoring of implementation, it is necessary to train and equip members of the general community to ensure increased, consistent and quality participation in the Area / Gram Sabhas.

Ward Level Interventions
COVA – PUCAAR propose to reach out to 30 communally sensitive Wards in the old city areas of Hyderabad to motivate and train members of the general public to participate actively and effectively in the Area Sabhas and thereby determine the development agenda and direction in their respective localities. Other Civil Society Organisations in Hyderabad are expected to also considering similar programs in other Wards and it is hoped that eventually all the 150 wards of the GHMC would be covered.

Each Ward is divided into 3 to 4 Units comprising a population of about 8 to 12 thousand voters. CBOs, SHGs and Resident Welfare Associations of the area are enlisted as partners. If there are no such groups then the residents are encouraged to form and register such associations. Quarterly training and orientation programs will be imparted to all such associations in each of the Wards on the themes of situation analyses of their areas, identification and articulation of problems, preparation of development plans, understanding budgets, monitoring implementation, ensuring transparency and accountability in governance, dealing with politicians, officials and the media etc.

Monthly Meetings and Annual Open House Sessions
The associations in each of the Units would be encouraged to have monthly meetings to evaluate progress and develop plans for their areas that could be submitted at the monthly Meetings of the Ward Committees. At the end of each year, all the Units in each Ward would be facilitated to organise an Open House Program in which the Corporator, Ward Committee Members and the concerned government officials would be invited for an evaluation of the progress made during the preceding year. Such exercises conducted regularly would increase the accountability of the political leaders and officials and ensure faster results and enhanced development.

Change Activists
To take the Citizen’s Assertion Campaign forward, Change Activists are being enlisted who will be provided continues training and exposure to enable them to sensitise and motivate people, design and launch advocacy campaigns, interact effectively with politicians, officials and the media to facilitate redress of local issues and influence policy formulations at the local, state and national levels.

Two Change Activists are being selected and enlisted from each Ward where interventions are being made. Concerned citizens, professionals and students from colleges and universities are also enlisted.

Roll of Change Activists
All those enrolled as Change Activists are expected to undertake the following:
1. Attend the monthly training programs regularly.
2. Adopt one Municipal Ward and facilitate the Citizen’s Assertion Campaign in that ward by sensitising, and activating the local people and the community organizations. This may require 4-6 hours in a month
3. There are a number of issues like health, education, livelihood, civic issues, gender rights, riot prevention and control measures etc that require advocacy for proper implementation of the existing programs and also formulation of new legislations and policies for securing entitlements as citizens. The Change Activists select and participate in atleast one advocacy group on a regular basis. This would take about 6 to 8 hours in a month and could be at the convenience of the concerned Change Activist.

For Details and Enrolment
To enroll an organization as a Partner or to enlist as a Change Activist please contact:

COVA – PUCAAR, 20,4-10, Near Bus Stand, Charminar, Hyderabad, 500002.
Ph: 24572984, email: covanetwork@gmail.com

COVA (Confederation of Voluntary Associations) is a national network of voluntary organizations in India dedicated to the issues of social harmony, peace and justice. The prime focus of COVA is on citizenship rights and on perspective building for harmony in India and promotion of cooperation and peace in South Asia.

PUCAAR (Peoples Union for Civic Action and Rights) is an affiliate of COVA working for transparency and accountability of politics and governance.