They were armed with questions, a few of them perhaps harbouring a bit of resentment towards their corporators and legislators. Twelve students from schools in the DHie programme walked into the Deccan Herald premises to debate on local governance with Swati Ramanathan, co-founder of the hugely successful movement Janaagraha, at a model press conference. Not only did they have all their questions answered, they left a lot wiser.
With just a writing board, Swati turned her introductory speech into a fund of information. In simple steps, using the students’ inputs, she enumerated the ‘fruits of governance’, elaborated on how ‘citizens must feed democracy’ and what Janaagraha does. “We aim to give good governance through an integrated approach in a democratic framework with the citizens’ involvement,” she said. It was evident from the wide-eyed looks that many students now knew more than what they had learnt in school.
“Democracy is workable,” Swati said. “What we don’t know is that the architecture of democracy in rural India is robust. It is in the urban areas that there are gaps in the democratic framework. People in urban areas are not fully involved in the way their city runs. That is what we’re trying to achieve with Janaagraha; we’re trying to get the voices of the people heard,” she said. Swati went further to bust a lot of myths about the political structure and the economics related to it. To a question on what taxpayers can do to see their money being used judiciously, Swati said until recently, the entire process of acquiring funds through taxes and spending them was chaotic. “The accounts kept by the urban local bodies was mind-boggling. No one knew where the money was coming from and where it was going. But with a system called PROOF — Public Records Of Operations and Finances, which is like a quarterly statement of accounts — the whole process is transparent and open to public. This question by M Dharmaveer of Appollo National Public School won him the Best Question Award. To another question on the money spent in developing rural India, Swati shocked the students by telling them the State government spends most of its funds in schemes for villages. “Only 2% of the State budget is allocated for urban development,” she said. Rajesh R of Jubilee School asked Swati for suggestions on solving the water crisis in his area — KR Puram — where she has already worked. “The only way to get the authorities to act is to put pressure on them,” she recommended.
The other students who attended the event were Anagha D Anvekar from DPS(North), Raksha S Gaikwad from Sun Shine English School, Neha Pant from Achala Mandira High School, Ranjana S Prasad from Mother Mary English, Sylvenia from New Baldwins Residential School, Raksha S from St Euphrasia’s Girls’ High School, Aditya RK from SSB International School, Abhinandan J from BNM High School, Poornima B from Vidya Vardhaka Sangha School, Shushyam M S from Cambridge Public School.
