Exchanging urban reform ideas: Activists, experts, politicians on one platform

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Can you keep politics out of an urban debate when citizens task politicians and political parties with the upkeep of a city’s roads, parks, waste management or mobility? Is there a way to engage them meaningfully to make our cities better? This is the premise of a unique urban platform called ‘City Politics.’

Founded by veteran civic activist Srinivas Alavilli from Janaagraha, ‘City Politics’ has over the past few weeks stepped up the engagement online. Bringing multi-city civic experts, urban analysts and yes, politicians to dive deep into issues that really matter to citizens, the platform has found a fresh way to negotiate this tough terrain.

Urban issues have a pan-India resonance, and the key is to bring multiple stakeholders under a common platform to share ideas and brainstorm. Alavilli explains: “The idea of City Politics is to bring the people concerned from different cities together so that our collective voice can be louder, while we engage with the political class at the same time.”

For the very first online event, dubbed ‘Namma Nayakaru’, ‘City Politics’ had called the outgoing BBMP corporators to share their experiences on governance. The last event two days ago was a discussion with BBMP party leaders on the new BBMP bill.

Creative, collaborative

The platform has so far completed five such events. “We brought together people from Mumbai, Chennai and Mangaluru. The idea is to create a network of new-age citizen activists, who are creative and interested in collaboration and fixing the root cause of urban issues. We are interested in systemic change,” Alavilli elaborates.

Fuelled by overpopulation, poor planning and lack of empowerment of the third tier of government, cities across India face the same set of fundamental problems. This is precisely why collaborations and networking matter.

Urban issues are often discussed. “But the elephant in the room is never talked about, the politicians and political parties. We discuss as if all of us outside politics can fix these things. It is just a pipedream. The way out is to engage constructively and collaboratively.”

Alavilli cites the perfectly logical citizen movement for a suburban rail network for Bengaluru. Mobility activists campaigned for decades but lack of political will ensured that the city was denied this critical mobility option even as Mumbai, Hyderabad and other cities got such a system.

It took a massive mobilisation of citizens under the ChukuBukuBeku banner to amplify the demand. The demand became so loud that the political class could not afford to ignore it. “Whether the BJP or Congress, they could no longer ignore it, the voice was so loud that it was all over the media,” he recalls.

The strategy was clear: Amplify citizen voices, smartly integrate informed, expert articulations of the problem and collectively push forward the legitimate public demand to trigger a political response. The response manifested as a collaborative effort that involved MPs, railway officials and activists.

Pan-India perspective

The ‘City Politics’ approach is to take forward the same strategy with a pan-Indian urban perspective. “For instance, we had urban floods in Bengaluru, Hyderabad and other cities. The root cause is the same in all cities: Concretisation, lack of planning, corruption, encroachment of lakes and drains.”

The shift in approach is perceptible. Problems, solutions and urban reforms are articulated not within echo chambers of experts and activists but in a larger platform that brings in the system. “You need to learn how to work with the system,” as Alavilli puts it.

Diversity of voices

Diversity of voices is critical to balance the narrative, particularly so in debates that directly affects every section of a city’s population. Acknowledging this, ‘City Politics’ consciously chose to bring in stakeholders from multiple backgrounds.

“There are urban experts, but they don’t represent the entire city. Bringing in organisations such as Slum Mahila Sanghatane, Malleswaram Social and the Mumbai-based Apnalaya that teach civics to slum kids, in the same forum, we want to cross-pollinate ideas, let people hear from each other, expose to the others’ points of view,” he explains.

In pandemic times, ‘City Politics’ has found the online platforms liberating and democratic in their reach.

The Zoom-based discussions are further amplified through Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and other social media outlets.