Whose city is it anyway?

As the decibel levels of anger over poor road conditions rose earlier this month, the government indicated that it was open to letting some corporates use their CSR funds to maintain the roads around their offices, rather than complain. This raises the question – who should solve public problems? Over many decades, the government has maintained that it alone is responsible for this, because it alone is capable of doing so and can be trusted to do so in a manner that is fair to all citizens. Citizens and businesses can help, of course, but in the government’s view, they should not have much say in deciding how to solve problems.

However, after having asserted its primacy over society and markets, the state has not been able to address a very large number of challenges. In the city, the evidence of this failure is everywhere. The roads, the drains, the public schools, the air and water quality, the power supply, the footpaths, the public transport, and so many other things remind us daily that the government is in charge, but not doing the job.

Not only that, many of these problems have persisted for a long time. Some things are better than they were in the 1960s or 1990s; nonetheless, by most human development indicators, at least 120 countries around the world are still ahead of us. Clearly, the go-it-alone approach of governments isn’t working. So why not let some problems be solved by others? They will bring their expertise, some additional money and – most importantly – a lot more attention to local areas they care about.

This is not an altogether new idea, even in Bengaluru. For many years, local communities have managed parks and playgrounds in their areas. Others living around lakes helped maintain the water bodies. Tech expertise from several companies helped build our Traffic Control Centre, cheaper than in other cities, and faster. Global research expertise helped rationalise some of BMTC’s routes. We got a few reasonably walkable roads in the city centre because the private sector brought in the necessary expertise.

For a few years, a lot of such things were even formalised by an initiative in the BBMP, under the grand theme that ‘our city is our responsibility’. Indeed, it is, although that approach now seems to have been forgotten. Instead, the government is merely telling businesses and citizens to ‘do it yourself’ in a defensive response to its failures, rather than embracing them as partners in problem-solving.

But it matters how we come to such a collaboration. It won’t work if the government first fails to do what it should and then seeks support from companies or citizens to fix the deficits that arise. We saw that in the Sarjapur Road case, when the government asked Wipro to give up land to help fix local traffic chaos, only to be reminded that it had failed to properly develop the area in a planned way.

I was at a workshop on climate challenges in the city a couple of weeks ago, and heard the local authorities admit that they are having difficulty in implementing their plans, and need the help of citizens to make things improve. Some Bengalureans will surely be willing to help, but their participation should be sought when the plans are being made, and not as an afterthought when the sarkar finds that its plans aren’t working.

In recent weeks, we’ve repeatedly seen photographs and videos of senior officials and ministers standing on the roads inspecting something or the other, and promising action. This is a kind of assurance that the government is on the job, finally, but it is also not reassuring. Most of what is being directed is patchwork and a series of ad hoc responses to whatever problem seems most pressing each day. That’s not going to fix anything.

The solution is right in front of us. Within a kilometre of each of the spots that are being inspected, hundreds of families endure needless suffering. From their lived experiences, they have ideas for how to solve the problems they face. If they are invited to help solve those problems, two things will happen – some of the solutions will benefit from their local knowledge, and citizens will have greater trust in whatever is being tried.

It is both democratic and sensible that people should be able to participate more and more in how the city is run. One day, we’re going to have to make this choice correctly. Until we do that, the deficits will persist.

(The writer is a social entrepreneur, founder of Mapunity and LVBL, and co-founder, Lithium, wakes up with hope for the city and society, goes to bed with a sigh)

(Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.)