One of the areas where some of us have been thinking of late is how to increase awareness of citizens regarding policy and administration – things like which new bills are being introduced in parliament or state legislature, and what options are being considered? What are the relative merits/demerits of the options? Which way are our representatives inclined? What impact does it have on us? or, How has the local administration performed? Where can I go if I need to get something done? How do I participate in improving my local infrastructure and administration? What progress has really happened over last few years? How does this apparatus work?
It is interesting that several initiatives already exist at the ground level which seek to answer these questions for different stakeholders. Yet, these don’t seem to reach the general public. Perhaps, digital media can seek to bridge that gap and increase awareness of citizens about governance. Over a longer period of time, awareness drives participation and a healthy democracy.
It would be great if you can participate in a survey we have created to assess people’s need and willingness to engage in the above, as well as to get your suggestions. Please click here to take survey – even if you think this is useless, we’d love to get that feedback.
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Anand – there are restrictions on comment size restrictions on surveymonkey – we want to make sure we are getting concise feedback on the initiative on the survey, rather than ramblings (this blog is a good place to do that). Unfortunately, surveymonkey doesnt seem to be specific about the error message – if you know of a better system, please do let me know,
Alok
PS: liked your email id “shout.anand” 🙂
Before talking big, please care to check how good your primary interaction point – the survey is. I entered a below mentioned comment and got a message that “The comment you entered is in an invalid format”. Forget government policies. Would you care to inform users what is your policy on valid format.
My Comment Below: please explain what’s invalid
One of the most conveniently ignored aspects is accountability towards taxpayers’ money. FM expresses happiness over increased tax net and absolute money collected but doesn’t even feel a need to utter a word about where is that money going? We have been fooled enough with defense, healthcare, education and infrastructure. None of these is seen improving over last 50 years. Don’t I have a right to ask how the government gambles and looses the 40K I pay each month as tax? It’s time that our politicians justify the use of taxpayers’ money to every single taxpayer. In the three automakers bailout situation in US, all senators single mindedly repeat the same question – why should you get taxpayer’s money.
“increase awareness of citizens” – Which citizens first?
Warning : The post below may sound like an advert for Janaagraha but its not. I truly believe in what they do.
While I was in Bangalore, I worked for an organization called Janaagraha (www.janaagraha.org) which I think is doing tremendous work at grassroots level with one aim : Improving Citizen Participation in local administration.
They have a training program called CAP ( Citizen Awareness Program) which has already been delivered at many companies in Bangalore. I had the fortune of participating in developing content for this program and also undergo rigorous training to be one of the first faciliators to deliver the program at Dell,Bangalore.
If there are folks interested in learning more about CAP or Janaagraha, feel free to contact me. I have been thinking about getting CAP to Delhi and if there are enthusiasts, it can be done!
Alok: I would request/encourage you and your readers to please have a look at these two posts (they are both fairly long and hopefully thought-provoking)…I would love to hear everyone’s comments and hopefully get some new members to join us in the movement to “Change India”.
http://satyameva-jayate.org/2008/10/30/who-is-b-shantanu/
and
http://satyameva-jayate.org/2008/10/31/changing-india-one-step/
As for “Citizens in Governance”, there is excellent work being done by JaagoRe, ADR (Election Watch) and EmpoweringIndian.
Please have a look/ just google the names for URLs.