TRANSPARENT CHENNAI provides useful, easy-to-understand information about the city that can improve government accountability and empower residents who want to take action. It is housed at the Centre for Development Finance, Institute for Financial Management and Research (IFMR).
The Ward Accountability Experiment
We believe that the upcoming councilor elections provide a unique opportunity to plan a ward-based, citizen driven intervention that will facilitate the creation of information for accountability in a ward and bring about more informed conversations between candidates for councilor and the public.
Many local problems are easily experienced, but are difficult to quantify and monitor. Problems like piles of garbage, water logging, and broken sidewalks remain in the realm of the informal; the government does not record them systematically, even though these are the problems that define our day-to-day lives. Different groups of residents also experience problems differently. Lack of public transportation and public toilets may affect low-income residents, but may never even appear to high-income residents as a problem. Likewise, the lack of adequate parking will not be an issue for those without private automobiles.
Transparent Chennai plans to leverage low-cost, easy mapping and survey methods to create records of local needs and local problems in partnership with students and local citizens groups. Using internally developed mapping and survey methodologies, we plan to conduct citizen driven audits, which are open to the public that create information about the state of the pedestrian environment, the efficiency of the waste management system and the state of public sanitation in a particular ward. Creating such information will provide a baseline of data against which performance of local elected representatives in addressing local issues can be measured, and create new avenues for communication between constituents and legislators.
We have already created a ‘core group’ citizen base comprised of volunteers from our partner institutions- The Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP), Center for Environmental Education (CEE), Human Rights Department of Ethiraj College, Environment Club of Sri Venkateswara College of Engineering, Department of Marine Studies and Department of Social Work at Madras Christian College, Madras School of Social Work and the ROTARACT club of Madras. Apart from these institutions, student volunteers from Reclaim Our Beaches (ROB) and the Humanities Department of the Indian Institute of Technology- Madras (IIT- M) have expressed a desire to participate.
For our experiment we have chosen Ward 152 (please see figure 1 and 2)
Figure 1: Corporation Zone 10 map of Ward 152
Figure 2: Google image/ Corporation mash up of Ward 152
Once the data has been gathered we will invite the candidates for Councilor, the constituents of Ward 152 and the general public to a public meeting where the implications of the findings will be discussed, and where candidates will be invited to make a commitment to improving conditions in the ward. This will also provide an opportunity for the core group teams to share some of the insights that they will gain during the data collection.
Our timeline is as follows-
3 Public Data Gathering Sessions: Which will be on the 10th, 17th and 24th of September (Saturdays) from 10 AM to 6 PM and open to the public.
Public Meeting: Which will be in the first week of October (date to be decided) in collaboration with the different institutions and citizen groups that took part.
We look forward to your support in participating in the audits and public meeting. We also hope you can help us by spreading the word so that interested citizens and citizen groups can take part in this citizen driven urban governance experiment.
Queries regarding the Ward Accountability Experiment and indications of interest to participate can be sent to:
Siddharth Hande
Consultant Researcher, Transparent Chennai
Centre for Development Finance, IFMR
T: 9840295081
We also have a sign up page on our website www.transparentchennai.com. Those interested may also get in touch with us by visiting our Facebook page.
We look forward to working with you in the effort to hold our government more accountable!
More about Transparent Chennai:
Our research focuses on creating information for change. Through geo-spatial analysis, data collection through RtIs, issue briefs, and reports we create data on and critically analyze a number of major issues that concern our city. Currently, we are focused on four key issues: electoral accountability, public sanitation, informal settlements, and road safety. We are also an open data initiative, with all our data, research and analyses publicly available through our website www.transparentchennai.com.
One of our focuses is collaborating with NGOs, students, concerned residents and citizen groups to create data about the city in an effort to effectively disseminate and activate our findings. We have in the recent past worked or are currently working with organizations ranging from well known institutions such as the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) and the Madras Institute for Development Studies (MIDS), to smaller citizen groups and Resident Welfare Associations like Reclaim Our Beaches (ROB) and the Nanganallur Resident Welfare Association.
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