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Dhaval Desai and Nandan Dawda, Eds., E-Governance and Citizen Engagement: Pathways to Resilient and Equitable Cities, October 2024, Observer Research Foundation.
The quest for resilient and equitable cities has never been more urgent than in this era marked by rapid technological advancements and increasing urbanisation. ORF’s latest volume in its Urban Frontiers series, E-Governance and Citizen Engagement: Pathways to Resilient and Equitable Cities, brings together expert insights on the transformative power of e-governance and the role of citizen engagement in shaping the cities of the future.
E-governance, with its promise of efficiency, transparency, and accessibility, has emerged as a critical tool for modern urban management and services. It leverages digital technologies to streamline administrative processes, facilitating better decision-making and enhancing service delivery. However, the true potential of e-governance can only be realised when it is coupled with citizen engagement. Nurturing informed and empowered citizens who actively participate in the governance process is essential for ensuring that the digital transformation of city management reflects the diverse needs and aspirations of all urban inhabitants.
The synthesis of e-governance and citizen engagement is not just desirable but necessary; one cannot thrive without the other. E-governance provides the tools and frameworks for more responsive and accountable governance, but it is the active involvement of citizens that would ensure that these tools are used to build resilient and inclusive communities. Together, they pave the way for cities that are not only smart but also just, sustainable, and resilient.
This anthology delves into the interplay between e-governance and citizen engagement. Our contributors explore how digital platforms can foster inclusive participation, the challenges of digital divides, and the innovative approaches that cities worldwide are adopting to bridge these gaps.
This compendium is divided into two sections. The first section focuses on the digitalisation of city systems aimed at providing better governance and ease of access to municipal services. The second section deals with the need to foster citizen engagement and create robust avenues for participatory governance. The 16 articles intersect at several points, highlighting the factors of governance, policy frameworks, and institutional mechanisms.
Through diverse views offered by our expert contributors, this publication provides practical insights to policymakers and urban practitioners and outlines an actionable agenda to help cities tackle the real-world challenges that confront them as they gear up for technology-based solutions that are people-centric and inclusive.
Gautham Ravichander and Viraj Tyagi argue that technologies such as Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), Internet of Things (IoT), and Artificial Intelligence (AI) present a “generational opportunity” to build sustainable, resilient, responsive, and inclusive urban environments. They evaluate ongoing schemes and programmes and demonstrate the urgent need for their convergence to help local governments integrate their digital capabilities to plan for the future and operate and deliver a good quality of life to citizens.
New-generation Integrated Transport Systems (ITS) offer features such as traffic prediction, analytics, traveller information, ticketing, and fare collection through targeted technological interventions. Presenting a study of Chandigarh’s ITS-based bus modernisation programme, P. K. Sarkar highlights how the city achieved a substantial increase in the use of public transport and reduced traffic congestion and harmful vehicular emissions by encouraging people to use the city buses instead of personal vehicles.
Rumi Aijaz then describes the transformations in city governance and services brought about by the Integrated Command and Control Centres (ICCCs) set up in the 100 mission cities under India’s Smart Cities Mission (SCM). The ICCCs have helped city agencies optimise time and resource utilisation and promptly and effectively respond to challenges such as pollution, flooding, water loss, disasters, traffic congestion, and crime. They have also benefited citizens through improved access to essential services. The article highlights challenges, such as the digital divide and poor digital literacy, which can make such technology-led solutions exclusive and inequitable.
In their piece, Shailendra Kaushik and Megha Tyagi urge the adoption of ‘Mobility as a Service’ (MaaS) in India’s SCM cities. MaaS offers integrated journey options across transport modes by using a single travel booking and payment platform. The article presents a policy framework encompassing nine policy pillars under data coverage, institutional and governance structures, and regulation and accountability to enable real-time information-sharing between different transport modes and service providers to facilitate MaaS in India’s urban regions.
Gayatri Doctor, in her piece, points out that despite numerous e-governance initiatives by the central and state governments and urban local bodies (ULBs), India fares poorly in the United Nations E-Government Development Index (EGDI). If India can leverage the impetus provided by the SCM, which has enabled cities to move from analogue governance to e-governance, it can further evolve from e-governance to achieve the ultimate status of GovTech—a whole-of-government approach to public-sector modernisation. She also urges the government to consider expanding the coverage of SCM to India’s tier 2 and 3 cities.
Evaluating the pros and cons of the autonomous and private-consultant-managed special purpose vehicles (SPVs) to plan, implement, and govern SCM cities as corporate entities, Uttara Purandare asks pertinent questions about their administrative and financial sustainability in the absence of central government funding at the end of the Mission period. The article calls for a critical examination of the SPVs and the capacities of ULBs to sustain technology-based interventions beyond the SCM deadline of March 2025.
Anusha Kesarkar-Gavankar and Swarali Bhutekar conclude the first section with an essay that highlights persisting gender digital inequalities, including low digital awareness, financial constraints, cultural norms, and online safety issues, which restrict the benefits of digitalisation from reaching marginalised communities, especially women, in the Global South. They recommend integrating digitally inclusive goals into development agendas to ensure that the benefits of digital advancement are accessible to all.
The second section of this compendium begins with an article by Banashree Banerjee, which argues that limited ULB autonomy, irregular elections to local bodies, and digital exclusion have prevented participatory governance in Indian cities despite government initiatives and urban programmes such as the SCM and the National Urban Livelihoods Mission integrating citizen engagement in their design. It recommends strengthening local government capacities and institutional reforms and embedding participatory practices in the core of policy frameworks and governance structures to catalyse citizen engagement in urban governance.
In the subsequent article, Shelly Kulshreshtha notes how decentralised and participatory urban governance remains an “unfinished agenda” in India three decades after the Constitution (74th Amendment) Act (CAA) was passed in 1992. She presents a conceptual framework of the channels and purpose of engagement between the ULB and citizens, emphasising the representation of the people in city governance through diverse sources.
Mercy Samuel and Dhaval Desai then challenge the government’s regard of online complaint-redressal platforms of certain municipal administrations in India as a measure of enhanced participatory urban governance. Though such platforms may have increased customer convenience in larger cities, they fall short of meaningful citizen engagement unless they are backed by a robust and strategic technological backend, enhanced ULB capacities through trained human resources, two-way communication channels, and transparent feedback mechanisms. At the same time, smaller cities must strengthen their conventional analogue data collection and complaint-redressal processes before leapfrogging to online platforms.
The next contribution by Rahul Srivastava and Matias Echanove narrates their decade-and-a-half experience of working with communities in Koliwada, Dharavi, one of Asia’s largest informal settlements located in the heart of Mumbai. Their essay explains why grassroots-level, location-specific governance is often lost in regional and national considerations, where local needs get subsumed by complex political, bureaucratic, and administrative processes. It highlights the need to bridge the “epistemological gaps” in understanding the intricate and interdependent ecosystem of local communities to facilitate tangible and meaningful decentralisation and participation.
Milind Mhaske then highlights the findings of a study of the administrative frameworks of all states in India. Despite being mandated by the CAA in 1992 and the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission in 2005, Ward Committees and Area Sabhas (committees) in ULBs across India are not functioning effectively. He calls for a tripartite collaboration between the three constituents of governance, including the civic administration, elected representatives, and citizens, to catalyse participatory governance in urban India and pave the way for a transparent, inclusive, and responsive urban governance framework.
The subsequent article by Reashma P. S. recounts the experiences of citizen-led civic campaigns in Bengaluru. Though the city has seen healthy civic activism, mainstreaming citizen engagement in governance still has gaps between different societal classes and their varied interests, which could be bridged by increased grassroots involvement and a conscious endorsement and acceptance of people’s participation from political leaders, government authorities, and civic administration.
Through examples from India and abroad, Anusha Kesarkar-Gavankar stresses that participatory governance is not a one-off policy intervention but a continuous process involving the people, civil society, and non-governmental organisations in a two-way dialogue with the government. Such a process is possible only if the governments recognise civil society and its agencies as equal stakeholders in decision-making.
Dhaval Desai closes the volume by examining how states across India, betraying their lack of will to decentralise urban governance and promote participatory governance, have repeatedly neglected ULB elections despite the CAA lending ULBs constitutional status and recognising them as the “third tier” of government. The article recommends sweeping institutional transformations at the state level, granting total autonomy to State Election Commissions, and empowering them with the same enforceable mandates enjoyed by the Election Commission of India to ensure timely elections to the government closest to the people.
The insights presented in this compendium underscore a fundamental truth: for e-governance initiatives to be effective and equitable, they must be rooted in genuine, ongoing dialogue with citizens. However, states must first create a conducive policy framework and a time-bound action agenda for the tangible and effective implementation of the mandates of the CAA to encourage and mainstream citizen engagement in all civic matters that affect their daily lives.
It is our hope that this compendium serves as a valuable resource for policymakers, urban planners, researchers, and citizens alike, inspiring collaborative efforts towards creating cities that genuinely serve and uplift their people.
Read the monograph here.
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Dhaval is Senior Fellow and Vice President at Observer Research Foundation, Mumbai. His spectrum of work covers diverse topics ranging from urban renewal to international ...
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Dr Nandan H Dawda is a Fellow with the Urban Studies programme at the Observer Research Foundation. He has a bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering and ...
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