RESEARCH

Combining academic rigour with grassroots research

Over the past several years, our campaigns and activities related to urban governance has given us insights into many aspects of Indian citizenship and democracy - broadly classified as political and social, economic and legal.

At a political and social level, these experiences have been about understanding the enormous distance between city dwellers and their local governments, the absence of political space resulting in a greater sense of alienation in cities, exacerbated by the city's essential economic energy which straight jackets individuals into being producers or consumers of goods and services, the inherent human instinct of people to connect across caste, community and class if there were opportunities to do so, the relationship between political parties and their candidates, and so on.

At an economic level, our experiences have given us an understanding of the financial position of urban governments and the instruments available to them, of the intergovernmental funding relationships broadly called fiscal federalism and the enormous strides still left to be taken in India on this front, of the economic opportunities that could be opened up by bringing greater participation in revenue mobilisation at the city level.

At a legal level, we have begun to appreciate the complex legal tapestry that underpins the proper functioning of the overall governmental system, most specifically local governments. These include an understanding of the panoply of laws that define who does what among various governmental actors, the inconsistencies among these, the gap between constitutional provisions and ground realities, the need for advocacy to be shaped by sharply defined legal solutions, the legal relationship between urban and rural areas, and so on.

Our experiences and insights have been accompanied by the belief that more in-depth study is required In each of these fields. However, we also understand that we do not have the competencies to bring rigorous research processes to do justice to such study; and that there are institutions across the country and the world who are focused on precisely such activities, with whom we could establish partnerships for research.

Our Research Programme at Janaagraha is focused on 3 areas - Political and Social Research, Economic Research, and Legal Research. In each of these areas, we will undertake work through partnerships with globally recognised institutions, so that the research output can contribute to a greater collective understanding of the particular theme being studied, and doesn't reinvent the wheel.

Our first project is in Political and Social Research, where we have established a 3-way partnership between the South Asia Study Program (SASP) at Johns' Hopkins University, the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) and Janaagraha. The project is on creating a Civic Literacy Index, beginning with a study in Bangalore, to be gradually expanded to other cities in the country. The study will also be expanded to explore the relationship between civic literacy and governance, and also be used as a performance instrument for Janaagraha, to evaluate the impact of our work by testing changes in levels of civic literacy.

Similar research projects are under way in Economic and Legal Research, but they are early stages of formalisation. In all these conversations, Janaagraha's approach will be to establish partnerships with institutions doing complementary work in the areas concerned.