Category: Politics

People-centred governance and decision-making, ensuring accountability and transparency

Read Less

This section features initiatives and approaches towards people-centred governance and decision-making, with direct participation, and based on principles of social and environmental justice. This includes initiatives attempting to realize local non-hierarchical systems of decision-making in urban and rural areas, and linkages of these to each other at bio-cultural levels. This would also include collectives or communities that raise non-party political concerns at the local level and beyond, as well as initiatives that enhance accountability and transparency of political bodies. It will include alternative policy frameworks that are based on or promote the alternative economies featured elsewhere on this site, such as meaningful practices and concepts of well-being, instead of the mainstream development model which focuses on economic growth.

A Living Constitution Pachgaon

Pachgaon offers a unique example of community governance that began with the reclamation of forest rights. Through village meetings, shared responsibility and local knowledge, Pachgaon began to practice democracy in its most grounded form.

A 200-Metre Mural In Fort Kochi Puts Coastal Labour At The Centre Of Climate Justice

In Kochi, a community mural brought together local residents, mangrove workers, fishing communities, Indian Coast Guard personnel, and Fearless Foundation artists to share stories of ancestral knowledge, everyday risks, and the living with rising waters and pollution.

Grassroots women map air pollution hotspots, spur a coal company to curb dust

Trained in air quality mapping, women leaders monitored air quality across 69 sites in Jharkhand, identifying 26 pollution hotspots. The local women that co-led the study took ownership of the data to drive action, prompting decision-makers to install water sprinklers, cover coal loads during transport, and set up air quality monitors in public places.

How people power reclaimed the Vishwamitri for Vadodara

From building a coalition against the Vishwamitri Riverfront Development Project to getting it scrapped, people’s movements have interwoven passionate activism with law, science, and data. Their collective engagement and dogged sense of purpose made all the difference. Not only have activists been appointed to a committee overseeing a flood mitigation project, they also do on-ground monitoring, record official work, track plans and progress, and document irregularities.