I grew up in Jammu, a small city nestled in the foothills of the Himalayas. Like many others, I left for bigger cities in search of better opportunities. But after years of studying and working across India’s metros, I felt a strong pull to return. That urge brought me back to Jammu, where I began working with the city government, eager to apply my experience to local challenges.
My work focused on the physical fabric of the city—streets, public spaces, neighbourhoods. The projects I contributed to aimed to improve infrastructure, mobility, and aesthetics. Yet something kept breaking down between the plans we made and the lives they were meant to impact.
That disconnect became painfully clear during a street redevelopment project. The plan was to redesign a key commercial road to make it more functional, walkable, and vibrant. But soon after implementation began, resistance surfaced. Residents faced disruptions—limited access to their homes, dust, noise, and safety concerns. Small businesses suffered from road closures and reduced foot traffic, affecting their livelihoods. Complaints mounted. So did delays and costs.
The core issue? The community hadn’t been involved in the planning process. People felt excluded from decisions that directly affected them.
This wasn’t an isolated case. In most projects I worked on, participation was either tokenistic or limited to inter-departmental coordination. Rarely did the public, the very people the work was supposed to benefit, have any say in shaping it.
That experience pushed me to think differently about urban development. Who are we building for, if not the people who live there? Why aren’t there robust systems to involve citizens in the planning of their neighbourhoods? Why does participation feel like a procedural checkbox instead of a powerful process?
I began shifting my focus; from the physical to the institutional, from design to governance.
These questions led me to explore the landscape of participatory governance in India. As a U-CAN Fellow, I began this journey with Janaagraha, an organisation that has spent decades working to improve how Indian cities are governed. Their emphasis on citizen participation, transparency, and accountability offered a sharp lens through which to examine these challenges.
Through this platform, I delved into the structures, policies, and legal frameworks intended to support participatory governance. I came to understand that it’s not just an abstract idea; it’s the bedrock of inclusive, democratic, and resilient urban development.
India’s 74th Constitutional Amendment mandates citizen participation in urban governance, establishing platforms like Ward Committees to give residents a voice in local decisions. But the ground reality often tells a different story. These structures frequently exist only on paper, plagued by weak implementation, low public awareness, or a lack of real authority.
This disconnect between what’s promised and what’s practiced reveals deeper systemic issues: Why do these platforms struggle to function? What keeps citizen participation from becoming a norm in how we govern our cities? And how do we move from symbolic inclusion to something truly substantive?
As I continue working in this space, I carry these questions with me. Answering them won’t be easy, but they’re essential if we want our cities to be truly participatory – shaped not just for people, but with them.
