The Citizen’s Budget

Context: Evidence suggests that citizen participation in budgeting and closer engagement in the monitoring of civic works results in better outcomes and fewer leakages.

Background to Participatory Budgeting:

• Pioneered in the Brazilian city of Porto Alegre in the mid-1980s.
• In India: pioneered by Janaagraha in Bengaluru in 2001, but took firmer roots in Pune by drawing inspirations from Bengaluru.
  • MyCityMyBudget Campaign (2015) has been started as a collaborative effort by city corporations in Bengaluru, Mangaluru and Vishakhapatnam

Need of Participatory municipality budgeting in India:

• Demographic needs: India has 4,500+ municipalities representing over 300 million people.
• Prerequisite to a better quality of life: as subjects like clean air, drinking water supply, garbage disposal etc., comes under the domain of the municipalities.
• Better outcome with fewer leakages: by facilitating a targeted, hyperlocal focus on budgeting and problem-solving.
  • Addresses inefficiencies arising from misplaced prioritisation of civic works relative to citizen needs.
• Builds trust: making citizens feel like they have a voice in civic governance.
• Improves accountability for civic works at the last mile (as citizens would monitor budget execution).
• Foster a sense of ownership: in communities for civic assets resulting in better maintenance.

Challenges faced by city budgets:

• Lack of legal provision for citizen participation in most municipal laws.
• Separate budgets of parastatal agencies (such as development authorities, transport corporations, etc.): which are never discussed in the city council or covered in the media.
• Lack of transparency: in civic works and tenders.
• Poor coverage and attention: given to city budgets by media and other stakeholders.

Conclusion: Municipal budget is not just a financial or legal document; rather, it can be an enabler of grassroots democracy in cities and tangible change for communities, particularly children, women and the urban poor.