Lokraj Andolan

Welcome to Lokrajandolan

It has bothered me for the longest time that the average Indian citizen has come to accept poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, broken roads, non-functional street-lights, and poor government run schools, bribery and corruption, dilapidated parks, and overflowing sewers as a part and parcel of everyday life. I have always wondered if there was a way to end this general sense of apathy and civic disengagement on the part of the average Indian citizen.

India prides itself in being the world’s largest democracy and generations of our citizens deserve all the credit for adopting and retaining this form of government. But how truly democratic is India? Take a familiar case of a teacher who does not teach properly in a government school or a doctor in a government school who does not turn up. Can the average citizen take action to fix this problem? Our research into governance systems of other countries and of ancient India has revealed that we are not only less democratic in comparison to other countries but in fact, we are less democratic than we were in the past! Is it this lack of true democracy which is at the heart of most of these problems? And is this lack of democracy the cause for people becoming indifferent? Because there are no institutional systems in place through which people can directly participate in democracy on a day to day basis, have they, therefore, just given up?

Over the last few years, we have traveled to several parts of India and closely researched a host of issues and challenges facing people ranging from those in small towns and villages to the large cities. Our experiences, besides being highly educative, have truly been an eye-opener. We have had the privilege of witnessing first-hand examples of poor uneducated people bringing about fundamental change in the everyday lives of their fellow citizens despite their limited resources. (link to success stories). It is simply amazing to see people able to do so much with so little. It is fascinating to even imagine what they could do with more resources and decision-making autonomy.

My findings from the travels across India combined with my prior experience of having served in the Indian bureaucracy have driven me to the realization that most of India’s problems can be addressed by re-thinking our basic approach to governance. After 62-years of the same tried and failed form of governance it’s about time we called a spade a spade and adopted a new approach – one that truly empowers the common man through a system based on the principle of self-governance.

Nurturing people’s assemblies in every village and mohalla in the country should be the corner stone of a new reform plan to fundamentally transform our approach to governance. Self-governance would help people solve their day to day problems, encourage them to directly participate in governance and express opinions on issues concerning state and central governments. In other words, it is critical that complete control over funds, functions and functionaries be transferred to people’s assemblies at the local level. Such avenues for citizen participation should be established in both rural and urban areas, where people could collectively meet and take decisions. The local government officials must be bound by these decisions and held accountable at the local level. The role of government must be to help its citizens help themselves. The MPs and MLAs should focus their energies on developing the laws of the land to proliferate this transformation in governance.

I do not mean to trivialize the challenges associated with moving towards a system based on self-governance. I understand that India will have its unique set of challenges in making this transformation. But I am convinced that this is the best way forward. It will improve accountability and efficiency, reduce corruption, ensure optimal usage of funds and help realize the thus-far untapped potential at the grassroots level.

We have launched this website http://www.lokrajandolan.org to invite well-meaning individuals from across India and the globe to join us in this endeavor to raise awareness, influence the political parties to adopt governance reform and bring about fundamental and long-term change in India.

Arvind Kejriwal

p.s: We have been privileged to have the assistance of research scholars (from India and around the world) who have helped us understand the impact and challenges of governance reform in other countries across the globe. I want to thank them for helping put things in perspective.