Cities are complex webs of inter-connected eco-systems constantly striving to achieve a harmonious balance. As ‘population magnets’, cities lure people with the promise of a better life characterised by better access to means of livelihoods, opportunities to education and health amenities, opportunities to connect with a wider world and expand personal potential. But is life always better in a city? Does everyone living in the city enjoy the same amenities equally? Unfortunately, however much we desire, the answer to these questions is not a ‘yes’. The structure and governance of the complex city eco-systems subject to planning and management processes and decisions exacerbate or deteriorate the efficiency, service quality and vulnerabilities of citizens and infrastructure; pushing citizen actors towards different coping behaviours. These behaviours can be such that take the quality of life in cities in a downward spiral or be such that may be harnessed for pulling cities out of the quagmire they find themselves in. For e.g. in response to the  absence of efficient public transportation systems and increasing traffic problems within cities, citizens rather than using individual vehicles are opting for car-pools. Initiatives such as  blah blah cars, tripda and backseat buddies are coming up to facilitate car-pools.

The Citizen in the Centre

If we were to put desired citizen behaviours as the guiding beacon in the design of infrastructure and delivery of services such as waste management, water supply, transportation, energy services etc.; it is likely that these would undergo tremendous transformation from what we find in most Indian cities today. To do this, one would have to understand the motivation of human action - individually and collectively and also how space design and management systems influence behaviours. Such an analysis will lead us to design infrastructure, services and their management to enhance citizen satisfaction, catalysing citizen contribution towards improving service quality, system efficiencies and system sustainability. A very apt and successful example in this case is the solid waste management approach adopted by the Surat Municipal Corporation in the Western Indian state of Gujarat. The city, in order to manage the waste problem and address issues emanating through human behavior; introduced door to door waste collection, night scrubbing and cleaning of collection routes, day time sweeping and litter prevention patrolling and educational drives. So far the city has been able to achieve 92 % of household level coverage¹.

Designing for Citizen Engagement

Successful cities demonstrate integration of top-down and bottom-up processes bound by effective information-communication flows. Amongst other aspects, this requires the right scaling of infrastructure and services not just from the perspectives of economic and management efficiencies but also from the view of human connectedness and therefore fostering citizen engagement. The city fabric will be seen both as a whole as well as decentralised into smaller manageable urban communities, each of which is integrated with commuting systems, information and communication systems and services physically, virtually and through urban development guidelines that include engagement of all the citizens. Not much has been done in India in this regard, but in the last few years city level participatory planning for designing of urban services has been initiated in Delhi and Chhattisgarh. Another example comes from Indore city in the Central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. While designing the Indore smart city proposal, the Municipal Corporation decided to present a platform to its residents to actively participate in making Indore a Smart City. The municipality officials have been engaging with the citizens on finding innovative solutions for improved livability and governance so as to meet their aspirations.

Communication Reinforces Action and vice versa

The design of infrastructure and services would have to include mechanisms for information and communication that enable present and future needs to be assessed, collated and analysed; service standards and benchmarks to be devised and service quality, trends of use and abuse of infrastructure and amenities be tracked and put for public scrutiny. Measuring, forecasting, tracking and reporting will become essential features of such systems. More importantly, it will be critical to identify what needs to be measured and communicated and what kind of institutional systems need to be designed so as to enhance citizen participation and reinforce positive behaviours. For example, in western countries, university towns like Case Western, Rice University have introduced shuttle tracking systems which let the users track the arrival of the shuttle at a designated spot. Such systems, besides assessing the efficiency of public transport also facilitate the users in enhancing their public transportation experience.

Citizen Response

The design of space with respect to places of work, of leisure and amenities, design of mobility systems, design of the systems of water supply and waste management etc. can direct citizen behaviour. Both lack of citizen centric design, inadequate infrastructure and its poor management could lead a break-down of systems and undesired citizen behaviour. For example, focus on enhancing road networks without public transportation has led to undesirable and excessive personal car traffic in many cities, poor road design without thoughtful pedestrian crossings leads to jay walking and accidents and improper placement of waste collection bins and no punitive action leads to public littering - one of the biggest nuisances in India today. At the same time, if we know that available water is not safe to drink, we will make additional efforts to procure and secure safe water or protest for safe drinking water, just as adverse health impacts lead us to advocate for action on air quality.

Each one of us would rather take the route of least resistance, yet each one of us would act in the short term personal and longer term interest of our children, families and communities in that order. The question is how the path of least resistance can also be in our short and long term interest. One of the keys to this is information and communication. The other is appropriate scaling of systems that enables sustained collective action. Bangalore, once a city of numerous lakes is a water starved city today. Rapid urbanisation and unplanned development has taken a massive toll on the lake system of the city. Most of the lakes have been encroached upon to cater to the ever growing construction needs of the city. Sensing the need to act today for a better tomorrow, the citizens of Bangalore initiated a campaign to save the lakes. This campaign called ‘One Bengaluru For Lakes’ focuses on making the local municipality accountable for the upkeep of the lake, seeks to stop dumping of debris in the lakes and emphasises the involvement of citizens in lake rejuvenation planning and execution. This collective action may not have immediately visible impacts but would surely benefit the future city scape and ensure a better quality of life for future dwellers.

Citizen Action

While the virtual and e-communication systems have revolutionised the information-communication regime and a lot is being catalysed through virtual outreach and networking on social media platforms, human to human contact is essential for collective action. In recent days, we see growing examples of citizens taking collective positive action to remedy system break-downs that become unbearable and start to impact personal lives and livelihoods. Examples in India include:

• Ugly Indian initiative started from Bangalore that is taking charge of making public spaces cleaner and more aesthetic.

• Equal Street campaign initiated in Mumbai that is advocating the provision of better and safer walking and cycling infrastructure in our cities.

• Segregating domestic waste at home and opting for home composting by families in Delhi and Nashik.

• Citizens in Delhi and Gurgaon ‘taking back the roads through Rahagiri’ and citizens advocating to protect urban bio-diversity and planting new city forests like the Aravalli biodiversity park.

There are hundreds of small and big citizen action groups today, many of which are a result of citizens taking charge with the realisation that they are a part of the solution. Herein lies the opportunity for urban local bodies to work with citizen collectives, RWA’s youth groups and others who are both party to and affected by the mis-management of urban services and infrastructure.

Reinforcing Positive Action

Spontaneous positive citizen behaviours need to be reinforced with system supports to ensure that these become the norm. This can be engineered in various ways such that they generate win-win for all the stakeholders. Examples can be seen in the successful waste management system in some areas of Chennai where Exnora set up ‘only segregated waste collection from homes’ and a paid home composting service by Earth Care Design is helping over 300 families in Nashik to ensure that kitchen waste does not end up in the landfill. These are entrepreneurial systems with limited local government involvement. A recent ‘car-free Tuesday initiative in Gurgaon spear- headed by the residents has engaged all important players - right from the residents, the managing authorities and the public transportation providers working in tandem at a micro-level to provide last-mile connectivity.

To conclude, Indian cities have a long way to go in assessing and renewing their approach of functioning. They need to focus on adapting and responding to their citizens’ needs. The sooner a city aligns itself to the citizens’ demands, the better are its chances for a resplendent growth. q

¹ http://icrier.org/Urbanisation/events/26-27-August-Kerala/E%20H%20Pathan-2013.pdf