An experiment that can make you smile

CHENNAI: In a bid to provide ward-based citizen-driven intervention which will facilitate more informed conversations between candidates seeking to be elected councillors and the public, Transparent Chennai is launching a Ward Accountability Experiment.As per the initiative, Transparent Chennai plans to leverage low-cost, easy mapping and survey methods to create records of local needs and problems in partnership with students and citizen groups. “Using internally developed mapping and survey methodologies, we plan to conduct citizen-driven audits to create an  information database about the state of the pedestrian environment, the efficiency of the waste management system and the state of public sanitation in a particular ward,” said Siddharth Hande of the Institute for Financial Management and Research (IFMR).Interestingly, the initiative comes in the wake of upcoming local body elections.Compiling such information will provide a baseline data against which performance of local elected representatives in addressing local issues can be measured, he added.Many local problems are easily experienced, but are difficult to quantify and monitor. Problems like garbage, waterlogging and broken sidewalks remain in the realm of the informal; the government does not record them systematically even though these are the problems that define day-to-day lives. Different groups of residents also experience problems differently. “We have already created a ‘core group’ citizen base comprising volunteers from our partner institutions including the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP), Center for Environmental Education (CEE), the Madras School of Social Work and the Rotaract Club of Madras."Apart from these institutions, student volunteers from Reclaim Our Beaches (ROB) and the Humanities Department of the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT-M) have expressed a desire to participate,” Hande added.“Once the data has been gathered, we will invite the candidates seeking election as Councillors, the constituents of Ward 152 and the general public to a public meeting where the implications of the findings will be discussed, and where candidates will be invited to make a commitment to improving conditions in the ward,” he added.There will be three public data gathering sessions on September 10, 17 and 24 from 10 AM to 6 PM. For more queries visit ww.transparentchennai.com