Public Engagement Processes in Urban Development Programmes in India

Acknowledging Sherry Arnstein’s view (1969), the idea of engaging public is like eating spinach, no one is against it since it is good. Public engagement has been widely discussed, debated and considered theme of importance since then. The paper attempts to understand and assess the current status of public engagement with regard to urban development programmes in India, its significance and challenges in Indian context. The research fulfils the study gap of producing a methodology to assess public engagement for urban development programmes in Indian context based on criteria from literature. Such studies bring significance of assessing public engagement during the implementation of development programmes, while evaluating the impact and reach of said initiatives. The inferences of the study have been derived with regard to government’s intention as documented for the urban development programmes like Swaccha Bharat Mission (SBM), Smart Cities, Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) and National Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana (HRIDAY). The opportunities these interventions offered for the public to engage have been assessed using acceptance and process criteria and emphasizing the significance and challenges of public engagement. A common observation which is persistent across all indicator themes is that public engagement extended through any of these four urban programmes is much less than the maximum value achievable. The study reveals there is negligible clarity in communicating the method of decision making in public domain and mechanisms of structured decision making is also virtually absent. The finding implies need for improvement in engagement methods and implementation mechanisms. The need for robust engagement initiatives in India and improvement in existing processes in place is also validated and supported by literature evidence.