Tamil Nadu has highest number of women councillors: report

46% of councillors in urban local bodies are women, says a report by Janaagraha, a not-for-profit organisation working to strengthen systems of governance in India’s cities

Around 46% of the councillors in India are women, and in 19 out of 21 capital cities that have active urban local bodies, including Patna, Shimla, Ranchi and Bhubaneswar, the figure goes well over 60%.

Among the States, Tamil Nadu has the highest number of women councillors, according to a roadmap on urban transformation in India released on Tuesday.

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The other States in the top 10 are Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Bihar and Chhattisgarh.

According to the report ‘Roadmap for India’s CitySystems Reforms’ by Janaagraha, a not-for-profit organisation working to strengthen systems of governance in India’s cities, 17 States have legislated for 50% women’s reservation, well over the constitutional minimum of 33%.

Rural-urban transition policy

The roadmap offers three pathways for India’s urban transformation, namely place-based governance of India’s cities, decentralised participatory governance, and building State capacities.

It makes a strong case for implementing a rural-urban transition policy to facilitate planned urbanisation of fast-urbanising villages, highlighting that approximately 1,000 of them have already transitioned to cities since Census 2011.

In order to embed place-based governance in the Union and State governments, the roadmap makes an important recommendation to reimagine the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs as well as State Urban departments as Ministries or departments for regional economies and local governments, which are organised around regions and focussed on strengthening local self-government institutions, and not just around sectors, schemes, and funding sources.

Roping in citizens

On decentralised participatory governance, the roadmap reiterates the significance of strengthening urban local governments (ULGs) and facilitating citizen participation through the amendment and implementation of the 74^th constitutional amendment.

It makes a note of delayed council elections (across 61% of ULGs in 15 States), disempowered ULGs and Mayors (who have complete autonomy over only four out of 18 functions), and the lack of formal platforms for citizen participation.

Skilling of staff

The roadmap also makes a strong case for certification-based skilling programmes for ULG staff, municipal shared service centres that leverage spatial contiguity of urban India, particularly to benefit smaller cities, a digital public finance management system to monitor fund utilisation alongside physical progress of works, and development of a shelf of projects in all cities, to also catalyse municipal borrowings.

“We need to course correct away from sector, scheme, and funding-oriented governance of India’s cities to a sharply place-based governance model,” Srikanth Viswanathan, Chief Executive Officer, Janaagraha, said while releasing the roadmap.

Published - November 19, 2024 08:01 pm IST