While political parties are yet to release their manifesto for the Karnataka Assembly elections, various civil society groups are putting forward what people really expect along with data analyses.
On Saturday, the Civil Society Forum released a ‘people’s manifesto’ with the hope that political parties include the issues in their manifestos.
Historian and writer Ramachandra Guha, who presided over the event, said, “Today, our nation has become an ‘election only democracy’. There is no accountability of the government to the citizens, judiciary or media between elections. .”
He lamented that political parties were not interested in having a dialogue with civil society organisations (CSOs), though the CSOs came with much knowledge, expertise, and understanding of ground-level realities. “Sadly, election results were not being honoured and duly elected governments were being toppled,” Mr. Guha added.
The ‘people’s manifesto’ has demands pertaining to administrative measures, curbing corruption, urban governance, housing, and slums, panchayat raj, agriculture, right to food, health, education, labour issues, women’s right, rights of the differently abled, environment, solid waste management, and transportation.
On religious freedom, the manifesto states that there is an atmosphere of fear and apprehension in the minds of the common man because of hate politics.
It states: “The parties standing for election and coming to power should not indulge in hate politics, divisive sectarian and casteist agenda and polarisation. There is a need for governments to denounce and take immediate action to halt, curb, and control the growth and power of vigilante groups. History should not be distorted to serve divisive agendas. Everyone’s right to religious freedom to propagate and practice their faith, their right to eat food and wear clothes of their choice, and their right to do business and carry on their livelihood should be equally available to all.”
Datajam analyses
On the other hand, OpenCity.in on Saturday conducted a “datajam” at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore to analyse the data of Bengaluru constituencies in the context of the upcoming Assembly elections.
In a daylong event, citizens from varied backgrounds, including urban designers, GIS experts, software developers, and public health and policy enthusiasts, joined hands to analyse various datasets available for each of the 28 Assembly constituencies of Bengaluru.
The focus areas chosen by the volunteers were education, health, mobility, and civic participation.
While they found that in health, Bengaluru does fairly well in terms of primary healthcare centres with the addition of Namma Clinics, they said anganwadi centres are severely lacking in our city. “It was observed that the number of private schools in Bengaluru far exceeds that of public schools. There is an urgent need for MLAs to look at medical facilities and sanitation in public schools. We noted that schools in 22 constituencies failed to meet pupil-teacher ratios. Recruitment of teachers is an urgent need,” they pointed out.
A release said, “Nearly 2,900 bus stops and 63 metro stations have been analysed to understand how the Bengaluru constituencies fare in terms of access to public transport. Ten are yet to have any metro connectivity. While the inner constituencies were well connected by buses, outer constituencies need better public transport investment, both in terms of stops and frequencies. Anekal, Bengaluru South, Byatarayanapura, and Yelahanka have limited access to public transport when compared with other constituencies.
Looking at voter participation, ward committee meetings conducted and minutes uploaded, and complaints filed in IChangeMyCity (Public Eye) as well as Fix My Street, the team found that participation in elections does not correlate to how often people complain about issues with the BBMP.
“Such analysis can be useful for the MLAs who will be elected next month to know where the gaps are that need to be addressed,” the release said
