Janaagraha is a non-profit organisation based in Bangalore, India. It works with citizens and the government to improve the quality of life in Indian cities and towns.
The term ‘quality of life’ as defined by Janaagraha has two distinct and inter-related aspects. The first ‘quality of urban infrastructure and services’ – the quality of urban of amenities, i.e., roads, drains,traffic ,transport, water supply,etc.The second aspect is the ‘quality of citizenship’ – the role that urban residents play by participating in civic issues.
Founded in 2001 by Ramesh Ramanathan and Swati Ramanathan, Janaagraha started as a movement to enable citizen participation in public governance. It has now evolved into a robust institution for Citizenship and Democracy.
Change Bhubaneswar through Your Cellphone
Jannagraha believes in fostering the urban civic community, allowing citiznens to connect with each other, and with their civic agencies and local government bodies to make a real difference in their own neighbourhoods.
To achieve this, they need large-scale participation of the citizens like you and me. The good news is we can participate in this movement through our cellphones.
iChangeMyCity on Mobile Phone
Out of 160 million internet users in India, nearly 50% of them use Internet service via their mobile devices. This is an increasing trend and therefore, offers a great opportunity for people to join the movement. To leverage this trend, Janaagraha encourages you to download a very nifty mobile app called “iChangeMyCity”. If you have an Android or iOS Device, download the app by clicking in the appropriate link given below:
Click Here to Download iChangeMyCity for Android Phones
Click Here to Download iChangeMYCity for iPhone/iPad
Click Here to Visit the Website
iChangeMyCity Branches Out to Bhubaneswar
As a part of their plan to expand to other cities in India, iChangeMyCity is planning to start preliminary ground work in Bhubaneswar and other cities like Jaipur and New Delhi, which has been backed by high profile supporters like Google and Tata Group.
Latest Survey by Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy
As per the findings of the second edition of the Annual Survey of India’s City-Systems (ASICS) conducted by the Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy, Bangalore, despite its IT capital of India status, is behind smaller cities such Bhubaneswar when it comes to a range of policies and issues. Out of ten, Bangalore has an average score of 2.8 against the national average of 3.3.
Similarly, Mumbai has got a dismal 2.9 on ten on citizen services while Kolkata scored 4, the highest in India. Given below is a map of the survey:
The survey included 83 questions covering 115 parameters that define the functioning and policy framework of the cities. It evaluated cities on four aspects — urban planning and design, urban capacities and resources, empowered and legitimate political representation, and transparency, accountability and participation.
According to Jannagrapha, the scores imply that Indian cities are “grossly under-prepared to deliver a high quality of life that is sustainable in the long term.
The survey is a benchmarking exercise and covers 21 cities — Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Chennai, Dehradun, Delhi, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kanpur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Ludhiana, Mumbai, Patna, Pune, Raipur, Ranchi, Surat and Thiruvananthapuram — across 18 States. It included 83 questions covering 115 parameters that define the functioning and policy framework, and evaluated the cities on four aspects: urban planning and design, urban capacities and resources, empowered and legitimate political representation and transparency, and accountability and participation.
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