Good Governance Week
2020
On the occasion of Good Governance Day on 25th December, YfGG organised Good Governance Week which was a series of webinars and interactive sessions spread over a span of 5 days from 21st to 25th December to celebrate the spirit of active citizenship and participation of youth in Good Governance.
Every year, 25th December is observed as Good Governance Day which is the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee. This day was first celebrated in 2014 to honor Mr. Vajpayee's contribution and celebrate his vision of spreading awareness on accountability of the Government. To live up to the spirit of the Good Governance Day, this day is observed as a working day for the government.
Day 1
The Good Governance Week started on 21st December and the first session for the week was with Bhakti Sharma who is a Sarpanch of Barkhedi Abdullah, M.P. The session was moderated by Ankit Raj who is one of the core team members of Youth for Good Governance. The theme for the first session was "Youth Participation in Local Governance and Service Delivery."
Bhakti Sharma stated that one of the best privileges that she has gotten is working at the grassroots level as a Sarpanch because she feels that panchayats plays a very significant role in Governance in a country like India where 65% of the population is in rural India. As a sarpanch, it has been a journey of ups and downs and a journey full of experiences for her for the past 6 years. One important gap that she pointed out was that we mostly try to solve the rural problems from an urban perspective which becomes a barrier to the rural development. It is important to engage with the community to bring the real change at the grassroots level. We really need to understand that implementation of policies is a major problem in our country. There is a lack of awareness among the common citizens regarding the policies that exist. This is where the youth comes in. We need educated and aware youth who will work at the ground level to make people aware about the existing policies and encourage them to get involved as active citizens to bridge the gap between policy implementation and service delivery. The youth can play an important role in determining the welfare of their respective areas by actively taking part and getting involved at the ground level. She highlighted that constructive criticism is important for any democracy to function but at the same time, the youth need to actively engage at the grassroots level to successfully implement their ideas and vision of a welfare state.
The session was an extremely insightful one where Bhakti Sharma’s insights and her thoughts on youth leadership inspired the organizing team as well as the audience and was a positive experience for all.
Day 2
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On 22nd December which was the second day of the Good Governance Week, we had Mallica Jagad from TATA Trusts and former fellows of Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin), MDWS and TATA Trusts, Maitree Ganguly, Jeevan Roy, and Ishaan Sethi. The session was moderated by Sourav Mukherjee, one of the co-founders of YfGG and also a former fellow of Swachh Bharat Mission.
Mallica Jagad who works with TATA Trusts is a lady of courage and resilience who saved more than 60 lives during the 26/11 attacks on Taj Mumbai. She took up responsibility during the crisis situation at a young age of 24 and saved lives. She acts as an inspiration for today's youth. The youth should be aware and active citizens of the society. As active citizens, the onus is on all of us to take responsibility and engage actively with the government to ensure welfare of the common people. Mallica shed light on what it meant to cause positive disruptions in the government systems and bring a change at the ground level through the Swacch Bharat Mission fellowship where the youth brought their enthusiasm and zeal to the table to fill the gaps in the system. The fellowship was a systematic infusion of young talents which she highlighted that it was not something that we see everyday.
Former Swachh Bharat Mission Fellows, Maitree Ganguly, Ishaan Sethi, and Jeevan Roy shared their experiences of working as fellows in their respective villages and districts that they were assigned.
As a fellow, Ishaan was placed in Kashmir and it was very challenging for him to implement his ideas however he believed that the Swacch Bharat Fellowship was a turning point in many ways for him personally as well as at the ground level. He shared that the intended outcome of the mission was that the fellows came with some fresh energy and they brought some velocity which made things move faster. Along with that, there was another unintended outcome which was that because of the presence of the fellows who were outsiders and young and energetic, the existing staff in the Govt. offices were brought to their toes. He felt that as fellows, they brought in some disruption in the mindset of the people existing in government offices and that urgency to implement the policies at the ground level was brought in the fellows.
Maitree shared that as fellows, everyone worked in collaboration with each other and there was a healthy competition as well which acted as a motivation to work more enthusiastically. The fellows acted as the communication bridge between the highest authority of the district and the beneficiaries which was the essence of the whole mission.
Jeevan highlighted that he had received immense support and cooperation from the CEO of the district he was posted in as a fellow. She understood the importance of the fellowship and extended her cooperation as well and overall they had achieved 50% of the target that they were supposed to complete during the tenure of their fellowship which was a huge accomplishment. Overall, he felt that the fellows with their fresh ideas and decision making capabilities were able to make progress in their concerned districts in a short period of time which was a disruption in the Government 's lack of service delivery at the ground level.
Day 3
On the third day of Good Governance Week, 23rd December, we had the privilege of hosting Amit Amarnath who is a Lawyer and Founder of Youth for Parivarthan. The organization started as a small group of like minded individuals who wanted to give back to the society by making Bangalore cleaner and restoring the city its previous title of "Garden City." The session was moderated by Sourav Mukherjee who is one of the co-founders of YfGG.
Amith shared his insights on how our education system is rigid and has certain flaws due to which attention is given only to the academic commitments and requirements. Little to no attention is paid to extra curricular activities like service in action, for example volunteering, working with NGOs, and engaging with civil society organizations. There is an urgent need to inculcate such activities into the curriculum. These activities should be encouraged by the educational institutions and equal support must be given by the family members, friends, and relatives. If that starts happening, a lot of people will come forward and take up new initiatives and we will be able to build a proactive society.
He further added that if we go around telling people to keep their surroundings clean, people will not take you seriously because people don't like being preached upon. Instead, if you take an initiative of cleaning a place along with a few like minded individuals and while you are at it, approach the neighborhood people, it will have a greater impact than only giving awareness sessions because value actions more than words. And actions have greater impact in enhancing a person's civic sense.
Another important aspect that he shed light on is that people don't really know whom to approach for what sort of civic issues. We need to spread awareness regarding who is responsible for what so that people know whom to actually approach when a certain issue of public importance arises. The educated youth have an active role in this aspect. They can actively engage with civil society organizations or form their own collectives to take the necessary actions to bring a positive change in their area.
The session was an interactive one and it was truly inspiring to hear Mr. Amith Amarnath talk about his initiative and the importance of youth in impacting the lives of people in their area and in the society at large.
Day 4
On the 4th day of the Good Governnace Week, 24th December, we had Mr. Rahul Kapoor, IRAS and Director of Smart Cities Mission and India Smart Cities Fellows, Nandini Bhattacharya, Sreenandini Banerjee, and Mayank Saravagi. It was an interactive session on the theme of “Citizen Participation and Good Governance- Smart City Mission.”
Rahul Kapoor spoke about the importance of citizen engagement in the urban planning process. He stated that when we talk about keeping citizens in focus and making them the core of all our planning, the idea is basically the need to align the aspirations of the citizens to the planning process. It is very important to understand what the citizens want and that is where the questions of citizen engagement come in. When the smart cities mission was started, the concept of engaging with people in the whole process of planning took a bottoms up approach which led to many new innovations and initiatives by the urban planners to engage citizens in the system actively. How planners and future leaders make citizen engagement a sustainable part of the city governance is a very important part of the urban planning ecosystem. Another important aspect that he highlighted was the importance of creating able and aware future leaders to make the entire process of urban planning and citizen engagement sustainable and to do this, it is very important to invest in creating good mentors and guides for the young generation.
Day 5
On the last and final day of Good Governance Week, 25th December which was also the Good Governance Day, we had three very eminent personalities to conclude the event and throw light on the importance of Good Governance from the perspective of administrators. The themes of the discussion were "Ethics, Accountability, and Democracy as Pillars of Good Governance" and "Good Governance through Community Policing." The sessions were moderated by Sourav Mukherjee, Vinay Bhushan and Saranya Jayaram who are the core team members of YfGG.
Firstly, we had Sri Rajeev Chandrasekhar, MP as our honorable chief guest who talked about the importance of accountability in systems across the country. It is important to take responsibility as a part of the Government administration and at the same time be aware of what our individual duties are to uplift the state and ensure welfare of the people. He also highlighted the importance of honouring our veterans and giving the due respect for their experiences and the insights that they share with us. Towards the end, Sir officially inaugurated the career counselling cell of YfGG which aims at giving youth the right guidance to make them responsible citizens.
Miss Ira Singhal, IAS, Department of Social Welfare, Govt. Of Delhi was our next chief guest. She recounted some of her inspirational experiences from her profession to highlight the importance of zeal and determination to achieve what we wish to and bring a positive change in the system at the same time. She emphasised on the importance of youth in making a difference and for doing the same, one need not necessarily be in the system. What one needs to be, is a responsible citizen and an aware individual.
Our day came to a conclusion with a very insightful session by our last chief guest, IPS Santosh Mishra, Lucknow. He spoke about the police reforms needed to maintain the law and order and at the same time pave the path for just governance. He also emphasised the role of youth in making a change by tapping the strengths of young individuals and encouraging them to engage actively on a daily basis in the governance system be it at the grassroots level as administrators. Lastly, he concluded by highlighting the importance of social media in today's crime scenario and the responsible usage of the same by the citizens of the country.
The week long sessions were full of learning, invigorating passion, and endless inspiration which will indeed encourage us to work harder and encourage more young people to become an integral part of the governance system in order to create a pro active society.
