Praja Brings Mumbai’s Real Issues To Light In Their Latest Report

On the eve of the general elections, the NGO Praja launched its second white paper focusing on the issues faced in the six Mumbai constituencies.

The white paper contains details of the problems and issues that citizens of Mumbai face on a day to day basis. The information is collected through Right-to-Information Act and is available on praja.org website.

The report draws light on a variety of city related issues including civic, crime, health and education. “While these problems are at the micro level and might not directly pertain to the ambit of scope for an MP, each of them needs a macro and long term approach to bring about a solution. We believe that due to the continuous neglect of national issues like the rule of Law, Good and rational economic policy, decentralization of power and not strictly implementing local self government model has resulted in a vicious fermentation of problems that has created its own vortex of abyss. It is here that the elected members of Parliament need to bring the macro issues to a national consciousness through the power that their constituents bestow them with. And hopefully, through their good offices, goad the relevant implementing authorities to address the issues on a priority basis.” says Nitai Mehta, founder trustee Praja

To be sure, the MPs who eventually get elected for this Lok Sabha will have a plethora of promises to keep to their constituents, Praja aims to raise some of the key issues that are plaguing the city of Mumbai.

Section A of the report deals with Civic issues in Mumbai. It highlights the total number of complaints filed in an MP constituency across Mumbai and in that number of Miscellaneous and related/others complaints. In turn it also shows that MCGM has nearly 66% of the complaints that are either Miscellaneous or marked as others. The report questions the fact that if the MCGM itself does not know how to define the problem, how will it be able to solve it?

Further, the top three complaints filed include building related issues, license issues and water complaints. Buildings related issues (details of Building related problems given below) is the top civic issue across all 6 constituencies. The lack of clear policy’s on old buildings, rent act, redevelopment of the old buildings, corruption and over legislation on issues has led to buildings always being the biggest problem in the city.

The next section of the report deals with crime. Of the number of Cases registered across Mumbai, the South Central constituency has the highest cases registered in both FIR and NC. The top two FIR cases filed are theft and vehicles stolen. North Central constituency has registered cases of 838 stolen vehicles, the highest among the six constituencies.

The report also reveals that South Mumbai considered the safest, highly educated and affluent has the highest cases of Rape registered. South Mumbai, South Central Mumbai and North Central Mumbai have over 60% of all the rape cases registered in the city.

Of heinous crimes in the city which include, murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping and riots South, South Central and North Central have 81% of all the heinous registered in Mumbai. South Central has the highest registered number of 953 cases.

Moving on to education in the city, the report shows the number of dropouts and passout students in Municipal schools of each constituency. It is clear that there is a drop out rate of 5% to 8% each year. This proves that over the years there has been no improvement in the dropout rates from the Municipal schools. These frightening statistics show that if 100 children enter the 1st standard only 12 remain till the 10th standard. The North East constituency shows the lowest passing rate among students.

The health issues in the city are of deep concern. The top five diseases registered at the municipal dispensary’s which are run by the MCGM across the city are diarrhea, hypertension, tuberculosis, malaria and diabetes. Diarrhea is the highest across the 6 constituencies. This is directly related to the quality of water supply in Mumbai. These findings are surprising for a city like Mumbai which is the best that India has to offer in terms of facilities has not been able to provide the basics of clean drinking water.

Says Nitai Mehta, “Our aim is to make the incumbent MPs aware of the issues plaguing the six constituencies of Greater Mumbai; The issues might be civic and local, but they need to be tackled from a macro perspective and from the Parliament. At the very least, they need to be aware of the problems of their respective constituencies that have elected them.”

- About Praja-

Founded in 1998, The PRAJA Foundation is a non-partisan voluntary organization which empowers the citizen to participate in the governing process. With a view to provide knowledge, transparency, accountability and enlist people’s participation, PRAJA specifically aims to provide ways in which the citizen can get politically active and involved beyond the ballot box.

Concerned about the lack of awareness of the local government among citizens, and hence the disinterest in its functioning, PRAJA seeks change. With citizens having become apathetic toward public services, and branding the same as corrupt, PRAJA strives to create awareness about the elected representatives and their constituencies. It aims to encourage the citizen to raise his/her voice and influence the policy and working of the elected representative. This will eventually lead to constituency efforts being directed towards the specified cause of public interest.

The PRAJA foundation strives to revive the waning spirit of Mumbai City, and increase the interaction between the citizens and the government. To facilitate this, Praja has created praja.org , an online website where the citizen can not only discuss the issues that their constituencies face, but can also get in touch with their elected representatives directly. The website has been equipped with information like the issues faced by the ward, the corporators, the responses received and a discussion board allowing an interaction between the citizens of the area.

PRAJA’s goals are simplifying people’s lives, empowering the citizens and government with facts and creating instruments of change to improve the quality of life of citizens in India. PRAJA is committed to creating an accountable and efficient society through people’s participation.