Background
The Centre did not intervene till 1992 in local self-government matters, as they were considered an exclusive domain of state governments. The political and economic environment of the late 1980s and early 1990s, however, fiscally and financially forced local authorities to depend on the State as well as the Centre to finance their overall development activities. This led the central government to directly intervene in local self-government affairs and introduce the 74th Constitutional Amendment Bill that gave sweeping powers to local authority, especially in planning and development by involving people at all levels.
Despite the provisions of the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act of 1992, not many local self-government institutions realised the importance of good governance. Though political devolution or the handing over of functions from the central to local authorities took place to some degree, fiscal and administrative devolution were not actualised in many states. Due to this municipalities and other self governance institutions continued to languish in a state of neglect. While the urban local bodies were given responsibilities, they were not given the financial power to act on these responsibilities. The state of affair held true primarily for small and medium towns. It was against the background of such a dismal state of affairs that PRIA and its partners ventured into the field.
PRIA has intervened in 1269 wards of 116 municipalities, focusing on small and medium towns to enable citizens access better services including water, sanitation, birth and death registration. Towards this end it has provided orientation to 3385 newly elected municipal councillors on their roles and responsibilities in urban governance; prompted use of citizen-centric birth registration procedures for the urban poor in 17 municipalities, and carried out 353 campaigns on sanitation and solid waste management.
While most constitutional institutions are in place in a democracy like India, they do not function effectively for the welfare of ordinary citizens. Institutional structures, systems and culture in the public domain have become discriminatory. They are anti-poor and work only for the rich and powerful. PRIA's interventions have focused on getting these public institutions to function in accordance with their constitutional mandates. From schools to clinics, from water to electricity departments, Panchayats to municipalities, State Election to State Finance to State Information Commissions, District Planning Committees to Town Planning departments, academia to research councils-PRIA has demanded of and facilitated all such public institutions, to fulfil their mandates through transparent and accountable functioning.
