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An idea for a BILLION people

The Problem

Have you ever heard someone say - “They come for campaigning before elections, make high-flying promises and disappear for 5 years.”?

My money is on that - yes, you have heard the same and multiple times, no less. This now seems like a perennial and insurmountable challenge. The public seems to have reluctantly accepted that elected officials are not accountable once they are elected till they are up for elections again. The average voter, therefore, feels helpless and even insignificant in the grand scheme of things. “Public Servants”, ironically, enjoy immense power without much accountability to the Public.

Recently, the financial muscle-flexing of a few political parties has rendered the emergence of better politicians and or parties virtually impossible save for good leaders having to tag along with a national party.

I think most of us will agree that there is ample outrage and dissent everywhere around us, however, that outrage is heavily under-represented to the accountable authorities as they indulge in corruption, apathy and gross misconduct. The traditional means of representative dissent - protests, on-ground reporting etc. - seem to have failed, save for sensationalized issues of national interest like the CAA-NRC protests during Modi-Shah administration or massive scams during UPA-II administration.

What then can be done?

My hypothesis is that if local issues like bad infrastructure or law and order situation are raised to the responsible authorities in a targeted, structured and actionable manner with evidential proof of public support then the authorities will have to pay heed to the issues being raised. A platform facilitating such efforts will gain enough traction and eventually can be a platform for larger socio-political discourse and direction.

Let’s see how this can be achieved. To start with, the platform will only be an issue-ticketing platform of sorts. For example, we can take a real issue and see how this can be dealt with.

“Chelekere main road, a 1 KM stretch of road at HRBR Layout stage II (gps location), has been dysfunctional for more than 5 months. The road is completely unusable with sewage water overflowing on the road as the road itself remains heavily dug up.”

  • The responsible authorities for this issue are - BBMP (assumption, can be verified).
  • The affected population - Residents of Kalyan Nagar, people who have to use this road for the daily commute and local shop owners who are facing a slump in daily business.

Now, to resolve this issue, the platform will need the following stakeholders:

  • General users (verified voters, non-voting residents)
  • Independent citizen reporters
  • NGOs
  • Incumbent politicians (non participating, contacted by representatives of the platform separately)
  • Aspiring politicians/activists
  • Corporates

How it works?

  • User registers on the platform. They need to provide - Voter ID to be considered a voter, their residential address and their contact information along with non-mandatory personal info.
  • Any user (any stakeholder) can report the issue with the following information -
    • The core issue
    • A detailed explanation
    • Photographs / Video evidence of the issue
    • Geo-location of the affected area
  • The platform verifies the information provided. Assigns public representatives who are responsible to solve it, along with their public contact info and publishes the issue online.
  • Any voter or resident can do the following on the platform -
    • Browse issues that affect them (curated using their residential address and / or voting location)
    • Vote to acknowledge that they are affected by the issue
    • Fund the marketing (targeted online, offline) of the issue
  • Citizen reporters cover the issue with video interviews of affected parties or articles supported by photographs etc. Which are visible on the reporters’ personal page and also in the page showcasing the issue. All of these videos are also made available to viewers based on their location or interests.
  • Representatives of the platform contact relevant corporates, local business owners to get a pledge for funding the issue. Funds to be disbursed once the authorities start working on the same.
  • Responsible authorities are sent a notice (which is shared with all concerned parties) with the following information once the issue has garnered enough support -
    • The core issue
    • Number of voters who said that they are affected by the issue
    • Number of non-voting residents who said that they are affected by the issue
    • Amount pledged by corporates which is available to the authorities for spending on this issue
    • The fact that all unresolved issues under their supervision will be made public and sent to relevant voters just before their post goes to election.
  • Once the issue has been resolved, the authorities can ask for the issue to be resolved on the platform. The entity which raised the issue in the first place is notified and once they also accept the resolution then the issue is closed and all concerned parties are notified with thanks.
  • There will be a profile managed by the platform for all incumbent politicians showcasing their performance w.r.t. Raised issues, their general profile (publicly available info), news articles with their mentions etc.
  • Whenever a position goes for election, the page, along with a gist is sent via text messages and emails to all the eligible voters for that election.
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