Sunday, March 24, 2019

Local Politics / Community Politics


    As wiki says, it is a movement to re-engage people with political action on a local level.Simply Gang-up and act on resolution.

We can see this in our daily life. If we live in apartments or individual houses, there used to be a person interested in public activities such as planting trees on road sides, sending petition for laying roads, water facilities. These activities attracts interested people around (Always passion attracts people). Slowly people start to gang-up. (Usually they start a WhatsApp group to discuss) Through their deliberations they come-up with "area-needs" that requires action. For instance, news of robbery in nearby area creates discussions regarding security measures for the locality. That may end-up in overall plan for CCTV installation for the area.

However, if the same group is lead by political authorities like councilors. The group decision has an edge on authorities. So their requests are most likely heard and acted upon. For instance, if councilor calls for clearing garbage in an area, it will be honored mostly with least delay.

The British concept of community politics goes further to involve local people in governance actions. Like, people can gang-up and start clearing garbage spread over the area due to sudden heavy winds. Bringing local issues to the attention of authorities is just part of the solution. But involving communities in the action makes the community stronger.

Recent Plastic Ban in Tamil Nadu, created positive opinions among people. In reality, blanket ban did not succeed. These kind of initiatives can be successful only if the community is involved actively. Because 50% responsibilities falls directly on people's behavior.

The challenge lies in keeping people organized. Because there are numerous things which call push people away (Centrifugal force). It could be as small as a forward message on WhatsApp group or a conflict of interest over property maintenance. The solution lies in constructive communication.

Let me share real life experience on community politics in future posts. Also please write your experiences as well (How you ganged-up for common cause and acted upon resolution. Also how far it is successful)

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