Depending on the definition of “urban”, India’s population, 32% urban in 2011, could well be over 40% urban in the next 8-10 years, if not higher.

As India continues to urbanise, some critical questions on the landscape emerge:

• In the rising cities, are citizens able to invoke their rights or do ties between the political elite and citizens remain unwaveringly strong?
• Can effective citizenship, exercised by citizens through political and civic participation, lead to substantive improvements in people’s lives? Specifically, can it help improve the extent and quality of public service delivery (water, sanitation, electricity, transport)?

With these questions in mind, Janaagraha and Professors Ashutosh Varshney and Patrick Heller at Brown University, USA, formed a research partnership and developed a project. In addition, Professor Siddharth Swaminathan (Azim Premji University, Bangalore) is our academic collaborator in India.

Entitled the Jana-Brown Citizenship Index (JB-CI) study, we are gathering systematic data on the relationship between citizenship and delivery of public services as well as on how citizens engage the state in cities across India.

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are also expanding our research to look at the response and recovery of different communities from COVID-19, with reference to citizenship and basic service delivery.