Centre for Local Democracy
Supporting local democracy initiatives through education, research and documentation
Details
The Centre for Local Democracy supports the work of Azim Premji Foundation and others working on deepening and widening local democracy across India. The Centre enhances the work done in rural, forest, PESA, and urban settings through educational programmes, documentation, dissemination of good practices and research in emerging thematic areas.
Despite having a robust institutional architecture of local democracy in the Indian Constitution and various statutes, the picture on the ground is far from desirable. While there is a state of apathy to fully implement the constitutional promise, the civil society has also stayed away from supporting the local democratic governance structures.
In recent times, however, significant civil society interventions have shown the potential of local democracy, which now needs academic support in terms of education, documentation, research and wider dissemination of the good practices. The Centre aims to do these.
The vision is to see that local democratic governance structures in rural, forest, PESA, and urban areas become competent, inclusive, and resourceful.