Praja Foundation

Praja strives to revive the waning spirit of Mumbai, and increase the interaction between the citizens and the government. For this, they have created a web portal: www.praja.org to equip citizens with pertinent information, like issues faced by the ward, the responses received, along with a discussion board. Prajas primary focus areas for research are health, crime, education, working of elected representatives, housing and civic issues. Their research and outreach activities are essentially guided by the data collected and analysed by them through extensive use of The Right to Information Act, 2005 (RTI).

Key activities:

• Launched a new chapter in Delhi starting with data collection and collation through RTI applications in Delhi. They will conduct research in the areas of crime, education, health and working of Elected Representatives (ER). They have partnered with the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) for research on crime.
• After having conducted a series of consultations with experts in urban planning since 2013, Praja widened its range to include research in the new arena of affordable housing. The idea is to create a knowledge bank for Elected Representatives, citizens and media, replete with data on Housing, issues with current approaches, demystify concepts such as Floor Space Index and popular myths surrounding these issues.
• Praja’s first publication was the ‘Report on Working of Ward Committees in Mumbai and Civic Problems of Citizens’. It presented a thorough analysis of citizen’s issues in the 24 wards of Mumbai, and deliberation by the councilors of the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai.
• Praja collaborated with the Urban Design Research Institute for the Handbook on ‘Planning for Mumbai: The Development Plan for Greater Mumbai 2014-2034’which has been published in two languages, English and Marathi, so as to reach out to a wider audience.