Emerging Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs)

Dr Rao VBJ Chelikani

It is a fact that more and more Indians are living in urban areas, mostly in Colony Welfare Associations, apartment buildings and Gated Communities. They are a hard-working middleclass forming self-governing micro-urban communities and manage themselves to increase their standard of living. They strive to be more and more productive and are maintaining a growth rate of our economy, year after year. The municipalities in which they live are receiving good revenue as property tax. They pay all kinds of direct and indirect taxes, and as a consequence of which, nearly 7 or 8 cities and their surroundings in the country are contributing three-fourths of receipts of the Union government. This is enabling the Union and state governments to propose new and newer welfare schemes for the general public. Urban citizens do not want free things, as they have income and are willing to pay for all amenities they receive. Since they are all well-qualified, competent and self-reliant people, they can and want to participate to ensure the quality and efficiency of the services for which they are paying. They can associate themselves for efficient management of their roads, lighting, water supply, drainage, their dry and vet waste, etc. Yet, they are not keen to participate in the elections held once in five years to elect their representatives, as they are getting more and more alienated from the overall governance due to the absence of direct channels of dialogue and interaction with the concerned political and administrative authorities for all the day to day problems faced by them. At the municipal level, there are no Ward Committees to represent them, whereas in the Panchayats for every two to three hundred citizens, there is a Ward member. 

I. Local Participation:

1. Following the spirit of the 74th Amendment of our Constitution, which was got adopted by Mr. Rajeev Gandhi, local self-government at the level of the municipality is to be strengthened by the state government by transferring the 18 functions mentioned, with necessary functionaries and funds. Most of the state governments have not done it completely.

2. Article 243 S in the Constitution expressly suggested the creation of "Wards Committees" in each municipality. They are to be composed of representatives of Resident Welfare Associations and other registered civil society organisations of local youth, senior citizens and women. The Ward Committee's mission is to make proposals and to participate in local area planning, budget proposals for some maintenance works, field coordination of the works of various departments, and setting up local Standard Operating Procedures for Disaster Management, etc. Further, as the need of the hour demands, the members can make appropriate commitments on behalf of their communities to reduce and eliminate locally prevalent environmental pollutions. As stakeholders, they would be acting immediately in all those activities with locally appropriate knowledge, expertise and innovation. a). Each Ward Committee should hold periodical 'Area Sabhas' of the residents of different areas in the Ward in cooperation with the RWAs, which statutorily hold periodical general assembly meetings of their residents. 

3. Such a Ward Committee would have its office headed by a Ward Administrative Officer, equivalent to the rank of an Assistant Municipal Commissioner for local coordination of field officers belonging to the health, hygiene, roads, lighting, disease control, etc. and to resolve directly and immediately local complaints received.

4. The Municipal Commissioner should facilitate direct relations and transactions between the projects of the RWAs (particularly in areas of Climate Change) and the companies in the local area which would like to express their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). 

5. Inspired by the Bhagidari System that was very successfully practiced in New Delhi by Mrs. Sheila Dixit, many construction, development and repair works can be entrusted, in a collaborative manner, to the RWAs; in which case, there will be more quality, fewer delays and lower costs. At least, there should be endorsement of the finished works of the contractors, or Social Audit by the RWAs. 

6. The "Performance Grant" that is being received by the Urban Local bodies based on the criteria proposed by the XVI Finance Commission should include the participation of the local RWAs as one of the criteria. Suggestion: Most of the above democratic measures have been incorporated in G.O. Ms.57 dated 10th February 2010 by the then Telangana Government, but later on, the Ward Committees became ineffective in all the municipalities and they were not even formed in Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation. Therefore, now there is a need to revive the above-said G.O. in its original form and implement it in all the municipalities in Telangana as well as in Andhra Pradesh. A similar mechanism should be available in all municipalities and corporations in the entire country. 

II. A Model Act for RWAs:

The legal status and form given to the three kinds of RWAs, i.e. Apartment-Building Associations or Colony Welfare Associations or Gated Communities in each of the states is different under different Acts for registration. Their uniqueness, their being a self-governing micro-urban community with common management of areas of common property and open spaces in the area for common usage, their concern and care for the neighbour, their attention to the safety and security of local community, their stake in local area infrastructure development and voluntary management without any remuneration by the regularly-elected residents are to be recognised as a special legal entity of "Community Managed Housing Society" by a model national Act. 

Suggestion: Since the last four years, there has been no clear recognition of legal status to the Resident Welfare Associations, despite their growth in number, there is an urgent need to amend the Andhra Pradesh Apartments (Promotion of Construction & Ownership) Act, 1987 to suit its current status, role and needs. The current NOIDA model and the legislation on RWAs in Kerala, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh could serve to inspire suitable modifications.