Ellara Bengaluru is leveraging the present interest in reviving the ward committees in the city. While the ward committees are currently a platform for raising grievances and issues at the ward level, these are fast evolving as platforms of decentralised planning and management. The campaign will work to include the voices of the urban poor in their respective wards and advocate for pathways to include them in planning and policy development exercises.

Over the past year, the Ellara Bengaluru coalition has met both physically and virtually to discuss the structure, mandate and framework of the campaign. These meetings have been crucial to promote cross-learning and collaboration among organisations working in the same geography or on the same issues. Participation from over 17 organisations working in Bengaluru has enabled a rich discussion on the creation of ward-level factsheets that are envisioned as comprehensive data tools to be leveraged for ward-level reforms. The factsheets will capture critical socio-economic and infrastructural data at the ward-level, so as to facilitate transparency and participatory action for development. This entails making the data accessible, not only in terms of availability, but also linguistically and contextually.

Through the various coalition meetings, it was decided that climate change and WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) would be the initial focal themes for action.