Mumbai Unmasked its Opinions!
2020 was the year for change and the year for introspection. As the world reeled under the impact of an unprecedented crisis, it brought to light some burning issues that deserve our attention. Needless to say, healthcare stood paramount.
Mumbai, the city of the indomitable fighting spirit, found itself in the midst of a quarantine quagmire with the number of cases escalating on a daily basis. The complex demography of the populous city only added fuel to fire; once again bringing to fore the vulnerabilities of the city’s medical infrastructure.
Hence when the annual health budget of the city was up for deliberation in February’21 by the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM), it was only but necessary that the city’s people have their say in matters that had impacted them in more ways than one.
It was with this intent that the Civic Innovation Foundation (through its platform — Civis) supported by the A.T.E. Chandra Foundation carried out a public survey. We were keen to ascertain feedback from Mumbaikars on the list of areas they seek to be prioritised by the MCGM during their planning and budgeting exercise for the health sector in the coming year.
The feedback collection was carried out through two channels online responses — where residents responded on Civis’ website and on-ground responses from those with little or no digital literacy. In total, 1045 inputs were gathered that presented the city’s voice on matters that they considered important.
The process that involves residents having a say in their city’s administration and budgetary allocation is known as ‘Participatory Budgeting’. It aims at embodying the true essence of democracy. The ensuing process unravelled the minds of the average Mumbaikar and the aspirations that they held for the city and its healthcare system.
The COVID-19 pandemic and the impact that it has had on the citizens’ psyche could be witnessed from the suggestions they made; right from enabling food delivery apps to supporting the elderly with customised meal plans to awareness programs that could combat the increasing challenge of mental health issues, there emerged a host of ideas and recommendations from the collective feedback gathered.
While the pandemic remained an area of concern, the overall situation of the city’s health infrastructure remained topmost on the minds of the citizens — with many stating that spending on upgrading hospitals was more important than Covid-19 linked expenditure.
“I’m a healthcare professional and during the pandemic it was clear to see that the infrastructures present were inadequate to tackle the problems that came with the virus”
Figure 1: Off-Platform Responses; Figure 2: Online Responses
For socio-economically weaker populations, accessibility to affordable healthcare combined with an awareness of issues at hand emerged as the major ask for ensuring an equitable and inclusive healthcare system.
Online respondents in comparison highlighted that capacity building and quality enhancement of current public health facilities were the need of the hour. The pandemic had only heightened the need to upgrade health facilities and provide healthcare workers with adequate resources.
While these were some of the more obvious concerns raised by the residents, there were a few other aspects that surfaced as important issues that have hitherto not been given due recognition. Concerns around Mental health emerged to be a worry for most residents, agnostic to their demography. While this may seem as a surprise, given the stigma and general hesitation around this topic, the survey did indicate that Mumbaikars considered this to be a priority item that needed to be addressed.
“Mental Health issues should be normalised. There should be public awareness about mental health via advertisements and hoardings”
Figure 1: Off-Platform Responses; Figure 2: Online Responses
It was heartening to note the keen interest that Mumbaikars demonstrated in collaborating with the civic authorities to create a budget that was comprehensive and inclusive in nature. Many respondents expressed their willingness to understand the budgetary process better and be proactively involved in sharing their opinions. Many residents opined that improving the transparency behind the budgeting process would improve accountability. This would help avoid a situation of over or underutilization of the budget. It was suggested to have a ground-up approach for deciding important matters.
“…These kind of surveys are what we need right now!”
Civis presented the findings from the survey with Mr. Asif Zakaria (Member- Standing Committee, MCGM) and Dr. Saeeda Khan (Member — Health Committee, MCGM) who were keen to hear the inputs.
Soon after we also learnt that the MCGM is set to increase the budgetary spending in the health domain, with a majority of their funds going to improving the infrastructure of existing hospitals and building more medical colleges — both these areas were priority domains highlighted in the report!
Opportunities like these demonstrate the power and value that citizens of a democracy can lend to the administration. They lend impetus to the work that civic authorities are driving to control and manage the aftermath of a pandemic.
We have seen how a simple exercise can have a long lasting impact on a city — bringing together people and administrators — how will you support such initiatives in the future?
The online responses can be viewed here and a link to the report can be found here.
