Zoom registration at https://myumi.ch/4jqew

The talk will be based on my book project which examines the effects of rights-based welfare expansion in India on local governance and civic action through a comparison between two accountability systems in the state of Bihar; Social Audits and the Right to Public Grievance Redress Act. Based on extensive field research conducted across six districts, the book argues that the ritualization of interactions with citizens who have been historically marginalized, in rule-based settings, builds a new legal consciousness within the bureaucracy. The book shows how these new openings in the local state, which combine organic forms of mobilization with induced forms of participation and recognition of individual and collective claims, builds political capacities through its use, incentivizes collective action, and enlivens local democracy. In large part, these changes can be attributed to the role of state-sponsored but autonomous facilitation and transforming the conditions under which the state listens.

Anindita Adhikari is a political sociologist whose research interests include social movements, bureaucracies, the politics of welfare provisioning and democratic deepening. She has been co-teaching a course on accountability and governance for the MPP programme at NLS since 2021. Her research and teaching is motivated and informed by 15 years of public action work embedded in diverse policy settings. She has been associated with the Right to Work, Right to Information, and Right to Food campaigns. She has previously worked with the Government of Bihar and the Ministry of Rural Development on employment, social security, and land issues. She co-founded the organization ‘Social Accountability Forum for Action and Research’ (SAFAR) in 2022 that works on strengthening transparency and accountability in public service delivery in collaboration with state and national governments and civil society.

Yamini Aiyar was the president and chief executive of the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi, a public policy research think tank. She was appointed President of CPR in 2017. She was previously a senior research fellow and founder, in 2008, of the Accountability Initiative at the centre.