Advocacy / Aamdaar Sanvad Manch

In the year 2019, Sampark concluded its research of the proceedings of Maharashtra Legislative Assembly sessions for the period 2014 to 2018. Its purpose was to analyse the questions and debates in these sessions and compare those with the development issues in the constituencies of our state.

We found a deep disconnect between the issues that the MLAs chose to focus on during the sessions and the realities in their constituencies. The same applied to the works in the constituencies, on which the MLAs chose to spend their funds.

We also spoke to MLAs with whom we shared the research findings in order to note their points of view.

There seemed to be a need to increase public participation in governance at constituency level. Small advocacy groups made up of local citizens to persuade the legislators to focus on local development issues. This gave birth to Aamdaar Sanvad Manch (ASM).

Thus far we have formed ASMs in eleven legislative constituencies of Maharashtra, Shahada and Nawapur in Nandurbar, Risod in Washim, Armori in Gadchiroli, Vikramgad in Palghar, Dhule city in Dhule, Ratnagiri city in Ratnagiri, and all four constituencies in Osmanabad district namely, Osmanabad, Paranda, Tuljapur and Umrga.