Bala Vikasa organise G20-C20 Summit events as the South India Regional Coordinators
In a moment of pride, Bala Vikasa secures the nomination as the South India Regional Coordinator of the C20 Working Group on ‘Delivering Democracy - Retrospect & Prospects.’ Civil20 (C20) is a platform for Civil Societies, as part of the ongoing G20 Summit, to voice out people’s aspirations to world leaders.
As the coordinator Bala Vikasa organized the G20 - C20 South India Regional Round Table on ‘Delivering Democracy - Retrospect and Prospect’ in partnership with the C20 national coordinator the Grassroots Research and Advocacy Movement (GRAAM) at the Bala Vikasa Center for Social and Responsible Business Campus in Keesara, Hyderabad.
Speaking to over 40 participants representing various Civil Society Organizations(CSOs) from across South India, Dr. Basavaraju R Shrestha, Executive Director of GRAAM and the National Coordinator for C20 DD Working Group, said, “If we take care of democracy, then democracy will take care of us. People’s participation and civic responsibility are important for delivering democracy. CSOs can act as catalysts to ensure greater participation and accountability in governance.” He said the working group on Delivering Democracy was specifically conceptualized to have meaningful discussions around the idea of democracy and strategize actions to strengthen it by India’s G20 Presidency.
Dr W R Reddy, IAS, Former Director General of NIRD and the keynote speaker said, “The nation’s future growth and economic development is intrinsically linked to building strong local governments. There are close to 3 million locally elected leaders across the country, of whom over 40% are women. That is the truest strength of India’s democracy. This leadership could solve many of the problems in governance and should be leveraged.” He said that social and economic equity are critical for a political democracy and that its functioning depends on intrinsic human values. Shoury Reddy Singareddy, Executive Director of Bala Vikasa and Regional Coordinator for C20, too emphasized on the importance of working with Gram Panchayats for CSOs to deliver greater results in development programming.
Two round table sessions, one on ‘Gender Equality in Governance’ and the other on ‘Participation and Accountability in Governance’ sought the inputs of CSOs on the challenges and solutions to strengthening democracy. Prof. Gyan Mudra, Chairperson of the School of Gender Studies at TISS, Hyderabad and Survi Srinivas Goud, Senior Development Consultant, chaired the sessions.
An international webinar on Strengthening Civil Society for Deepening Democracy - Role of the State was also conducted as part of the C20 Summit initiatives. The webinar is an attempt to augment participation of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) from G20 nations in discussions related to grassroot democracy.
This webinar was part of the webinar series ‘Delivering Democracy - Retrospect and Prospects’ discussing Youth and Democracy, Citizen Engagement, People Participation and Grassroots Governance, Responsive Governance, and several other themes related to democracy and the role of civil society organisations in reinforcing and advancing democracy in G20 nations.
The deliberations are expected to support the policy pack which will be submitted to the G20 Secretariat
