RWAs are tools of empowerment

RESIDENT POWER: RWAs feel unless one is involved in the government, one is not taken seriously.

Featured Blog

Rajdeep Sardesai

Maharaj or Dada, Ganguly's legacy lives on

Featured Slideshows

New Delhi: He's been an Army man, but now he's a soldier of a different kind - fighting a battle to ensure that his fellow residents in Gurgaon get their due.

Disillusioned with the empty promises political parties were making, the resident welfare associations of Gurgaon formed their very own political party and fielded Colonel saab - as he is called in the Haryana Assembly Elections in 2005.

He didn't win, but the party that was just 11 days old then did get 50 per cent of the votes cast in New Gurgaon.

Today, the Gurgaon residents party formed by the RWAs with Colonel Ratan Singh at the helm, is doing what political parties for years haven't - dealing with their issues on their own.

Says the Colonel, "The middle class, the rich people, the business people realised they were not getting what they wanted. So like a soldier I told them let's get involved. Unless you are involved in the government you are not taken seriously."

There was a time when RWAs were needed only to fix a light bulb in the colony or make sure water supply was restored in the colony, but today RWAs have taken on a different identity.

The birth of the new RWA in Delhi took place in 2005 when a group of old men in the narrow streets in Rajinder Nagar West Delhi said, they were not going to pay the 10 per cent hike in electricity charges - and today they are proud of what they have achieved.

When the Government announced the electricity charges' hike, the middle class in Delhi grumbled under their breath, but 76-year-old R L Dua and 56 year old A K Gera from the Rajinder Nagar RWA did what few would even dream of: take on the government.

From hunger strikes to leading processions against the electricity hike, they were joined by dozens of RWAs across Delhi.

The voice was so loud that two months later, the state government was forced to roll back the tariff hike.

Says R L Dua, "If you put water on a boil, it can only boil to a certain amount. Then it will overflow. That is what happened with us. We couldn't take it any more. I came from Pakistan to India when I was 10 years old, in search of a better life. I will make sure I get that better life for myself here."

But not all think that this kind of activism is proactive. Many feel that it thwarts development.

Says ICIER's Rajiv Kumar, "These guys just can't become a pressure group. Even when there are legitimate causes, these RWAs cannot take the streets."

The electricity campaign, the anti-sealing drive and issues concerning security have been raised time and again by the RWAs. While critics say their goals are often narrow, for the RWAs it has been a tool of empowerment.