Urban Public Services : A Development Perspective

The purpose of this book is to take a look at how public services in India are operating and a few practical demonstrations of the same. Further, the book examines policies and frameworks which could be of use in this context, whether local or international. To demonstrate the practicalities of the situation a few local and international case studies are included. For the purposes of this book, a public service is strictly confined to that which is required to be provided by the state to its citizens. The delivery could be through various mechanisms and indeed the development of various models is to be welcomed. Different social conditions and capacity and willingness to pay require different approaches although the intent is basically the same. We also confine ourselves to urban public services as the topic is vast and there needs to be focus, if anything meaningful is to be achieved. Much of the work done by the multilateral agencies is sound conceptually but fails to take into account the local conditions and capacity for understanding of the local people. Here is where the NGOs can play the most important role by acting as an interface between these agencies and the common man. This book is essentially for practitioners, who can dip into a sector specific article and see whether it could throw light upon the issues therein in anyway. Every county has had its success stories and it is in concentrating upon those success stories in the same environment that the seeds of success lie.