Short version: don’t read the rest of this essay. Instead,
Click the link below, read it on Medium and clap a zillion times 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾 so that Medium’s algorithms suggest it to the unsuspecting public. In case you haven’t clapped on Medium before, this what you need to do:
Share the Medium piece (or this email - ideally both) with your networks. The more widely this work is known, the more likely it will make a difference.
Still curious: watch this video —
What you see above is half of what came out of my first article on public problem solving. One of the most tragic aspects of the COVID19 crisis and the lockdown is how Indian citizens have been treated as subjects - caned, hosed and banished. People like Prakash Mallik (his story is in the essay on Medium) had to spend enormous amount of time and money walking back home to Odisha while dealing with aggressive state authorities.
What can we do about this? How can we use this crisis to create a new sense of citizenship?
I am now ready to share the first fruit of that effort, which is being reported in an essay based on work done with VK Shashikumar, Kavitha Kuruganti and many others.
Janta ka Faisla
First, a new initiative: it's called Janta ka faisla. JKF is a space in which a jury of 'regular people' (in this case, migrants) sit in judgment on policies that impact their lives. Experts present their policies to an audience of representatives of various people’s groups – as a way of enacting participatory citizenship.
I will be writing frequently about JKF as it develops. Meanwhile, the first JKF report is now available on Medium. Without further ado:
1. Click on the link, watch Prakash Mallik's video, read the rest of the essay and clap vigorously 👏🏾👏🏾 for that will make the algorithmic gods of Medium more likely to recommend this essay to others.
2. Share the link to the essay via email, Facebook, Twitter and other social networks.