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Verified · Jun 20191 min read
● projectPaused · local · 2006

Pune participatory budgeting (My City, My Money)

Started in 2006 by the Pune Municipal Corporation with Janwani and the Centre for Environment Education, it allowed residents to propose neighborhood projects for the municipal budget.

Large empty room filled with rows of chairsillustrative atlas image · Joshua Hoehne / Unsplash
PMPune Municipal CorporationgovernmentCFCentre for Environment Education (CEE) / JanwaningoDNDr. Nitin Kareer
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01 The context

After an initial phase with public prioritization meetings and direct voting, the deliberative assemblies ceased after 2008 and the mechanism degraded into an online consultative form, with low participation (600 proposals in 2012-13 for a city of 3.5 million) and exclusion of marginalized neighborhoods (13% of the PB budget in 2013-14).

02 How it works

method · Participatory budgetingtool · PMC online suggestion form/forum with per-project budget cap

03 What it stands on

Evidence level
Own experience
Grounded in published theory
Documented evidence elsewhere
Independently evaluated here
Peer-reviewed research documents this project: the strongest evidence level in the atlas.
The evidence 2 ›
EvidenceParticipatory Budgeting in Pune: My City, My Money? An NGO Perspective on Inclusion and ParticipationAcademia.edu (documento académico) · 2017
EvidenceParticipatory Budgeting in Pune: A Critical ReviewCentre for Environment Education (Menon et al.) · 2013

04 Lessons learned

Participatory budgeting erodes if the deliberative stages are lost: by eliminating the public prioritization and voting meetings after 2008, the process degenerated into mere online consultation, with minimal participation, no feedback to citizens and systematic exclusion of marginalized groups. Without structural safeguards (an adequate calendar, publicity, representation in the selection, face-to-face deliberation) the form survives but the democratic substance dies.