Pune participatory budgeting (My City, My Money)
Description
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. 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).
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.