What comes to your mind when you hear the word – ‘Democracy’ Ponder over this question once before you hop onto the next line . Is it just- Voting machine, Parliament house, constitution, or a mere chapter in your political science book? Is that what democracy means to us today? Abraham Lincoln once told and I quote– “government of the people, by the people, and for the people”. Is today’s democracy by the people? Aristotle defined democracy as ‘rule by the many’. Are many of us ruling the country today? These are the questions that come to my mind, whenever I think of Democracy. We are definitely part of a democratic society - But to what extent or degree? We just cast our vote against or for a political leader. Is that the end of our engagement in the democracy? Or is that our only responsibility? In todays’ world when people like Anna Hazare have shaken the basic foundation of ‘Democracy’ in our country, its surely a time to think of something better or more advance than the current system – Democracy 2.0. I am sure you must have heard the word at least once in the past 1 year, as this was the most traded word in search engines in India for a period. What is democracy 2.0? It’s an advanced approach to govern people; it’s all about empowering people; engaging more and more people in the system to take the country forward. Do you really think those 800 MPs have all the knowledge and expertise to run the country in the best possible manner or do you believe that we have sufficient number of law enforcement officers everywhere to keep a check on the law and order? If you really feel the answer of these questions are ‘No’ then it’s time to utilize your skills and effort to govern the country.
There are people in the country who want to be a part of the democratic system, but the options are very limited to them. The Only way to be part of the system seems to be a candidate in election. If you can’t contest then other options will be to join government offices where policies get decided. Less than 1% of Indian people are in that category. What about others? Can’t you be part of government, working for a multinational company? Many people thought about it when Lokpal movement in India was on its peak. Democracy 2.0 is all about empowering people to be part of the system – willingly. And that’s when we can enrich our system with tons of knowledge and intelligence that we bring to the system. Engaging more and more people in it will not only season and strengthen the system but also will help us to change our mentality from classifying things according to ownership – this is mine/our and this is public/government property. If we all are part of the government, then everything in this country should be as much as mine as someone else’s. So let’s take the first step and discuss some ideas which can empower people to govern the system.
Let’s attack one major problem in India. Traffic. When you roam around in any first world country – you see people follow the traffic laws like religion which in turn results in less accidents and more traffic safety. But why? Are those people more civilized than us, or they are habituated to go by the law and we are not? I am sure even you don’t agree on those aforementioned reasons, like me. So what’s the secret? If you scrutinize, you will notice – it’s the strict policing. You break a rule – there will be a police officer nearby to catch hold of you, if there is no cop standing on the road – there must be some camera which is surveillancing on you. And if you are caught in action, a huge fine is imposed on you then and there. You will be alert not to break a single rule even when you can’t see a policeman near you. Can we implement the same in India? That’s the question we will try to answer today. Now, in India we simply know that we neither have that many policemen to be in every corner of the country nor can we install security cameras on every road. Then?
Aren’t there enough people who drive their cars abiding by the traffic rules? And also want others to do the same? What about empowering them to do the policing when a policeman is not around? Let’s take help of technology to empower them and build a solution. First invite people for this voluntary service, and sort them out according to their skills and records. Next task will be to train them. Whenever they find any person breaking the law- their duty is to report them to police with full evidence, so that police can take action. Now to report an incident like that the volunteer will require a tool, - we will use a smart phone for that. A simple android application will be built and installed in every volunteer’s phone. Even a java application can also be built to fit all. Then? Then there will be a centralized server to host some services. Anytime a volunteer sees a biker moving too fast and riding without helmet – what he needs to do is just to open his phone, start the application and click. The application will capture the latitude and longitude of the location from phone’s GPS, and will capture video or still photo using phone’s camera. Then will post the whole message to the centralized service using phone’s EDGE/3G connection. A police man, seating in a control room can review these messages and can put charges against the biker. That’s it.
This solution is just a thought or an idea and not a full proof government policy. There are so many technicalities involved in it. We all with our expertise need to have a debate on it and then the idea will mature to a policy design. This idea is to give you an example – how with little help from Technology we can empower willing people to be aide to the government agencies and be part of the system not only to improve it but also to help all of us inch in to the concept of Democracy 2.0.
There are people in the country who want to be a part of the democratic system, but the options are very limited to them. The Only way to be part of the system seems to be a candidate in election. If you can’t contest then other options will be to join government offices where policies get decided. Less than 1% of Indian people are in that category. What about others? Can’t you be part of government, working for a multinational company? Many people thought about it when Lokpal movement in India was on its peak. Democracy 2.0 is all about empowering people to be part of the system – willingly. And that’s when we can enrich our system with tons of knowledge and intelligence that we bring to the system. Engaging more and more people in it will not only season and strengthen the system but also will help us to change our mentality from classifying things according to ownership – this is mine/our and this is public/government property. If we all are part of the government, then everything in this country should be as much as mine as someone else’s. So let’s take the first step and discuss some ideas which can empower people to govern the system.
Let’s attack one major problem in India. Traffic. When you roam around in any first world country – you see people follow the traffic laws like religion which in turn results in less accidents and more traffic safety. But why? Are those people more civilized than us, or they are habituated to go by the law and we are not? I am sure even you don’t agree on those aforementioned reasons, like me. So what’s the secret? If you scrutinize, you will notice – it’s the strict policing. You break a rule – there will be a police officer nearby to catch hold of you, if there is no cop standing on the road – there must be some camera which is surveillancing on you. And if you are caught in action, a huge fine is imposed on you then and there. You will be alert not to break a single rule even when you can’t see a policeman near you. Can we implement the same in India? That’s the question we will try to answer today. Now, in India we simply know that we neither have that many policemen to be in every corner of the country nor can we install security cameras on every road. Then?
Aren’t there enough people who drive their cars abiding by the traffic rules? And also want others to do the same? What about empowering them to do the policing when a policeman is not around? Let’s take help of technology to empower them and build a solution. First invite people for this voluntary service, and sort them out according to their skills and records. Next task will be to train them. Whenever they find any person breaking the law- their duty is to report them to police with full evidence, so that police can take action. Now to report an incident like that the volunteer will require a tool, - we will use a smart phone for that. A simple android application will be built and installed in every volunteer’s phone. Even a java application can also be built to fit all. Then? Then there will be a centralized server to host some services. Anytime a volunteer sees a biker moving too fast and riding without helmet – what he needs to do is just to open his phone, start the application and click. The application will capture the latitude and longitude of the location from phone’s GPS, and will capture video or still photo using phone’s camera. Then will post the whole message to the centralized service using phone’s EDGE/3G connection. A police man, seating in a control room can review these messages and can put charges against the biker. That’s it.
This solution is just a thought or an idea and not a full proof government policy. There are so many technicalities involved in it. We all with our expertise need to have a debate on it and then the idea will mature to a policy design. This idea is to give you an example – how with little help from Technology we can empower willing people to be aide to the government agencies and be part of the system not only to improve it but also to help all of us inch in to the concept of Democracy 2.0.
