Keep Your Promises: Campaigning to hold government to account in India

Overview

Despite its booming economy and burgeoning middle classes, India is a country where hundreds of millions remain in severe poverty. In 2004 a new government was elected largely due to its promise to improve the lives of the poorest and most marginalised people by creating health centres, schools, and jobs. Also in 2004, the World Social Forum in Mumbai brought a diverse range of Indian organisations together, who later formed Wada Na Todo Abhiyan, the ‘Keep Your Promises’ campaign, to ensure a collective movement for change. This paper explains how the campaign succeeded in mobilising hundreds of thousands of people in India to pressure the government to deliver on key promises, and in demonstrating the huge demand of people across India for social justice and a better future for all the nation’s children.