RWAs! Beware of Politics and Avoid Controversies

 

I. RWA Governance is a Real Opportunity for Radical Direct Democracy                         Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs), formed as Colony Welfare Associations, Apartment Resident Welfare Associations, Cooperative Housing Societies, and Gated Communities, practice direct participatory governance and cannot afford to get involved in or be absorbed by partisan politics. First, they govern by managing relationships among diverse members living together; second, they influence governance at local and higher levels and interact with external actors. They express the non-party political power of citizens without becoming politicians themselves. They are not political parties, but civic actors who empower citizens. They present three civic virtues: voluntarism, social responsibility, and direct participation in internal and external governance.

In India, RWAs reflect and express middle-class aspirations, as they are mostly led by young professionals, retired government officers, and business people. Their activities represent a new kind of politics, if one is keen to use the term. This middle-class urban politics is not driven by the pursuit of political power, but by the desire to improve the quality of life within their premises and in the neighbourhood. They address issues such as sanitation, hygiene, safety and security, mobility, and social relations through voluntary participation and consensus-based decision-making. 

Although there has been a long tradition of local political positions, such as mayoral positions serving as stepping stones to national politics, urban areas have witnessed significant evolution, even though this pattern still holds good in many rural contexts. No Indian state legally bans political parties from local body elections altogether. However, several states, such as Telangana, require non-party elections at the Gram Panchayat level, effectively excluding official party participation there. At higher local levels—municipalities and district bodies—political parties are very much present. Municipal elections across India are generally party-based, and courts have affirmed the right of political parties to participate.  

If RWA leaders develop overt political ambitions, the association or society tends to become ineffective, since other residents become passive and limit themselves to criticism. Yet, it is observable that many RWA managers today do not join political parties and do not seek the patronage of any single local political leader. Within their social circles, politicians are often feared but rarely respected. Middle-class families strongly discourage their members from entering politics. Political connections are valued for getting things done, but marriage alliances with politicians’ families are rarely sought. 

Especially in urban areas, Generation Z, born from the late 1990s to early 2010s, tend to be more progressive than Millennials and Generation X born earlier. They are deeply influenced by social media, which shapes their political opinions quickly and exposes them to both liberal and conservative viewpoints. However, they are not afraid to judge cynically the behaviour of local politicians and refuse to be docile personal followers. 

On the whole, residents of these associations seldom contest municipal elections to become Corporators, MLAs, or MPs, despite their popularity, networks, and understanding of local issues. Political parties, too, do not view RWAs as training grounds for aspiring politicians in the way they view colleges and universities, nor do they treat RWAs as “winning horses” during elections. Yet RWAs are often indifferent and reluctant even to visit nearby polling booths to vote.    

A. Internal Democracy: An RWA does not function like a political government nor as a party. The office-bearers do not exercise power but use their influence to make the members comply with the decisions taken. Individualised leadership, groupism among members, and decisions by majority vote alone do not help to fulfil the objectives of an RWA. Members cannot make irresponsible criticism and remain aloof until their term comes to take over, as they have common needs as neighbours. All residents participate in experiencing the problem, participate in dialogue, participate in decision-making, and participate in implementing the decisions taken, even if some of them might not agree fully. This is called consensus-based decision-making.  

 B. Bridging the Gap between State and Citizens: Municipal corporations are often large and slow to act. RWAs function as intermediaries between citizens and the state by facilitating service delivery through coordination.                                                        

C. Social Capital and Community Building: As Robert Putnam argued, residents accumulate social and human capital when they mobilise professional knowledge, experience, trust, cooperation, voluntarism, innovation, and collective responsibility. These resources constitute social capital, and when directly invested, they lead to social and human development. Without recognising this basic fact, politicians often project physical infrastructure alone as national development.  

D. RWAs as Schools of Inclusive Democracy: RWAs become schools of inclusive democracy across all forms of diversity when they involve tenants, workers, and marginalised groups; when they cooperate with neighbouring bastis; when they conduct transparent elections; and when they respect constitutional morality and human rights. In this sense, RWAs are real laboratories for participatory and innovative governance practices. In the present-day Indian context, RWAs, as a de facto fourth tier of governance, fill an important vacuum. Municipal governments, the third tier of government, are administratively and demographically too vast to maintain a human touch in rapidly expanding urban spaces.                                                                        

E. Self-Management at the Micro Urban Community Level:  Self-management at the level of micro urban communities suits the expanding middle classes. Their financial contributions are governed by the principle of mutuality and informality. Following the principle of subsidiarity, they take responsibility for certain public functions such as maintaining basic amenities, supporting safety measures, and disaster preparedness at their own expense.

 II. What Should Be the RWA Policy and Right Attitude Towards Political Parties and Local Politicians?                                                                        

1. General Principles:The basic mission of RWAs is to create physical and social conditions that improve human relations among residents, that is, to cultivate the art of living together harmoniously and cooperatively. Every human being is endowed with inherent resources of love, affection, trust, social concern, and solidarity, and residents can express and exchange these values within their community. To fulfill this mission, RWAs must maintain a safe distance from politics and politicians. The RWA should never be affiliated with any political party. At the time of Registration, it is declared to be a non-political organisation.            

Therefore:The RWA must not support any political party or candidate. Residents are free to hold personal political views, but these must not influence RWA functioning. A resident holding an important political party position should not serve as an office-bearer of the RWA. RWA elections should remain strictly non-political. Political symbols, slogans, or party influence should not be introduced into RWA affairs.                                      

RWAs should cooperate with all elected representatives, Councillors, Corporators, MLAs, MPs, and Ministers, regardless of their political party, to resolve civic issues such as roads, water supply, drainage, street lighting, safety, and infrastructure. RWAs may invite elected representatives and officials to their meetings to present community concerns. RWAs must never appear to be or act like rival power centres. Instead, they should work constructively and cooperatively with all government authorities.                                          

2. General Elections: Electoral lists can be accurate when RWAs help verify residents and update records. RWAs often attract attention from political parties because residents are voters. However, RWAs must remain neutral. If candidates request meetings, RWAs may organise a common platform where all candidates can present their views equally. RWAs must never recommend or endorse any candidate. RWAs should encourage residents to exercise their democratic right to vote responsibly. After elections, RWAs have to cooperate with elected representatives for community welfare.

 III. How to Resolve Negative or Controversial Issues: Since RWAs are to build micro-urban communities based on sharing, caring and cooperation, they must avoid elitist attitudes and discrimination.                                                                                                                                             

1. RWA funds should mainly be used transparently only for common and secular activities. Religious and cultural events of different groups should be supported fairly, based on their proportionate presence in the community. Priority should be given to celebrating secular and national events, international days and common community activities, including the birthdays of the children living there. 

2. The present generations of urban residents are still very much property-conscious and tend to accumulate deposits in the bank in the name of the Association, and demand the governments all sorts of exemptions from taxes, request for grants, and create income out of their assets which are used by their members. Some still think that, as RWAs, they represent homeowners, not all residents, even though they are called resident welfare associations. The RWA leadership is accused of being dominated by property owners, upper-middle classes, and being elite and rich, and treating the poor, migrants, domestic workers and slum dwellers as second-class citizens. Looking back, the RWA reactions to lockdowns and other measures introduced by central and state governments in India to check the spread of the Covid–19 pandemic were not entirely without blame.   

3. In their internal elections, the owners try to restrict the voting rights of the tenants and migrants. Sometimes, they are suspected of being communal or having political bias. They may do unofficial policing and may not always be democratic internally. They may have illegal rules like altogether banning tenants, bachelors, visitors, marketing agents, animals, etc.                                         

4. Unlike municipalities, RWAs are not constitutional bodies, except as a part of the Ward Committee. RWA management may sometimes exercise what may be called local authoritarianism or micro-Fascism in the name of community consensus. RWAs sometimes impose moral policing, discriminate against tenants, single women, Interfaith couples, LGBTQ+ people, lower-income residents and ban access to street vendors or domestic workers.  They may impose arbitrary fines and selectively enforce certain rules due to personal vendetta. Conflicts arise where RWAs oppose slums-dwellers, and resist some environment-friendly government projects. This is dangerous because it is exercising power without social responsibility.                                                                        

5. Accepting the diversity in the community, in which the people may belong to different religions, castes, regions, and political views, is very important. It is equally important that none of them exercises hegemony over others. Earlier, when the colony layout was shared, the association was formed mostly by the like-minded people in terms of caste, class, region, employment, etc., but over time, when new residents, tenants, and workers inevitably joined, the community became a diverse group. Today, most of the RWAs represent the diversity of India in a small area. The presence of this diversity should be accepted, integrated and respected, so that there can be faster social transformations.