RWAs and Sustainability

How RWAS Promote a Sustainable Urban Environment

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"Good governance is putting people at the centre of development process."

- Narendra Modi

A resident welfare association (RWA) is essentially a group housing system in a layout spread over an area or built into floors of apartments in a building. Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) are typically registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860.

They are entirely self-financed and self-managed. RWAs are the finest expression of civil society consensus; an answer to urban problems; a tool for community building and for self-management and direct democracy. An urban resident is endowed with intensive communication skills, fast transport and uninhibited relations with other human beings. They can play a vital role in building up a knowledge-based society.

Unfortunately,  urban residents are under-represented in all tiers of governance, namely, the Central, State and Local. The RWAs should, therefore, form a fourth tier of grass-root, self-governing micro-urban communities with participatory functions.

One encouraging trend in all major cities, since 1990s, is the formation of Resident Welfare Associations (RWAS).

The Municipal Corporations, the Election Commission of India and other constitutional bodies have also started recognizing RWAs as partners for fair and equitable delivery of services to the public, without political and partisan considerations. Active RWAs now exist in almost all major cities of our country.

In this article, we describe, as a case study the efforts made by the Andhra Pradesh Federation of RWAS (APFERWAS), Visakhapatnam, in promoting a sustainable urban environment in the city through a well-established organizational structure.