6. Social Audits: What Happens When Citizens Audit Government Spending

Episode Six takes us to Delhi, India. In 2001, in the low-income neighbourhoods of east Delhi, residents used India's new Right to Information Act to audit the Public Distribution System — the government programme meant to deliver subsidised food to the poor. The method, the jan sunwai or public hearing, brought citizens, officials, and an independent panel into the same room to compare what the state claimed it had done with what people had actually received.Sowmya Kidambi and Suchi Pande take us through the long arc of that practice: from grassroots campaigning in Delhi, to the first government-backed social audit unit in Andhra Pradesh, to the sixteen pieces of Indian legislation where social audits are now mandatory. They also tell us what the law alone cannot do — and why the room itself, with low-income residents and officials reading the same page, remains the radical part.—We’re living through a global democratic crisis, and elections around the world are sending a clear message: the system isn’t working.It Takes a City is a podcast about participation and democracy, hosted by Stefania Kapronczay, a human rights advocate working on resilient democracies from Budapest, Hungary, and Flavio Proietti Pantosti, a social innovator and entrepreneur focused on public administration from Rome, Italy.Through conversations with practitioners, we explore lesser-known stories of participation, often from communities with limited resources. Each episode unpacks real tactics, strategic dilemmas, and honest failures, with the goal of offering practical insights.Visit https://takesacity.com/ or get in touch at ⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠.