Urban local bodies and wards

Local government in towns and cities is called 'urban local bodies'. They are decentralised: instead of everything being run by one central authority at the top, local communities have a direct say in how their own area is managed and what its problems are. It is a way for people living in an area to come together and decide what is best for them.

Cities and towns are divided into smaller units called 'wards'. Ward committees help run activities such as health camps or a campaign against single-use plastic. That polio-drops camp in the next lane, or the van that collects rubbish from your street every morning, does not appear by itself: the urban local body sends it.

Ward committees also keep an eye on problems, such as a water leak, a blocked drain or a damaged road, and report them to the authorities. Exactly how wards work differs from State to State, depending on the rules each State makes.

Altogether, urban local bodies have many jobs: looking after infrastructure (roads, drains, street lights), maintaining burial grounds, collecting and disposing of garbage, checking that government schemes are carried out, collecting local taxes and fines, and so on. They also help plan the area's economic and social development.

But for these bodies to work well, people living in the city must also do their duties: they must take care of their area (remember, this is a participatory democracy). For example, if people separate their waste properly at home, garbage collection becomes easier; if they notice a water leak in the street and report it quickly, precious water is saved. And it makes no sense for the van to clear a street in the morning if someone throws rubbish back on it in the evening.

Some of these bodies are very old. The Madras Corporation (now the Greater Chennai Corporation), set up on 29 September 1688, is the oldest municipal institution in India. The East India Company had issued a charter the year before, making the town of 'Fort St. George' and everything within 16 km of the fort into a corporation. An Act of Parliament in 1792 let the Madras Corporation collect municipal taxes, and that is when city administration properly began.