Democratic cognizance of people’s voices and their direct engagement in preparing the master plan: The Case of Trissur in Kerala, INDIA
It has been realized that a people centric urban planning will help better livings in the cities. There has been more emphasis now on the local knowledge and community engagement for making safe and healthy cities amidst this global pandemic of Corona Virus – COVID-19. The urban planning process and practices must take cognizance of non-physical entity of urban community while preparing the plan. Master planning process in India has failed to recognized people’s voices which in turn results into lack of sense of belongingness undermining the proper placemaking at community level. The success of master planning process by and large depends on the direct engagement of the concerned community.
The new planning approaches are emerging to capture the people’s voices into urban planning process. The localism Act of UK is an example of incorporating the people’s voice for better place bonding and wellbeing of the community in questions. The 15 minutes city debate focuses on the provisioning of almost 90 per cent urban services withing a 15-minute walking distance in France/Paris. There are many such emerging new urban agenda that focuses on the greater community engagement by creating spaces for people’s voice in making the local area/master plan.
Therefore, this study will attempt to make an enquiry of incorporating people’s voices in a democratic manner into the master planning process in Trissur, Kerala. It will examine the master planning process through the lens of direct engagement of community. The role of democratic and urban planning institutions and local representative in recognizing the people’s voice in plan preparation will also be examined.
