Context:

• Civic technology, or civic tech, enhances the relationship between the people and government with software for communications, decision-making, service delivery, and political process. 
• It includes information and communications technology supporting government with software built by community-led teams of volunteers, non-profits, consultants, and private companies.

India’s Case: IChangeMyCity

• In the Indian context, civic technology can broadly be divided into two themes—tools aimed at improving civic engagement, and those directed at streamlining government services.
• In 2012, IChangeMyCity enabled citizens to share complaints about civic issues through its platform. 
• It also provided municipalities with real-time grievance data to resolve. 
• Organizations such as Reap Benefit, through their online platform, work with young people to create solutions for civic problems such as low-cost sanitation systems from discarded plastic.

Foreign Example:

• Since 2014, the vTaiwan project, which started out as a citizen movement, has been working to build consensus among Taiwanese citizens about contentious issues.
• Consensus derived through vTaiwan is utilized to draft new laws and regulations for citizens.
• In the US, Vote.org uses technology to register voters and increase voter turnout.

Case study:

• A field worker for his local corporator in Mumbai, notices that in his slum dengue claims several lives every monsoon. Authorities turn a blind eye because the deaths are often not documented. 
• Field worker uses an online tool, designed to conduct surveys in low literacy areas, to gather feedback from his community.
• He presents his corporator with data that states that 94% of residents in his slum are aware of the causes of dengue, yet, the disease remains widespread because of uncovered sewage lines. 
• The corporator presents this data to the municipality and the sewage lines are promptly covered, preventing further dengue deaths.

Conclusion:

• In India, a growing number of internet users is coupled with a young population, accustomed to demanding participation in all facets of their lives, including greater participation in governance. This combination is pushing governments to be more participatory and efficient.