About Us
Citizen Matters is a civic media platform with insightful reports on critical urban issues, ideas and solutions for cities.
Our canvas spans the breadth of urban living: we dive deep into issues which affect our quality of life, including water, commute, public safety, air quality, governance, education, environment, local economy and livelihoods and more.
Citizen Matters is a programme of Oorvani Foundation, a non-profit committed to civic engagement, citizenship and communities. Our mission is to connect people who want better cities with civic information, tools, networks and resources they need to make it happen. Our other programmes include Open City, a civic tech platform for urban data.
We talk about why problems exist and how they can be fixed, adding insights into how such changes happen. Our stories centre citizen voices. Case studies of change inspire people to get involved and make a difference. Explainers and playbooks provide actionable steps.
We use citizen journalism to empower changemakers and civic storytellers to document ground realities and interventions. Our collaborative model enables urban citizens to not just learn but also engage and contribute their insights and learning as citizen journalists.
India has 10 cities with 3 million+ population and 50+ cities with a million+ population. Our cities are marked by poor quality of governance, environment, civic provisions and lack of equitable access to resources. Bad public infrastructure and service delivery — be it transport, water supply, roads, or schooling — have made the everyday life of citizens painful.
These urban challenges need collective action to fix them, action that is based on a deep understanding of issues and root causes, and changemaking. Citizen Matters provides the information, the understanding and the tools for citizens to become changemakers.
Citizen Matters was founded by Subramaniam Vincent and Meera K in 2008 as a local news magazine for Bengaluru. In 2013, this became a non profit civic media platform under Oorvani Foundation.
Citizen Matters has since expanded into multiple cities with local chapters in Chennai and Mumbai. We believe every city deserves a local, civic platform like Citizen Matters and we are happy to hear from funders who want to support increasing the Citizen Matters footprint to more cities!
Oorvani Foundation is funded by foundation grants, philanthropists, and individual donors. More here.
Every citizen can become a changemaker when knowledge, understanding and tools are placed in their hands. Oorvani Foundation makes this possible.
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