As Indian citizens, we cannot petition Indian Parliament to discuss issues which matter to us the most. Doesn't this bother you?

Do you know - The number of citizens petitions that British Parliament debated in 1 year is 13 times of what India's Lok Sabha managed to study in 5 years!

Between April 2020 and April 2021, British Parliament debated 68 issues which were directly raised as petitions by British citizens, many on Covid related issues! Compare this to statistics from India - Between 2014-19, India's Lok Sabha received only 21 petitions from Indian citizens, and submitted report on only 5. The Rajya Sabha received only 3 petitions in 2012. Data after this not available.

Why are numbers in India so low? Many Indian citizens are not aware that both Houses of Parliament have a Committee to receive petitions from citizens. But these petitions can only be studied by the Committee, they don't get debated in Parliament. Also, we don't petitions on what issues have been sent. There is no commitment to act on the petitions.

Contrast this to the British Parliament petition system - all petitions are invited online in a transparent manner, citizens can read and support each other petitions, if a petition gathers 10,000 signatures Govt responds, if it gathers 1,00,000 Parliament debates it!  

But, this will be useful only if Parliament sits for sufficient number of days to discuss all issues that citizens raise through petitions. Here also, we find structural issues. In 2020, when India battled with the pandemic and many other crises, Indian Parliament was in session for only 33 days! The most important platform to raise citizen's concerns and seek accountability from the government for its actions was closed for most of the year.

See our quick video explainer on how Parliaments in other countries continued to work, some virtually, some in a hybrid manner and responded to the crisis while Indian Parliament remained closed during most of last year.

One of the reasons for this is that, as opposed to the practice in several other democracies (United Kingdom, South Africa, Canada, Australia etc.), Indian Parliament doesn't have a fixed calendar of sittings and Parliament itself cannot decide when it can be in session and when not. It is upto the government to decide when the Parliament will convene, if at all.

This also means that citizens cannot petition their own representatives, the Members of Parliament, to convene a session if there are urgent matters to be discussed. 

Our Demands

• Parliament Petitions Committee to start an online portal to receive all petitions from citizens. Such portal should publish each petition received (if admissible).
• Each petition should be able to garner support.
• Multiple thresholds for responses, for instance, if a petition gathers 50,000 signatures, it must be discussed by Parliament.
• A multi-party Committee of MPs to set calendar of Parliament Sessions and such Committee to also have a mechanism to respond to special demands from citizens to discuss urgent issues by calling for a session. 
• Transparency, with publication of data regarding petitions, response of government, reports of Committee etc., in a timely manner.

About Us

Maadhyam is an initiative to bring Parliament closer to citizens through meaningful engagement. Our 'People, Policy, Parliament' Fellowship brings youth at the forefront of our mission to bridge the gap between citizens and Parliament.