Foot‐march: Large‐scale mobilization for a public cause or atool for fanning political ambition

Abstract

We present the case of an awareness campaign, strategically crafted by a local student political leader, based on a national level policy for urban poor and marginalized, in the city of Ahmedabad in India. The campaign, designed in the form of a foot‐march, was aimed at mobilizing the urban poor, but with a clear ambition of gaining visibility for political mileage. This study reinforces that the mediation role taken up by local leaders transcends the traditional policymaking, in democracies with blurred boundaries between the state and citizens. Further, in local governance structures, with weak participatory spaces for the poor, foot‐marches have the potential to become an extended invited participatory space.