{"692595":{"#nid":"692595","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Administrative Assistance and Advocacy Help Mumbai Communities Get Essential Services","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EAccess to clean drinking water is a basic human need, yet many residents struggle to obtain it. In Mumbai, India, one of the world\u2019s largest and most populated cities, hundreds of informal settlements housing millions of citizens face barriers to securing government-provided water connections. New research from Georgia Tech found that neither administrative assistance nor political advocacy alone was enough to overcome those obstacles. But together, the two bottom-up approaches produced dramatic results.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOver five years, researchers tracked nearly 7,000 households across 154 Mumbai settlements to determine which strategies most effectively helped residents secure water connections. They found that helping residents navigate the application process \u2014 while also organizing community advocacy \u2014 increased official water connections by 45% compared to households that received no assistance.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThere have been many studies looking at just using administrative assistance to help communities get water access,\u201d said\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/people.research.gatech.edu\/anjali-thomas\u0022\u003EAnjali Thomas\u003C\/a\u003E, an associate professor in the\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/inta.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ESam Nunn School of International Affairs\u003C\/a\u003E, director of the Global Development Program, and co-lead author of the study. \u201cBut combining this with community organizing, which helped people also exert their voice, was unique to our study.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThomas and collaborator Nikhar Gaikwad, an assistant professor at Columbia University, published the findings in the\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/epdf\/10.1111\/ajps.70068\u0022\u003E\u003Cem\u003EAmerican Journal of Political Science\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E, long ranked among the top three journals in the discipline.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ENavigating Bureaucracy and Building Voice\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe researchers first examined why so few residents applied for water connections. Residents were often unaware that recent policy changes had made them eligible for water connections and didn\u2019t bother applying. The municipal corporation also only accepted online applications, and many residents didn\u2019t have access to computers. Additionally, applications required onerous documentation, including tenant or land titles, plumbers\u2019 approvals, and other proof-of-eligibility deeds. To address these barriers, the research team worked with an extensive team of nongovernmental organization workers to help residents gather required documents, complete applications, and navigate bureaucratic follow-up requests.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe second intervention focused on community advocacy. Researchers helped residents organize through WhatsApp groups, petitions, public awareness campaigns, and facilitated group visits to bureaucrats and elected officials\u2019 offices to press for water access.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cOur community advocacy intervention helped citizens convey their collective water access demands to elected politicians,\u201d said Gaikwad. \u201cLocal elected politicians are important actors because they help bureaucrats understand citizen needs, prioritize competing demands, and coordinate complex interagency work.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe study\u2019s most important finding was that neither intervention was effective on its own. Meaningful gains occurred only when administrative support and community advocacy were combined.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cAdministrative assistance got citizens through the paperwork, but actually getting the water turned on took collective public pressure,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cInterestingly, we find that this pressure worked only in the period before local elections, when politicians were most motivated to respond.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe finding suggests that improving access to public services often requires more than helping residents navigate government systems. Communities may also need the collective ability to demand action from decision-makers.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EA Large-Scale Effort\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EConducting a study of this scale required a large team. Thomas and Gaikwad partnered with local nonprofit organizations that deployed hundreds of community workers, survey enumerators, and students across participating settlements. The researchers personally visited many neighborhoods multiple times during the five-year project.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThomas also spent time in India and witnessed the impact firsthand.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI was in the field when one of the pipes was being laid, and people from the community all circled around and were watching,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cMy research assistant and I felt the gratitude from the community.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFor Thomas, moments like that underscore the broader lesson of the project: expanding access to essential services often requires both helping people navigate bureaucracy and empowering them to make their voices heard.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThese findings offer vital lessons for sustainable development initiatives worldwide,\u201d she said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EGaikwad agreed.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u201cWhile our study provided novel evidence to test and advance our theoretical understanding of the barriers that marginalized citizens face in accessing core government services, the real-world impact of our interventions in Mumbai\u2019s informal settlements was also an important contribution of our study,\u201d he said. \u201cWe believe there are important lessons for governmental and nongovernmental organizations working on service delivery in a wide range of informal settlements that also lack essential services across the Global South.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EThis research was funded by Evidence in Governance and Politics, the Department for International Development, Columbia University, and Georgia Tech\u2019s Neal Family Endowment.\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ECITATION: Gaikwad,\u0026nbsp;Nikhar, and\u0026nbsp;Thomas, Anjali.\u0026nbsp;(2026). \u201cGetting on the grid: A field experiment on bottom-up political pressure and access to essential public services.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003EAmerican Journal of Political Science\u003C\/em\u003E\u0026nbsp;1\u201322.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDOI: \u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1111\/ajps.70068\u0022\u003Ehttps:\/\/doi.org\/10.1111\/ajps.70068\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ECombined efforts improved water access by 45% in Mumbai\u2019s informal settlements.\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Combined efforts improved water access by 45% in Mumbai\u2019s informal settlements."}],"uid":"34541","created_gmt":"2026-09-15 16:04:03","changed_gmt":"2026-09-15 16:05:20","author":"Tess Malone","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2026-09-15T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2026-09-15T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"681152":{"id":"681152","type":"image","title":"AnjaliNikharFieldwork.jpg","body":"\u003Cp\u003EThe researchers during a field visits to one of the informal settlements in the study. (Photo courtesy of Anjali Thomas)\u003C\/p\u003E","created":"1789488259","gmt_created":"2026-09-15 16:04:19","changed":"1789488259","gmt_changed":"2026-09-15 16:04:19","alt":"People posing for photo in India","file":{"fid":"265513","name":"AnjaliNikharFieldwork.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/09\/15\/AnjaliNikharFieldwork.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/09\/15\/AnjaliNikharFieldwork.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":146347,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/09\/15\/AnjaliNikharFieldwork.jpg?itok=8yXvVuGv"}}},"media_ids":["681152"],"groups":[{"id":"1214","name":"News Room"},{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"187915","name":"go-researchnews"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ETess Malone, Senior Research Writer\/Editor\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003Etess.malone@gatech.edu\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}