Parivartan

Parivartan (Change) is a grass-roots activism organisation based in the Sundar Nagari area of New Delhi, India. During the 2000s, Parivartan used Right to Information (RTI) to address citizens' grievances related to Public Distribution System (PDS), public works, social welfare schemes, income tax and electricity. By 2012, Parivartan was largely inactive, and its main leaders Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia had launched a political party - the Aam Aadmi Party.

Parivartan was founded by a few citizens of Delhi, including Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia. It was not a registered NGO - it ran on individual donations, and was characterized as a jan andolan ("people's movement") by its members. Later, in 2005, Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia launched Kabir, a registered NGO named after the medieval philosopher Kabir. Like Parivartan, Kabir was also focused on RTI and participatory governance. However, unlike Parivartan, it accepted institutional donations. According to Kejriwal, Kabir was mainly run by Sisodia.

In 2003, the group had 450 registered volunteers in Delhi, out of which 60 were regularly active.

In 2000, Parivartan requested the Tax Commissioner to make the Income Tax department more transparent. When the request was overlooked, the group filed a public interest litigation (PIL) demanding transparency in public dealings of the Income Tax department, and also organized a satyagraha outside the Chief Commissioner's office. As a result of Parivartan's protests, the Commissioner implemented tax reforms. Kejriwal and other activists also stationed themselves outside the electricity department, asking visitors not to pay bribes and offered to help them in getting work done for free.

In 2001, the Delhi government enacted a state-level Right To Information (RTI) Act, which allowed the citizens to access government records for a small fee. Parivartan used RTI to help people get their work done in government departments without paying a bribe. In March 2002, Parivartan staged a demonstration in front of Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), forcing the MCD officials to share information under the RTI directives. In 2002, the group obtained official reports on 68 public works projects in the area, and performed a community-led audit on them by comparing the claimed work to the actual work done. The campaign exposed misappropriations worth ₹ 7 million in 64 of the projects. On 14 December 2002, Parivartan organized a jan sunvai (public hearing) in Sundar Nagari, to examine the work of MCD's Engineering Department. In this public hearing, the local residents held public officials and leaders accountable for the lack of development in the locality, based on the audit. The local MLA, councillor and MCD engineers tried to disrupt the hearing, and the police had to be called in to maintain order.

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