GRAAM launches 5-day ‘Policy BootCamp’ to impart grassroots understanding in policymaking and governance

Mysuru, April 25: As per a famous saying, "We cannot be mere consumers of good governance, we must be participants and co-creators.”

In sync with this thought, GRAAM today inaugurated its 'Policy Bootcamp,' a grassroots immersive and collaborative experience for the young minds to understand public policy, policymaking, and good governance in collaboration with Mount Carmel College, Bengaluru.

The five-day camp will include expert sessions on public policy, the development of a questionnaire, field visits, collection of data, data analysis interaction with government officials, and a visit to tribal settlements in H D Kote leading up to policy recommendations under the guidance of the experts.

The Bootcamp was inaugurated by Prof. R Shivappa, Registrar, University of Mysore. Dr Suma Singh, Dean of Humanities, MCC, Bengaluru graced the occasion as a special invitee and  Dr Basavaraju R Shreshta, Executive Director, GRAAM, chaired the program.

Addressing the MA in Public Policy students of Mount Carmel College (MCC) Bengaluru, Prof. R Shivappa stressed on the importance of understanding the ground realities in any profession. “Until and unless you understand the ground realities, you won’t become a perfect professional in any profession,” he added.

Prof. Shivappa further talked about his in-field learning experience and encouraged the students to take up grassroots studies. “When we understand the reality we will become wonderful persons in planning, administrators, and designing human beings,” said the Professor.

Dr Suma Singh, Dean of Humanities, MCC, Bengaluru said classroom instructions have limitations and such classes are not inspiring and interactive enough for policy students. “We want to trigger students’ interest through this Bootcamp.  It is easy to sit and make policies but challenges come while implementing them and understanding them. Policies are made for you and me. So, you should get first-hand information on policy from grassroots levels. Through that, you should make difference in society,” she guided the students.

Explaining the process of policymaking Dr. Basavaraju R Shreshta, Executive Director, GRAAM said, “Policies are made through eminence, experience, and evidence.”

Advocating ‘experience-based policies,’ he said that a nation should prefer experience-based policies to eminence-based policies. At present, the country is realizing the relevance of evidence-based policies.

In line with the aspiration of the nation, GRAAM is engaging young minds and research scholars, to create a collaborative advocating community for communicating evidence-based policy. 

About the Boot camp

This Bootcamp will give an understanding of policy and its implementation from grassroots perspectives. It helps students to broaden their horizons in terms of current policy implementation issues at the grassroots and gives them an opportunity to know the citizen’s perspective of the policy or a program at the community level. And hence, it will stress the importance of a “bottom-up” approach to policy formulation which will help in creating a robust evidence-based policy-making process.

This Bootcamp is designed to give an understanding of the practical aspects of development. Through immersive case studies and field surveys and interviews at the village level, the students are expected to get a hands-on understanding of various developmental.