Oorvani Foundation is a non-profit committed to civic engagement, citizenship and communities. We enable open knowledge platforms that help catalyse better cities through civic media, open data, citizen engagement and community events. We connect people who want better cities with civic information, tools, networks and resources they need to make it happen.

Over the years, we have built a niche community of highly-engaged urban citizens. We provide trustworthy and balanced information platforms that is invaluable for everyone working to better cities!

Our Vision: Empowered citizens making cities and neighbourhoods sustainable, liveable and equitable

The context

There are 10 cities with 3 million+ population and 50+ cities with a million+ population. These cities are marked by poor quality of governance, environment, civic provisions and lack of equitable access to resources. Bad public infrastructure and service delivery, be it transport, water supply, roads, or schooling has ensured the everyday life of citizens is painful.

These urban challenges need collective action to fix them.  The large number of issues in the public sphere call for more citizens and civic groups engaging in finding solutions. For that to happen, people need to understand issues and the root causes;  they need to believe they can make a difference and see examples of how it can be done. Our mission is to provide the “knowledge commons” to make this happen. 

Our programmes

Citizen Matters is a civic media platform with insightful reports on critical urban issues, ideas and solutions for cities. We dive deep into issues which affect our quality of life, including water, commute, public safety, air quality, governance, education, environment, local economy and more. www.citizenmatters.in

Open City is a civic tech platform for urban data. The platform brings visibility and transparency into local governance, fosters better understanding of urban and civic issues through data and facilitates civic engagement. www.opencity.in

We also organise capacity building and community building programmes to help citizens learn, engage and become civic changemakers. These include webinars, master classes, training workshops, datajams, challenges etc. Our collaborative model enables urban citizens to not just learn but also engage and contribute their insights and learning.