The National Urban Transport Policy was brought out by the Government of India in 2006, but little seemed to have changed a year post this policy. Meanwhile some civil society organisations working in sustainable mobility in their respective cities realised that leading lone, city restricted initiatives may not yield much. How cities developed and what they decided to do was found to be controlled by actors and events at the central level and strong policy advocacy was the only way to deal with this situation. With the understanding that binds SUM Net members, we strongly believe that policy advocacy without local participation is incomplete, and unsustainable. The people make policies, if that isn’t happening today, it should. And this is what SUM Net works for. Top down approaches need to go and people need to be more empowered to opine on what happens and does not happen in their cities.
The network is made up of such diverse individuals and organisations who understand sustainability, with the ability to see urban mobility as a part of the larger sustainable agenda.