Sustainable Urban Mobility Network (SUM Net) India is a democratic, secular and membership-based coalition of individuals, voluntary organizations, and civil society networks and movements. It seeks to improve the quality of life for all by preserving the primacy of the democratic ideal to ensure that urban mobility systems are universally accessible, socially just, economically viable and environmentally sound.
The National Urban Transport Policy brought out by the Government of India in 2006 served as a preamble to the idea of this network. Five years into its launch, the need for both upholding the policy and ensuring its proper implementation at all federal levels became urgent. The founding members of SUM Net realized that urban transport initiatives carried out in silos, divorced from the larger sustainable agenda do not yield much. It was also understood that policy advocacy is not only incomplete without local participation but also unsustainable. The principle of democracy and the practice of down-up policy approach, therefore, informs the ethos and work of the network.
A very diverse group of individuals and organizations, located in around 20 cities, bringing their local and experiential knowledge of sustainability constitute this network. In over a decade of its existence, SUM Net has been supported by local communities and grassroot groups working on varied urban issues with whom it tried to develop a multi-perspective understanding of sustainable mobility. In turn, we have tried to assist the people by carrying out awareness initiatives and facilitating a dialogue with the decision-makers to push for people-made designs, plans, policies and cities.
This Calendar is a small output to mark SUM Net’s tenth year in the urban mobility sector. It documents campaigns, advocacy efforts, studies, discussions, partnerships and outreach carried out by SUM Net to enable the transition from sustainable mobility being a mere promise to a reality.
For copies of this Calendar, contact the SUM Net Secretariat at sumnetworkindia@gmail.com. A soft copy of the Calendar can be accessed here.
