GRAMA (Governance Research and Accountability for Meaningful Advancement) is a research and policy initiative working to strengthen the accountability of public institutions by centering the perspectives of those they are meant to serve: last-mile citizens, frontline workers who connect them to the state, and local elected officials who represent them.
Across India's governance landscape, decisions flow downward — through administrative hierarchies, programme guidelines, and data systems designed for upward reporting. The people at the receiving end of policy — rural citizens navigating public programmes, and local government officials tasked with delivering them — rarely shape the information, feedback, or evidence that drives reform.
GRAMA exists to change this. We believe that effective governance requires not just better data or better research, but a fundamental reorientation: building systems that listen to those at the bottom, and institutions that learn from what they hear.
We envision governance that is shaped by those closest to it — where research, data, and advocacy come together to ensure that the voices of those furthest from power are not just heard, but acted upon.
Our work operates through two complementary efforts — each grounded in the conviction that voice must be embedded not just in advocacy, but in the architecture of governance itself.
We conduct rigorous, field-grounded research on how local governance actually works — studying management practices, decision-making, and the role of voice within rural institutions using both quantitative and qualitative methods. Our aim is to generate evidence that doesn't just describe problems but informs how policy is designed and delivered.
We partner with government programmes to reimagine administrative data — not as a top-down reporting tool, but as infrastructure that empowers frontline workers and captures the experiences of beneficiaries. In Bihar, we are collaborating with JEEViKA, one of India's largest rural livelihoods programmes, to build prototype beneficiary feedback mechanisms directly into the programme's data architecture, and to design evidence-based peer learning processes for last-mile cadre.
JEEViKA, Bihar's flagship government programme for self-help groups and rural livelihoods, spans 1.4 crore households across the state. GRAMA is partnering with JEEViKA to strengthen its data systems and accountability frameworks as part of a long-term organisational transformation.
Through this collaboration, JEEViKA is evolving into a more data-driven and responsive institution. GRAMA's work focuses on building tools and feedback systems that capture real-time insights from the field, streamline information flows across levels, and enhance the use of data for decision-making.
GRAMA's work is supported by a grant of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation via an institutional partnership with the University of Maryland, College Park.
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