E-Government Tools, Claimed Potentials/Unnamed Limitations: The Case of Kalyan–Dombivli

Contemporary cities are characterized by the inequality reflected in uneven geographies of quality-of-life conditions. When these inequalities are a matter of concern, local governments usually assert their intention to respond to citizen’s needs and deprivations. It is in this context that information and communication technology (ICT) tools are being incorporated in Indian cities to promote local governance by improving quality of life and increasing efficiency and transparency in the response to citizen’s demands and needs. Depending on the institutional environment and how information is created, processed and disseminated, these ‘e-government’ tools can exacerbate existing exclusionary practices. The objectives of this article are twofold. First, we want to explore how a local e-grievance redressal system reflects self-expressed needs. Second, we want to investigate whether there is a (mis)match between self-expressed needs and deprived areas. This helps to answer the question how these systems capture the requirements of the most deprived. The main methods used are geocoding and spatial visualization of the processed information. Results show that the self-expressed needs do not necessarily concentrate in the most deprived areas. This suggests that the e-grievances redressal system does not guarantee a narrowing of the gap between the different sections of the city, nor does it necessarily capture the requirements of those in the most need.