Together with involving communities to draw up a pre-election 'Peo- ple's Manifesto', an articulation of people's demands and aspirations, Wada Na Todo Abhiyan's review of the manifesto promises, and var- ious international commitments of governments form the organisa tion's central pillars. These draw their strength from civil society and are entirely voluntary in nature.

Political in its study, yet apolitical by nature, the annual governance review has over the past 15 years, consistently walked the extra mile to ensure it speaks for the ordinary citizen and advocates for welfare through State policies. As a citizens' initiative, it attempts to rernind those in power of the people in whose name they govern. This twelfth edition of the annual governance review report 'Promises & Reality 2021-22' can be seen both, in the context of the train of governance over the past decade-and-a-half as much as it is a commentary of the year gone by.

Promoting 'governance accountability to eliminate poverty and so cial exclusion in India' is central to development and a just, equal so- ciety that has no place for poverty and exclusion. It is also imperative to couch this advocacy in the Constitutional promises and the com- mitments made by governments and hold them accountable to the same. This adds value to the discussions on rights and entitlements of the most marginalised citizen as much as it serves the civil society's efforts to proffer evidence for any discourse on development

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