Poll on reform of the election process for the President of the Council of Architecture

Poll on reform of the election process for the President of the Council of Architecture

 

Each one of us, who call ourselves as an Architect in India, earn this right to call ourselves so legally, when we get registered in the register of Council of Architecture, popularly known as COA, The COA is a body corporate by the Government of India under the provisions of the Architects Act, 1972, enacted by the Parliament of India, which came into force on 1 September 1972.

The Act provides for registration of Architects, standards of education, recognised qualifications and standards of practice to be complied with by the practising Architects.

The Council of Architecture is charged with the responsibility to regulate the education and practice of profession throughout India besides maintaining the register of Architects.

For this purpose, the Government of India has framed Rules and COA has framed Regulations as provided for in the Architects Act, with the approval of Government of India.
The President and the Vice-President of the COA are elected by the members of the Council from among themselves:

An elected President or Vice-President of the COA shall hold office for a term of three years or till s/he ceases to be a member of the COA, whichever is earlier, but subject to his/her being a member of the COA, s/he shall be eligible for re-election:

The President, COA, is elected by

1. Five Architects possessing recognised qualifications elected by the Indian Institute of Architects from among its members
2. Two representatives of the AICTE as nominated by GOI
3. Five Architects elected among themselves by head of Institutions all over India
4. The Chief Architects in the Ministries of the Central Government to which the Government business relating to defence and railways has been allotted and head of the Architectural Organisation in the Central Public Works Department, ex officio
5. One person nominated by the Central Government;
6. An Architect from each State nominated by the Government of that state.
7. Two persons nominated by the Institution of Engineers, India, from among its members; and
8. One person nominated by the Institution of Surveyors of India from among its members.

Hence summarised

• IIA is not represented by even one out of ten Architects in India, and has same people repeating themselves with all the benefits on various posts, leading to ideological bankruptcy and status quo within the members over the years, IIA sessions are more famous for the <fraternity get together> than meaningful discussions or consensus on needed reforms and paths in Architecture field in India.

• The Directors of Institutes, respond to who is closer to whom, with best probabilities to win. The heads of institutions never go for any form of consensus within the faculty or students, to inform, the merits or demerits of particular decision to vote. The vote is a personal favour, to be reversed at appropriate time.

• The heads of different Government organisations are handpicked by Government, hence have minimal information or mandate on ground issues to be tackled in education or practice, as they are representing govt. voice, not voice of Architects or Architecture students.

In totality the COA's most powerful post is elected between a fixed set of people, totally bypassing the nationwide representation of practising and teaching fraternity, and student representatives all over the nation.

The President, COA, if elected directly through nationwide voting within Architecture fraternity will have following benefits.

• The President shall have to be an inspiring Architect to be able to glue the entire fraternity, not someone elected through backdoor of procedures within same set of people repeating themselves through lobbying.
• The President will have to openly listen to nationwide representation in open manner
• The elected President will not be answerable to any lobby hence independent being
• The COA will open door to all the outsiders, who may think to have chance to represent COA at the highest level, without being part of politics of IIA or other organisation
• The issue of Architecture fraternity will come in front of all the Architects, hence discussions will be more open and policy will not be made entirely closed doors, with few selected people
• The failure and success of COA will be openly debated in each election

This poll is theoretical proposition of electing the President, COA, directly through a nationwide election, voted by Architects all over the nation and student representatives.