A resident welfare association (often abbreviated as RWA) is a civic body representing the interests of residents of a specific urban or suburban town in Indian cities. Membership is voluntary, and leadership is usually chosen by members who pay fees. Members who do not pay the voluntary subscription fee in any year will not be able to vote in the general body and other meetings of the association as they will be considered to have excluded from the membership of the voluntary association. In some localities, such associations carry the word "Development" in their nomenclature as the development and association of well-being.
RWAs are not official government agencies, and even slums and illegal housing locations in India can form RWA to represent the interests of citizens. RWAs are generally recorded through acts of cooperative societies, which require that groups have a minimum of fifteen members from a given area. These laws also set out the rules for the establishment of RWA's by-laws, which include membership criteria, voting rights, and conditions under which RWA officials may initiate legal proceedings on behalf of the registered company. Despite the prevalence of RWA in slums and in unauthorized settlements, government programs aimed at involving RWAs in strategic governance decisions, such as the Bhagidari Scheme in Delhi, include only RWA based on planned neighborhoods. Since the early 2000s and continue to grow in importance.