Right to Information

The perseverance of the many civil society groups to bring forth transparency in Government functioning through access of information was rewarded in 2005.  The Central Cabinet cleared the “Right to Information” Bill in June 2005 and it seemed that the stage was set for more transparent governance in the country. However, as the previous experiences have proved, only legislation are not sufficient for strengthening the governance processes. The high rate of illiteracy, ignorance and impervious nature of administration makes it difficult to bring into practice any changes into the existing ways of governance.

Since the enactment of the Act, Samarthan has vigorously promoted RTI at the grassroots level to increase transparency and accountability in the institutions of local self governance – Panchayats and municipalities. We launched several campaigns to mobilize the community for making use of the Act to improve public service delivery mechanisms. On one hand, we engaged with large number of citizens to affect the demand side while on the other hand we engaged with the administration to influence the supply side of information. Our interventions could be broadly categorized into:

 Demand side interventions

• Creative communication through local art form
• Orientation of Government Field Functionaries
• Training of elected Panchayat representatives
• Establishing rural and urban resource centres

Supply side interventions

• Orientation of District and Block level officials
• Training of Panchayat functionaries
• Demonstration of models of Self disclosure
• Legal Support to applicants and NGOs on RTI related cases
• Online promotion through website development