– Radhika Mathur, Right to Information Branch

While we lie comfortably in our cushioned beds of our bourgeois households, there’s a continuous struggle in the larger world. By this struggle, I’m not referring to the popular and remarkable, larger struggles of society of ‘fast unto death’ to get a Parliament bill passed in a democracy or a ‘Pride Parade’ against the discrimination faced in the country on the basis of one’s sexual identity. It is a much smaller and an everyday struggle within the realm of another household to secure the most fundamental prerequisites for what can be called an ordinary life.

It is a universal assumption that democracy is the best form of governance. Winston Churchill, the British Prime Minister during the Second World War era, shared his opinion on democracy to the world – “It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.” As the latter school of thought believes, with our options otherwise running out, democracy is the last form of governance in the contemporary world.

In India, we are privileged to have the right to choose our representative in Parliament.But is that all democracy means, the availability of this right? Most of us don’t end up exercising all the rights guaranteed to us by the Constitution in our lifetime. For instance, when awareness on the Right to Information Act, (2005) was mapped in the country in the year 2008 by the National Campaign for People’s Right to Information (NCPRI), the result supported my statement – only 2% young urban people were aware of the act.

However, on the other end of the tunnel, there are people in our urban locality who feel the need to exercise their rights but go through open harassment for desiring the same. Democracy at this level begins to sound synonymous to hypocrisy.

The Right to Information Branch of The YP Foundation aims to increase young people’s sensitivity towards the issue of information and awareness of laws and policies in India, provide them with the resources to review and work on ensuring the implementation of laws and policies, thereby increasing their participation in processes of governance, ensuring a transparent and accountable government.

During 2010-2011, we attempted to give the central Right to Information Act, 2005 relevance by means of applying the act to laws and policies associated with the areas of gender, sexuality, arts, education and health. One of the focus areas was enabling our children and the families we work with at the Nizamuddin Basti, through our street children project, ‘Blending Spectrum’, access Free and Compulsory Education, in accordance with the 2009 act. Our main agenda was to get our children enrolled into schools, and while working toward this we faced numerous challenges for supporting the “economically weaker sections” of society, to use the official terminology-Using the expression “Economically weak” to give these families an identity is enough to gauge societal perceptions toward the same.

For a child to be able to access Free and Compulsory Education there are a list of documents that need to be submitted to schools, ranging from Birth Certificates, Family Income Proof, Family Ration Cards( including the child’s name). We decided to assist our community with registration of ration cards- to serve the dual purpose of identity proof as well as income proof. We took the families to the concerned Ration Card office, where the officials were impolite and rude in their responses to the families. The community has never received any information on schemes they are eligible to apply for, and when there is a level of questioning, it is met with impatience and frustration.

Ration card registrations are running in the country for every economic bracket, except Jhuggis (slums). While admission dates in schools are drawing to a close the community we work with has to wait for the government to announce their new policy for the Jhuggis (slums) and the time period within which these have to be registered. An officer at the Ration Card Office blankly stated to a community member “there’s definitely a change in the system if you are allowed to step inside the big schools now, it’s a privilege for you.” Did the officer have any right to conclude, for these families, what their privilege is?

Most ration cards in the community we work with, got cancelled without any prior notice or any stated reason only to find out the new policy requires bi-metric (thumb impression) printing. If these families were given prior notice by the government, the cancellation of ration cards could have been avoided. But at the moment, till the new policy is announced, their cards are invalid, leaving the BPL card holders in the lurch, yet again.

The social stereotyping and prejudices against EWS families don’t just victimize the adults, but shockingly enough, also the children. Under Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, private schools are instructed to reserve 25% seats for EWS families, but these schools only need excuses to deny admission to these families. Even when we managed to help a family get their child enrolled into a private school for regular morning classes, the mother is being called to school almost every day with warnings of suspension of the child from the school. Is it wrong for a child, unknowing at the age of six towards societal and economic differences, to desire to feel included and to play with his classmates?

The mother is threatened, and is being made to feel obliged toward the school for enrolling her child, from a EWS family. Must we feel indebted for the fulfillment of our own due rights? An official from the school administration office opened up to her “If we have people ready to pay heavy donations to let their child sit in the class, why should they favor somebody who’s enjoying free admission and education?”

Is the Right to Equality in India really achieved in its absolute sense?

There is a dire need to step out of our convenient middle class lives, to realize the tribulations one has to face on the other side of the world. Indian democracy is not that a rewarding place to be in. Perceive the world through their eyes to see how inconvenient living in urban spaces is. The natural tendency of the middle class thinking is to be indifferent about governance issues, until it directly affects them. Think again – Is there really no need to understand, disseminate awareness on and influence policies? Or should we continue living within our comfort zones pretending the world outside is invisible?

Picture Used – Artwork by Ishita Sharma

I joined TYPF as a volunteer and later took over as The Coordinator of The Right to Information Branch. Nervous at first about heading a team of 15 volunteers- I didn’t realize how time flew. It was only yesterday that I had 15 wide-eyed faces staring back at me, trying to get a sense of what the project needed them to do.

A million trainings, meetings, conference calls, feedback sessions and the like later, came the workshops and discussion forum we had been working towards. It was suddenly a whirlwind of work! We didn’t realize the extent of the impact we were making, but we just kept going on, pushing ourselves and the team to do better.

It wasn’t until the end of the project that the realization of what we had achieved this year dawned upon us. It was then that emails and messages from the volunteers started pouring in, stating how much they had learnt from the project, how they suddenly realized why each meeting had been mandatory, how it felt so good when someone at the workshops looked back and thanked them for telling them how to file an RTI, how they could finally connect the dots. It was that realization, at that moment right there, that made all the sleepless nights, chaos and hard work worth it.

Working in this organization has made me discover and understand myself, my strengths and weaknesses, my likes and dislikes, my beliefs and politics, and most importantly- who I really am. It’s taught me much more than I can point out. It’s made me challenge myself and what I thought I was capable of.

Ila Reddy
Ex- Coordinator
The Right to Information Branch

Whilst there was a definite common agreement towards the need to raise more awareness about the Act itself, a lot of young people at The YP Foundation who have been working with precisely that mandate, questioned the larger strategic direction and purpose of simply awareness-raising in general. Our focus has been on the relevance of the act in one’s day-to-day life and the issues that it can be used for. Sometimes just filing an RTI on the little things or issues that we take for granted in our system and environment can act as a catalyst for change.

With over 60% of India’s population between the ages of 18 and 25, it is important that young people have a say and a stake in the way their country is run, more so since we are the future of the country. Voting during elections is one of the easiest ways to ensure political participation, but is the casting of a ballot an end in itself or is it only the beginning of political consciousness and participation? Isn’t it our responsibility as well as right to ensure better governance? After all, participation in governance is the core concept of any successful democracy.

42% of the Indian population lives on less than $1 a day (World Bank estimates). The Government of India spends thousands of crores every year on various schemes that are aimed at reducing poverty. Yet in 2004-05, poverty rates in India reduced by just 0.8% (NSS estimates). Why aren’t poverty levels reducing? Where is the money going? Who is accountable for this money?

The Right to Information Act, 2005 is a major tool provided by the Government of India to ensure government transparency and accountability and encourage public participation. The Act recognizes that in a democracy, information related to government functioning should ideally belong to the people. Citizens have every right to know how public authorities spend their tax money. The RTI Act grants citizens the right to ask for and be provided with information about the work of government-run and supported bodies within thirty days.

The Constitution of India does not specifically mention the Right to Information as a fundamental right, but it has been recognized by the Supreme Court of India as an integral part of the ‘Right to Freedom of Speech and Expression’ as well as the ‘Right to Life’. A recent study by the National Campaign for People’s Right to Information Movement that led to the passing of the Act in 2005, revealed that only 33% of the urban population is aware of the RTI Act. In light of this fact and the amendments that have been proposed by the current government to reduce the scope of the Act, it is important that one realizes the importance of the Act, and start using it as a tool to hold one’s government accountable.

The YP Foundation in collaboration with UNDP, SPIL, CHRI and Governance Now recently presented a forum titled- ‘From Exploring the RTI Act to Building a Movement- Do Young People Matter?’. The forum was the culmination of a year’s worth of community training with young people across the NCR on how to use the RTI Act. The point of the forum was to bridge some of the isolated conversations that as young people, we had been having. To bring together young people who have been working with The RTI Act over the past year with people from the RTI Movement in Delhi itself, to explore how young people can get further involved with the issue. Have a look at the video we uploaded on You Tube – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXady_R9of4 – it explains more about the project and what we have been working on.

The discussion really looked at where the RTI movement stands today, focusing on the need for raising awareness levels about the Act amongst the public, to the victimization and threat to those who utilize the Act as well as the future of working with Proactive Disclosure. The panel featured Mr. Raj Liberhan, Director of the India Habitat Center, Mr. Wajahat Habibullah, Chief Information Commissioner, Mr. Shekhar Singh, National Campaign for People’s Right to Information, Mr. Venkatesh Nayak, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, Ms. Yamini Aiyer, Accountability Initiative, Ms. Manju Sadarangani, U.S. Embassy and Ms. Pallavi Kaushal from The YP Foundation.

Governance Now covered the forum at http://www.governancenow.com/gov-next/rti/rti-and-power-youth. Whilst there was a definite common agreement towards the need to raise more awareness about the Act itself, a lot of young people at The YP Foundation who have been working with precisely that mandate, questioned the larger strategic direction and purpose of simply awareness-raising in general. Our focus has been on the relevance of the act in one’s day-to-day life and the issues that it can be used for. Sometimes just filing an RTI on the little things or issues that we take for granted in our system and environment can act as a catalyst for change.

The need for proactive disclosure or adherence to Section 4 of the Act was also brought up and discussed. The Act requires every public authority to computerize their records for wide dissemination and to proactively publish certain categories of information so that the citizens need minimum recourse to request for information formally. This directive is not followed by a number of authorities even today.

The recent cases of death of RTI activists and applicants have thrown negative light on the use of the RTI. A participant at the forum highlighted this point as well, sharing he was threatened by MCD officials when he filed applications asking for information regarding an illegal construction at Shahdara. He said he had filed a complaint with the Central Information Commission. Nothing explains or justifies such criminal intimidation. Such incidents and circumstances discourage citizens from using the RTI, however, one solution to this issue, as suggested by a number of people at the forum, including Mr. Venkatesh Nayak from CHRI, is to publicize it as much as possible and get multiple people to file applications on the same issue, thus reducing the risk, as opposed to just one person fighting it out. The Chief Information Commission, Mr. Habibullah, who was also part of the panel, promised to look into the matter. A month later, we hear through the media that two of the three MCD officials who threatened the applicant have been arrested, after approaching Mr. Shailesh Gandhi, the Central Information Commissioner and seeking his help. You can read the recent newspaper report at - http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/2-MCD-officials-held-for-threatening-RTI-applicant/articleshow/5837950.cms.

Over the year we’ve done a series of facilitative discussions cum workshops in NCR and we’re still very positive about the use and scope of the RTI. Cases and incidents where the RTI has been used as an effective medium to seek redressal and ensure corrective measures are taken over a variety of issues only encourages one to use it more.

We’re currently in the middle of evaluations and strategic planning for the months ahead- trying to look at where we want the project to head and what kind of impact we’re looking to make. If nothing else, our belief in the relevance and importance of the Right to Information has only increased over the past year.

The Act is a provision made by the government to encourage transparency as well as people’s participation, but the key to the Act’s success lies in the hands of the people for whom it has been enacted. We must not be hindered by the attempts made by certain authorities/individuals to curb the outlet of information that rightly belongs to the public. After all, as specified earlier, it is our fundamental right.

Ila Reddy
Coordinator
The Right to Information Branch

The YP Foundation in collaboration with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), Students for Promotion of International Law (SPIL) and Governance Now

presents a discussion forum:

“From Exploring the RTI Act to Building a Movement – Do Young People Matter?”

March 13th, 2010 at 6 PM – 8.30 PM

at Gulmohar Hall, India Habitat Centre, Lodhi Road New Delhi

The forum will explore how young people can take the RTI movement of the country forward. Bringing together leading and key personalities of the movement, the forum will seek to answer the following:

1. At what stage is the RTI Movement currently?
2. Has the filing of RTI Applications increased the overall efficiency and functioning of public authorities?
3. Internationally, what does the right to information signify?
4. What role can young people play in taking the movement forward?
5. What more can be done to make a larger impact and increase the efficacy of the movement?

Creating a space for inter-generational dialogue, the forum intends to set a collaborative agenda between organizations working on the RTI currently in the city and young people who want to get involved in the movement.

Confirmed panelists include:

Mr.Wajahat Habibullah, Chief Information Commissioner
Mr.Shekhar Singh, National Campaign for People’s Right to Information
Ms.Yamini Aiyer, Accountability Intitiative
Ms.Sanchita Bakshi, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative
Ms.Manju Sadarangani, US Embassy

To confirm your attendance please RSVP @ 46792243/ 44/ 9871011544 / 9899651625/ yp.rti.programme@gmail.com.

We hope to see you there!

As people, we need to create the change we want to see.

Bother. To engage with the system.

To challenge it. To change it.

We need accountability. Not excuses.

We need active citizenship.

What does your vote really want?

EXPLORING THE RTI ACT

The YP Foundation presents:

Workshops @

St. Stephen’s College - 16th Feb, 2010, 1.30 PM.

Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies - 17th Feb, 2010; 12 PM.

Sri Venkateswara College - 18th Feb, 2010, 1.30 PM.

IME Law College - 19th Feb, 2010; 11 AM.

Supported by:

United Nations Development Programme
Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative

For queries,

Call: +91 9871011544 or 011 46792243
Email:  yp.rti.programme@gmail.com
Visit: www.theypfoundation.org

Do join us!