– 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

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!

So the website is finally up! And my, is it kick arse! Kudos Gaurav!

Which brings us to the point where I’ve been asked to write 300 words on what I’m doing right now. Tough one, that.

My name is Ila Reddy and I currently head The Right to Information Branch at The YP Foundation.  There’s so much happening around here, I can’t decide where to start!

We work on the broad issues of governance and accountability- with special focus on the Right to Information Act this year. We do workshops in colleges to create awareness amongst young college students about the Act, while equipping them with the tools to utilize it as a medium of accountability from public authorities.  Our workshop series start from the 11th of December at North Campus, Delhi University, so my team of 15 volunteers are currently in training- gearing up for the insanely busy month ahead!
Like starting with workshops just a day after our first ever fundraiser isn’t  scary enough, we’re also partnering with Swechha, UNV, UNDP and others on the International Volunteer Day Yamuna clean-up at the banks of the Yamuna on the 5th of December.  Add to that juggling between college, assignments, team trainings, staff meetings, a bad cold, attempts at fund raising, writing scary proposals and doing what I’m doing right now- that pretty much sums it up.

By the look of it, preparations for the fundraiser concert seem to be going really really well! As Angarika mentioned, ticket sales are on the rise and logistically also everything seems to be going great! Watching the Silhouette and Admin teams (not to mention a million other people!) put in so much back-breaking hard work, I KNOW the event is going to be a major success! All the best guys!