SOME good comes of everything. When the Block Development Officer (BDO) of
Fatehpur Chaurasi in Unnao, UP, ignored the demands of wage labourers for work
under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (MGNREGA), little did he know that this would only help them. Nowhere to go, the desperate labourers learnt about the Janta Suchna Kendra (JSK) and demanded work after getting online print of their application number as proof. Within 15 days, they became eligible for compensation for not getting work.
When the higher-ups pulled up the BDO, he discovered the role of the JSK in helping the marginalised claim what was their due. More than 200 job card holders have since registered themselves online. Five of them have got work while the others are awaiting compensation.
A major step in making governance transparent was the implementation of the Right to Information Act (RTI) in 2005.
Power tool
Theoretically it appears that the “aam aadmi” now need not move from pillar to post to access information and public services that have, in recent times, gone online. Accessing justice through the RTI is, however, a distant dream as most citizens find writing an application and sending it to the appropriate officer an insurmountable hurdle, especially in rural India.
With a population of 20 crores, Uttar Pradesh has officially barely 2.30 lakh Internet connections, which serve only a fraction of its population. It is in such a dismal scenario that the eight JSKs set up by the Asha Foundation in collaboration with Leeds University, UK, Hindustan Petroleum and others are a pioneering step to democratise the RTI.
The first such JSK was established with the help of Hindustan Petroleum under its corporate social responsibility programme and will complete a year on June 5. At first sight, the modest kendra appears to be a photocopying-cum-typing kiosk, the kind that dot commercial complexes in the country.
Located in the industrial town of Kanpur, the JSK is run by 51-year-old school dropout Shankar, who left the lucrative work of facilitating people acquire driver’s licences to train as an RTI activist.
Hindustan Petroleum gave Rs 2 lakh for two centres at Kanpur and Sandilla (Hardoi), which was used to buy computers, printers, fax machines, scanners and heavy-duty inverters.
With the paraphernalia in place, the Kanpur kendra has been running successfully for the last one year. So far, about 260 RTI applications have been filed here.
“Most complaints pertain to everyday problems — inflated electricity bill, failure to get a ration card, not getting house despite depositing money with the housing board, widow and old-age pension, or even failure to get scholarships,” says Shankar.
He assists people in drafting and typing applications, attaching the mandatory postal order of Rs 10, keeping a photocopy for further reference and sending it to the information officer of the department concerned by registered post.
All these services come for barely Rs 150, which is within the reach of people, even labourers.
Mudit Shukla, Asha Foundation project coordinator of the JSK initiative, says during the last one year, eight such JSKs have come up at Sandilla, Amethi, Barabanki, Unnao, rural Varanasi, Patna, and the newest one in Lucknow.
The initiative
Explaining the concept behind the JSKs, he says they were developed as a tool to democratise the RTI and work as a sustainable model to empower village-based social activists who are “whole-timers” with no independent income to support them.
With the seed money of barely Rs 1.50 lakh to Rs 2 lakh, the villagers can get a computer and Internet services at a nominal cost in their villages. Through this, they are able to access a range of online services as well as file RTI applications through trained personnel who run these kendras. Providing value-added services like typing and photocopying, the village-based RTI activists, in most cases, are able to earn a stipend which takes care of their day-to-day expenses.
“All JSKs have managed to break even, barring the Kanpur one where running costs are high, it being an urban centre,” says Shukla. The kendras have also become popular among service-oriented foreign and Indian students who want to know the real issues facing the country.
Last year, 12 British and an equal number of Indian students interned with the JSK project and worked closely in rural conditions to use technology for transparent governance. Camping in the rural areas, these students have engaged with the issues at the ground level and have imparted computer and Internet skills to people to access information online. |
