JOIN USWhen the energy of the youth is channeled in the right direction, it can bring about wonderful results. Proving this is Josh (Joint Operation for Social Help) – an NGO working with youngsters in areas of governance, transparency and accountability.
Till now, they have run successful campaigns for disclosure of answer sheets in colleges, transparency in budgetary allocation to each university and public evaluation of the working of government schools; and now, they are making news for conducting a survey on implementation of the RTE (Right to Education) Act in Delhi.
Josh came into existence in 2006 when the movement for RTI (Right to Information) Act was at its peak. Saurabh Sharma, founder of this NGO, who was assisting RTI activist Arvind Kejriwal at that time, decided to take the movement to students. He says, “I realised that RTI has a lot of potential to benefit the student community. We, the students, have no idea if our varsity is utilising government funds appropriately to get us infrastructure, or if at least our answer sheets are being checked correctly.”
“Therefore, we started holding sensitisation seminars with principals of various colleges on RTI. We also began assisting Delhi University authorities in compiling and cataloguing all information regarding the varsity under the RTI act. This was in 2007. Finally, at a seminar held at the Scope Complex in November ’09, participated in by public information officers of 63 colleges, it was realised that almost all colleges had implemented provisions of the RTI act.”
Here onwards, Josh started utilising RTI in other areas concerning students. Student members filed several RTIs demanding to see their answer sheets under a ‘Question of Your Answers Campaign.’ Though the Central Information Commission dismissed these, the Supreme Court finally ruled that all evaluated answer sheets will have to be made accessible through RTI.
In 2009, because of their sustained campaigns, for the first time, DU put its annual budget online. Further, in response to an RTI filed by Josh for transparency in the functioning of government schools, the CIC passed a landmark order that any citizen can inspect the records and documents of a Delhi govt. or MCD school on the last working day of every month.
With this new weapon in hand, Josh has just finished a survey in implementation of the RTE Act in Delhi. 50 students from different colleges of DU, IIT(D) and even Presidency College (Kolkata) visited six different slums. They asked the kids here if they were enrolled in the nearby govt. school (compulsory as per RTE), if they were being charged any fee (illegally), being taught well, given nutritious mid-day meal etc. The details were cross-checked at the nearby govt. schools on the last day of working months.
Saurabh says, “These students have studied in prestigious schools and colleges, and never perhaps seen a slum in their life; but they volunteered to work in this survey for the welfare of economically weak children. That is the power of youth, the passion we want to harness.”