NITI Aayog reports on government's women safety schemes should be public: CIC

New Delhi: The Central Information Commission has said that third-party evaluation reports prepared by the NITI Aayog on women safety schemes implemented by the Ministry of Women and Child Development should be placed in the public domain.

The CIC said that these reports which evaluate the implementation, efficiency and effectiveness of such schemes are institutionally independent and evidence-based assessments intended for policy reforms, mid-course correction and improved governance.

They are "independent and objective assessment of government schemes and programmes, commissioned by the Government of India," the CIC noted.

In a recent order, Information Commissioner P R Ramesh dealt with an RTI plea seeking records related to women safety schemes implemented by the Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD), including the One-Stop Centre and Women Helpline schemes, and their evaluation by NITI Aayog.

The CIC, while upholding the ministry's stand that supplying nearly 1,870 pages of internal file notings would "disproportionately divert the resources of the public authority" under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, made observations on proactive disclosure of evaluation reports.

The order stated that "third-party evaluation reports, particularly those assessing the implementation and effectiveness of women safety and welfare schemes funded from the public exchequer, ought to be placed in the public domain in the interest of transparency and public awareness".

In a related matter involving the MWCD, the CIC also reiterated the importance of suo motu disclosure under the RTI Act.

"The public authority (MWCD) is advised to take necessary steps for suo motu disclosure of maximum information on their website about the name of successful bidder (name of company) executing the work, amount for which the contract was awarded, completion date of the contract, scope of work, percentage of work completed from time to time, et cetera," the order reads.

The commission advised the MWCD that such disclosure would facilitate informed public discourse, enhance accountability and improve governance.