Mahiti Kanaja, an endeavour to enhance Right to Information

Nanjamma, a single, elderly widow, has been struggling to get a ration card for years. Officials gave her the incredible reason that she was not entitled to a ration card — “because she lived all alone”. As per a Supreme Court ruling, she would be entitled to an Antyodaya Anna Yojane card for the poorest of the poor, which would give her 35 kg food grain per month.

The Domestic Workers’ Rights Union has documented several such case studies. Some of the women have applied online and offline over 15 times and spent up to Rs 15,000 on middlemen and yet failed to get the coveted card. It would have entitled them to subsidised healthcare, pension and many more benefits.

If only there was a system of information disclosure in the government — which would give the status of every application filed under beneficiary schemes of all departments, village and ward-wise, the reason for its rejection, and the name of the official who rejected it — the deliberate misinformation is given by officials with ulterior motives would end. Hopefully, the commendable initiative of the Department of Personnel & Administrative Reforms-E-governance (DPAR-Egov), Government of Karnataka, to launch an updated web portal, ‘Mahiti Kanaja’, on October 12, the RTI Day, will enable this.

Mahiti Kanaja is a single unified portal for all departments which will disclose information related to the status of implementation of government schemes/public expenditures etc on a real-time basis in a user-friendly format down to the GP/ward level. This is on the lines of the ‘Jan Soochna Portal’ initiated in Rajasthan. The information will be provided to the public free of all “log-ins” and passwords, enabling genuine “freedom of information”. As in Rajasthan, a ‘Digital Dialogue’ has been initiated by DPAR-Egov, facilitated by the Social Accountability Forum for Action & Research (SAFAR), with a host of civil society organisations and across various departments, to revise Mahiti Kanaja from the citizens’ perspective.

Activists have stressed the need to focus on achieving social justice and meet the information needs of the most marginalised and not those of just any citizen. A dire need expressed by all CSOs is the provision of information, not only of accepted applications but also as to why ration cards, pension for the elderly, widows and the physically challenged, maternity benefits for pregnant women, NREGA jobs, farmers’ loan waivers, compensation for crop loss, registration of and benefits to unorganised workers and migrants etc have been denied to individual applicants. The details are to be given with suitable masking of private data.

The GP/ward-wise status of social infrastructure, of anganwadis, schools, primary healthcare centres, etc, when compared to what should be there as per norms — as per the RTE Act, the Indian Public Health Standards, etc — is another major demand. Often, knowing where anganwadis, schools or PHCs do not exist also becomes necessary in order to plan for their establishment.

Data about the functioning of the above institutions — how many children are malnourished or are out of school, the infant mortality rate and maternal mortality rate (where possible) at the GP/ward level and status of action taken to resolve these issues are valuable if we are to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The extent of delivery of benefits such as take-home rations, midday meals, scholarships etc in these institutions are also necessary for making them accountable.

Details of the composition and functioning of decentralised, participatory platforms of citizens — such as ward committees in municipalities, vigilance committees of ration shops, Balavikas Samithis of Anganwadis, School Development & Monitoring Committees, Arogya Raksha Samithis of PHCs — the number of meetings held by them, their minutes and action-taken reports would enable monitoring of these institutions by citizens.

Activists noted that more than 25% of the population lives in slums, and they would like information from the Slum Development Board on the reason why many slums have not been notified, and land rights and basic amenities like water supply have not been provided to them despite their existence for decades. When evictions of slums are ordered overnight, one would like to know who authorised it under which law.

The details of projects/works carried out by various departments, gram panchayats and municipalities, the tenders and contracts issued, budgets allocated and amounts spent on services such as garbage management, construction of houses and toilets, road works etc would provide citizens insight into where their tax money is going. Activists pointed out that 20% of the state’s budget is spent by the irrigation and PWD departments, but none of their work orders are currently available online. Planning authorities such as the BDA do not provide information on objections received by them from the public to their projects and the reasons for not taking the objections into consideration; nor do they provide the cost-benefit analyses or the rationale for their projects mandated under Sections 4(1)(c) and (d) of the RTI Act.

As in Rajasthan, the web portal will have to be supplemented with non-web-based (offline) modes such as wall paintings, notice boards etc, in local languages, recognising the challenges faced by the marginalised in accessing information through web-based mediums. Free kiosks will have to be set up in every gram panchayat/ward of the state manned by ‘facilitators’ who will assist any person seeking information and guide them in applying for schemes and services for which they qualify, and in tracking their grievances.

Extensive training of all stakeholders will need to be done on the use of the portal and how the information can be used to monitor government programmes and conduct social audits, thereby deepening accountability and democracy. ‘Mahiti Kanaja’ will hopefully provide information from the perspective of a struggling citizen like Nanjamma and end the turmoil she undergoes to get her entitlements.

(The writer is a Trustee of CIVIC Bangalore and Karnataka Right to Information Activists’ Forum, KRIA-Katte)

Watch the latest DH Videos here: