In 2005, India passed the Right to Information (RTI) act that guaranteed its people the right to access any information related to the functioning of the government. In the past few years since then, this act has played a major role in empowering citizens to participate actively in the democratic process, and bring about transparency in all levels of governance.

The act provides a historic opportunity to reduce corruption. The relationship between information and corruption is not difficult to understand: When information is easily accessible to the public about the inefficiency or wrongdoing of a government official or body, there is pressure on the official to correct his or her ways and is a deterrent for similar inefficiency in the future.

The RTI act has several positive elements built into it. For example, the government representative responsible for providing the information requested by the citizen, has to do so within a one month period, barring which he is liable to be penalized for every day of delay, and this fine is to be deducted directly from his wages. Additionally, no special form or format is required for requesting information, and every government department is required by the law to clearly display the name of the person responsible for accepting RTI applications.

In spite of these positive aspects, there are some systemic hurdles in implementation of this act. The biggest of these is that an RTI application has to be made in writing. In a country where at least 30% of the adult population is illiterate, this possesses a major barrier to a large (and perhaps most vulnerable) section of the population. Another issue is that there is not enough awareness about this act by the government through radio, television and other mass media. Thus, civil society and individuals have an important role to play, to ensure the implementation of the act.

Since May 2008, AID Penn State has been associated with Asha Parivar, a non-governmental organization working on promoting the use of the RTI act. We provide monetary support to five activists of Asha Parivar from Bihar who help people file RTI applications.

The activists conduct periodic awareness camps to inform citizens about RTI. They help people, in particular the illiterate, write RTI applications. The most common RTI requests made by citizens relate to why their ration card (to get benefits under the public distribution system) or job card (to get work under the government’s social security scheme) application has not been processed. In the past, these applications were often not processed without giving a bribe to the concerned official, but now with RTI, there is a pressure on the official to not delay legitimate applications.

The activists themselves file RTI applications to get information related to implementation of government schemes. For example, an enquiry on why the midday-meal scheme (to provide free lunch to school students) was not implemented in a government school, led to subsequent implementation of the scheme. There are several such success stories we have learned of in the past year.

See the reports of Asha Parivar's RTI work in Bihar from September 2008 and June 2009 .

Here is an account from the report sent by Shri Manoj Mishra from Siwan district in Bihar: "Citizens of Aandar block, Gadaar panchayat were unhappy with Mr. Surendra Prasad, a public distribution dealer. He did not distribute kerosene and other items through the ration shop for six months and although he was breaking the law, he was backed by the local MP (or Member of Parliament). Complaints were filed against him, but there was no disciplinary action. Finally, people used RTI and asked for detailed description of action taken on complaints filed against Mr. Prasad since November 07. This worked! Even though the local politicians were supporting Mr. Prasad, the Sub Divisional Officer had no choice but to suspend Mr. Prasad. This suspension was carried out on March 10th, 2008. People celebrated their victory for two days. This event inspired ten more local people to file RTI applications to get information about the development work done by the panchayat."

Such stories from the grassroots are extremely encouraging and we feel optimistic that the RTI act can greatly reduce, if not totally root out corruption.

The government has recognized corruption as a problem and has taken efforts to combat it by passing the RTI act. As responsible citizens, the onus is now on us to ensure that the act has its desired impact of bringing transparency and strengthening democratic values.