The Resurging Value of Civil Society for Indian Crafts
The Jawabdehi Yatra is a campaign to bring a Social Accountability Law. Organised by Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), DEF has been a part of this campaign for a long time. The success story of the RTI (Right to Information) movement has served as the foundation upon which the citizens are pushing the government to follow up on these laws even today. The Right to Information Act 2005 is now acknowledged to be a transformatory legislation by vesting power with the people. Its basic architecture has ensured that the ordinary Indian citizen has managed to use it to overcome resistant pockets of power, to ensure implementation. It empowered the ordinary citizen to initiate and pursue the process of dismantling illegitimate concentrations of power. In fact, it is difficult to imagine the growth of the popular anti-corruption movement without the winds of transparency that have swept across a landscape of secrecy and opaqueness in governance in India.
DEF’s role in the campaign was to continue the work that they do through their 1,000 SoochnaPreneurs (Digital Information Entrepreneurs) across India. With its digitally equipped van, DEF’s team joined this campaign that travelled to all 33 districts of Rajasthan to mobilise people, make them aware about the campaign and along with this, provide a complaint redressal platform. The complaint redressal was done through the digitally equipped van and DEF’s team ensured that all complaints were taken care of. All the complaints related to governance work that people had been unable to complete due to multiple reasons ranging from lack of knowledge about government entitlements to corruption on the part of government officials. This law is pivotal in DEF’s work on the ground as the 1,000 SoochnaPreneurs work on a daily basis to fight corruption and help people gain access to the government schemes they are entitled to. Making government officials answerable to the citizens will ensure efficient service delivery and will make the lives of citizens much easier. As for DEF, this law will put SoochnaPreneurs in a better position to serve the people.
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