Anyone who has tracked the evolution of the Right to Information (RTI) Act will be familiar with the name of Nikhil Dey. One of the main players behind rights-based laws such as the RTI, Right to Food, and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, Nikhil, who was in the city recently to attend a workshop on increasing the efficacy of social welfare legislations, spoke with R.K. Roshni on social audits, RTI Act, the accountability law and the Modi government.
Social audits in the country…
Social audits emerged as an offshoot of the RTI. However, it has been a struggle to implement them, as no one wants to give up power or be answerable to people. Social audit will work only if it is independent of whoever is running a department. It helps the common man confront petty centres of power. States such as Andhra Pradesh and Telangana had introduced social audits years ago for MGNREGS. Now, Meghalaya has become the first State to pass a law saying that all notified departments should have social audits. In Meghalaya, 26 programmes will be audited concurrently.
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RTI activists are unhappy as the Act should work much better. But we will not allow it to get it diluted. Today, there are six to eight million applications a year, and there are no signs of this stopping.
Twelve years after it was enacted, the RTI is one of the most successful laws on governance.
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Criticisms about MGNREGS…
In Kerala, for instance, to have women come out and say we will work for our development is a big thing even if they are not as productive as they should be.
The fact that the women are working, there is a dignity about it, and there is development at the village level makes MGNREGS an attractive programme.
The lack of productivity reflects the system’s incapacity. The alternative is a dole, like in countries in the West.
MGNREGS needs second and third generation thought.
By guaranteeing more than 100 days of work, ensuring minimum wages, varying the kind of works, and bringing in transparency and social audit, the programme can take a quantum leap.
The push for an accountability law...
Accountability law incorporates social audit, Right to Hearing, proactive disclosure, public service guarantees, and citizen charter among other things.
So, when a person complains about water supply, they also need to know who is responsible for what at the supervisory level.
Switching accountability to the people is what the law is about. If a bureaucrat or official fails to do their job, they should pay penalties, just as the wages of a MGNREGS labourer who does not do their job are cut.
Transparency under the Modi government...
It is not good times for participatory governance under this government.
They have not notified the Lokpal law or done anything about the whistle-blower protection or the grievance redressal law. It is a challenging period. However, there is a lot of space opening in many States.