Summary

Governance Class 09

REASONS BEHIND THE FAILURE OF CITIZEN CHARTERS IN INDIA (5:04 P.M.)

As pointed out by the Second ARC, the citizen charters in India at best can be described as bureaucratic charters.
It means that the bureaucracy has formulated the citizen charters without involving the stakeholders, defeating the very purpose of the citizen charters.
(a) The Citizen Charter is a voluntary commitment.
In the United Kingdom these were successful because, even though it was a voluntary commitment, the bureaucracy took it seriously and fulfilled all the commitments made to the people.
In India, the bureaucracy never took the implementation of the citizen charters seriously, as it was just a voluntary commitment.
(b) Social Audit Committees are expected to participate actively in the formulation of the citizen charters.
But due to the lack of knowledge and awareness about the administration, they couldn't participate in the formulation of the citizen charters.
(c) Citizen charters in India, as pointed out by Second ARC are nothing but pious statements of noble intentions without having any practical significance.
They do not provide any information in quantifiable terms to fix accountability on the part of the bureaucracy.
(d) Performance of the bureaucracy in the implementation of the citizen charter has no impact on career advancement, i.e. their promotions, transfers, and postings do not depend on their capability to implement the citizen charters.
(e) Social Audit Committees are expected to evaluate the performance of the bureaucracy in the implementation of the citizen charters.
However, the recommendations of the Social Audit Committees are only advisory. They are mostly not implemented.
(f) Bureaucracy is expected to provide vital information about the finances to the Social Audit Committees, which can help them in formulating the citizen charters.
However, ineffective implementation of the RTI act meant that financial information was always kept secretive by the bureaucracy.
(g) Colonial attitude of the bureaucracy.
Citizen charters in the United Kingdom have become successful because the bureaucracy considers themselves as the true servants (civil servants) of the people.
However, in India, the bureaucracy considers themselves as the masters and treats the people as their subjects (Colonial attitude).

WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE TO MAKE CITIZEN CHARTERS SUCCESSFUL? (5:24 P.M.)

(a) Citizen Charters can be formulated only with the participation of stakeholders.
No government department or ministry should be allowed to formulate the citizen charter on its own.
(b) Implementation of Section 4 of RTI.
(c) Social Audit Committees shall be given training in the administration. This would allow them to participate in the formulation of the citizen charters.
(d) Sensitivity training should be imparted to bureaucracy to transform their colonial attitudes into democratic values.
(e) Citizen Charters should clearly define the services to be provided in quantifiable terms.
This would allow the objective evaluation of the performance of the bureaucracy.
(f) Civil Service Conduct Rules and Regulations, 1959 and 1964 can be changed.
(g) Performance of bureaucrats in the implementation of the citizen charters should be the basis of their career advancement including transfers, promotions, suspensions, and so on.
(h) The reports of the Social audit Committees should be made legal. Their recommendations should be implemented by the states in a time-bound manner.
(g) There must be an effective grievance redressal mechanism in the case of failure to provide the services promised in the citizen charter.
Second ARC has suggested the SEVOTTAM model to improve the citizen charters.
It has three components,
(a) Citizen charters should be made mandatory for all developmental and welfare schemes.
They should be formulated in consultation with the stakeholders.
Service standards should be defined in terms of global standards.
(b) Capacity Building Mechanisms
Citizen charters are expected to be implemented by the bureaucracy.
It is found that bureaucracy has neither attitude nor aptitude to ensure the success of the citizen charters.
They don't have the skills or knowledge(aptitude) to ensure the success of the development administration.
They also don't possess the necessary values to bring about the socio-economic transformation.
Capacity-building exercises focus on improving their aptitudes and attitudes through training.
Mission Karamyogi was launched by the government in 2021 to realize the above objectives.
(c) Grievance Redressal Mechanism (GRM)
Citizen charters have been a failure due to the absence of effective grievance redressal mechanisms.
This means that if citizens fail to receive the services promised in the citizen charter, there should be effective GRMs to improve the quality of services and also to fix the accountability on the part of the civil servants.

SOCIAL AUDITS (5:54 P.M.)

Need for Social Audit
There are many weaknesses in the financial systems of our country including,
(a) India has mostly line-item budgets wherein, the budget document only provides information about the money to be spent on a particular item.
It is not linked to either output or outcome.
(b) Auditing performed by CAG is mostly restricted to legal and regulatory audits.
CAG cannot conduct a performance audit as performance budgeting and outcome budgets are not mostly used in India.
(c) CAG also conducts an audit which is post-martem in nature.
This means that auditing is done after the money has been spent.
It becomes almost impossible for the government to recover any losses.
(d) Auditing done by CAG is completely an administrative activity without involving the stakeholders or beneficiaries.
CAG doesn't conduct either performance or equity audits.
To overcome these weaknesses and also to realize the objectives of the citizen-centric governance social audits have been introduced.
Since 1991, due to the rapid increase in tax revenues the expenditure by the government on the welfare developmental schemes has also increased in exponential terms.
Under the CAG Act of 1971, the CAG is not allowed to conduct the performance audit of these schemes.
What is a Social Audit?
In simple terms, social audit means the performance evaluation by the stakeholders themselves.
Steps Involved in the Social Audit
Once the district administration receives the money to be spent on the particular developmental scheme, social audit committees are formed.
They include beneficiaries, members of civil society organizations, local judiciary, prominent citizens from the locality, members from the private sector, media, and higher-level bureaucracy.
The district administration would formulate the citizen charters in consultation with the social audit committees clearly defining the submissions to be provided in quantifiable terms.
Once citizen charters are formulated, district administration implements the citizen charters.
Social Audit Committees conduct concurrent audits as and when the money is spent.
This may help in reducing corruption, and also in improving efficiency.
Once, the works are completed the Social Audit Committees will evaluate the performance of the bureaucracy in terms of 4Es, Economy(expenditure), Efficiency(Output), Effectiveness (outcomes), and Equity (Quality of outcomes).
Social Audit Committees submit their reports to the government.
The government is expected to take action based on the reports submitted by the Social Audit Committees.
Reasons Behind the Failure of Social Audits (6:47 P.M.)
(a) Lack of awareness among the citizens.
(b) Citizen charters are not properly formulated.
(c) Recommendations of the social audit committees are just advisory in nature.
(d) Grievance redressal mechanisms are absent.
(e) Social Audit committees do not possess the skill and the knowledge to evaluate the performance of the bureaucracy.
(f) Non-cooperative nature of the bureaucracy.
(g) The continuation of the line-item budgets.

SELF-HELP GROUPS (7:10 P.M.)

Need for the Self-Help Groups
For thousands of years, due to the dominance of patriarchal societies and the feudal mindset of people, women have always been treated as secondary-grade citizens.
They are not given any freedom to make decisions about their life.
Societies also have not assured any commitment to their development.
After independence, our constitutional makers have given more importance to the other vulnerable sections of society.
Similarly, successive governments have focused more on socially and educationally backward sections but have ignored the concerns of women.
A very small number of schemes specifically targeting women were implemented.
Accordingly, a study conducted by a multilateral institution, if women are educated and are also sole breadwinners of the family, it mostly resulted in better education, and health, and led to significant improvement in the standard of life of the rest of the family members, especially children. But, the same is not true with regard to men.
If the woman is educated and empowered, it can result in the overall development of the family, society, and the country.
Since, neither the society nor the state has assumed any interest or commitment to helping the women, the women have to come forward and help themselves.
It resulted in the emergence of self-help groups (SHG).
The SHG movement has its origin in Bangladesh.
Muhammad Yunus, chairman of Bangladesh Gramin Bank started this movement in the rural areas.
The bank has provided subsidized loans to the self-help groups which completely transformed the rural life of Bangladesh.
In India, SHG was started in the mid-1990s in south Indian states.
SHG and its Features
A group of rural women coming together to develop themselves is known as a self-help group.
The maximum strength of SHG is 20.
SHG consists mostly of women.
They are created only in rural areas.
Women belonging to socially, educationally, and economically backward sections are part of SHG.
Once the SHG is formed they collect their individual savings.
They will produce the household items which are used for daily consumption in the rural areas.
They sell these in the local markets for a profit. The profit is equally shared among the members.
Challenges associated with SHG (7:55 P.M.)
They are less successful in the North Indian States, in comparison to South Indian States. This is because of the cultural reasons.

THE TOPIC FOR THE NEXT CLASS: SHG (CONTINUED)