Right to Information: Enactment of Right to information in India
POPULAR STRUGGLE THAT BROUGHT ABOUT THE ENACTMENT OF RIGHT TO INFORMATION
The Right to Information Act means that people have the right to know everything that affects their lives directly or indirectly. If a person is involved in a court case, he should be provided all the documents concerning his case, so that he can know why he was involved in a false case and why he is being punished for no fault of his. A poor villager wants to seek information as to why the amount being sanctioned by the central or the state government has failed to provide him any financial help or provide employment opportunities for him and his co-villagers, how and where such an amount was spent or not spent or was pocketed by different officials. Certain aware citizens among them would ask for information about the expenditure receipts and even the audit reports.
To get such a right the people had to engage themselves in a long struggle. They had to stage dharnas, hold demonstrations and even gherao certain errant officials. Slowly their efforts bore fruit and many state governments like those of Rajasthan, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Goa etc, were forced to pass Right to Information Acts from time to time.
It was, however, the Rajasthan Government which look the initiative in passing the Rajasthan Right to Information Act in 2000. The right to information demand was formulated unitedly by the members of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) (formed in 1990). These ordinary people, forced by problems in their lives, exhibited extraordinary courage. Initially they fought for minimum wages and land. When they were told that they had done no work and so they cannot be paid, the MKSS asked for records to prove the point. They were told that these were government records and therefore secret.
Thus the people resorted to dharnas and hunger strikes. Their struggle gained momentum and journalists like Nikhil Chakravorty declared it as the second battle for independence. Some shouted "The Right to Live is the Right to Know." That is how a simple struggle for wages turned into a struggle for the right to know or right to information. The agitation continued and ultimately the Government of Rajasthan was. forced to pass "The Rajasthan Right to Information Act 2000".
By this Act the people got the right to information in all spheres of governance. The people were allowed to obtain certain copies of any document, particularly those concerning records of expenditure like bills, vouchers and muster-rolls.
The Right to Information on its own caused a change in the power. The people organised public hearings (or Jan Sunwai) where any body could come and have their say in certain matters. These afforded an open platform where information and its analysis revealed the who, the how and the why of various misdeeds and gave courage to the exploited to bring their grievances in the open.
The right to information gives any citizen an opportunity to check the (mis)deeds of any authority by personally examining details. Such a right has a dramatic effect on the prevalent modes of brazen corruption.
As said above, the governments of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Goa also enacted the right to information. It is expected that other governments will also follow suit and become more transparent. With the passing of years, many more states and even the central government has shown transparency in their works, leading to the right to information for the common people.
