Since the first of July, a concerted effort by Civic Society Organizations, Non Government Organizations, individuals and a prominent TV news channel - NDTV and leading national newspapers are coming together to launch a national campaign

During this 15-day campaign (July 1 to July 15, 2006), citizens will be guided on the use of the Right to Information and the making and filing of RTI applications by trained volunteers across the nation.

Covering over 40 cities around India, the campaign has been organizing workshops all across these cities. Seminars and hands on training of processes are being presented. In addition, volunteers are helping individuals find information about government processes and issues that are of concern to them. Thousands of volunteers are helping citizens find information about land deeds, land decisions, pensions, bank accounts, public distribution accounts, and status of complaints, some of them pending over decades. <

The campaign website has been carrying up to date information about events in these cities, statistics of applications, successes and failures, as well as news on Right to Information from around India. Success stories streaming in from around the country have highlighted the power of this act in making information accessible to citizens. These include:

CIC pulls up Rashtrapati Bhawan for unbecoming behaviour 

MCD has fared worst in providing info, says CIC

1400 RTI applications in 14 days in Gujarat 

Khetramani finally gets her land records through RTI 

Court directs to implement RTI in Bihar

Anti Bribery Campaign Notes: Mumbai 

Gujarat post-campaign plans 

Anti-bribe campaign in Orissa is in full swing

People came on Road to protest bribe for transformer

Jharkhand RTI forum formed

At the same time, however, the campaign has highlighted the severe problems with governments. For example one applicant said that his mother had been waiting for her pension over 12 years and eventually died 4 years ago from illnesses she could not afford to treat. If she had her pension she would not be dead. The petition via RTI discovered that her papers had been misplaced!

A volunteer with RTI in UP described numerous examples of ineffectiveness. While a Public Information Officer (PIO) is now stationed at government offices, and by law is supposed to be accessible to citizens, that is never the case. In a bank, the PIO sitting in his A/C office behind an intimidating assistant who never let anyone in, and armed guards said that he had not received any complaints. One volunteer who went to interview him pointed out that the guards were redirecting people and the assistant was yelling them away. In addition, for most who are poor and often easily intimidated by offices, bureaucracy and English, they often do not know where to look.

Rs. 10 application fee is (by law) to be deposited with the form. In numerous cases, officers have ‘waived’ that fee. However, that is in fact illegal and in the absence of the fee the application is not binding and can be thrown away. Most people do not know this and offices are using this mechanism as a way to get around having to present information. Volunteers with the campaign are asking people to ensure that the fee is taken.

Some people presenting their applicant at a police station had their application torn. It was eventually accepted when campaign volunteers interceded. In another case campaign volunteers working at a courthouse to help applicants find papers were threatened with arrest. It was only when they argued that they were working as per the act and in fact doing the job that the court administration must be doing, and challenged arrest that the officials backed off.

This has resulted in numerous volunteers asking how empowered citizens will feel once this short campaign has ended. When ‘English speaking, educated volunteers are being threatened, will poor people pleading for their cases stand a chance at being listened to?’, was the question.

From the response of volunteers during the early days of the Act, it is clear that this can be a tool that can empower people. However, a large section is so disempowered that much work also needs to be done to empower us to even use the tool. These processes of empowerment need much work and commitment and this is where thousands of volunteers around India have been mobilized.

From conversation with RTI campaign volunteers and from www.antibribery.org