Protecting India's Citizen Users of Right to Information

http://commons.globalintegrity.org/2010/09/protecting-indias-citizen-users-of.html

Monday, September 13, 2010
Protecting India's Citizen Users of Right to Information

This summer, we followed up on a New York Times report featuring the
positive results of India's right to information law. Tracking with
data from the Global Integrity Report: India citizens are filing a
high number of personal requests to break down corruption-related
barriers to service delivery-- The Times cite preferential treatment
in housing grant distribution as one example. In July, we hesitantly
noted that India's law could serve as a model for other countries, but
after reading this weekend's Wall Street Journal we're less sure.

Friday's Wall Street Journal piece profiles a handful of Indian
citizens who, after making use of their right to information, were
either attacked or killed for their "activism." The story profiles how
each individual's quest for fair access and treatment morphed into
something more than a personal request. By pointing out the
inequalities in the system, in the eyes of public officials, these
individual requestors were whistle-blowers. They were not only
building cases for the enforcement of their own personal rights, but
they were also questioning the status-quo of "how things are done."

While applauding the incremental progress India has made in access to
information, the Global Integrity Report: India also highlighted gaps
in whistle-blower protections in the country, a challenge laid bare in
the Journal's reporting of the extreme consequences that befell some
of the requestors it profiled. The Central Vigilance Commission was
created in 2004 as a response to the death of a whistle-blower, but
thanks to the decentralized nature of the agency, the capacity within
individual government departments to receive and investigate civil
servant complaints is low. In the private sector, the processes for
blowing the whistle on fraud are even less transparent and more
difficult to navigate.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the police are still
investigating the cases of freedom of information retaliation. Some
public officials call the investigation a crazy police conspiracy
theory. Regardless of the outcome of the investigations, it turns out
that India may be a model for something: the need to couple freedom of
information laws with processes and institutions to protect the
citizens who use them.

-- Norah Mallaney

http://commons.globalintegrity.org/2010/09/protecting-indias-citizen-users-of.html

--
Urvashi Sharma

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