Satark Nagrik Sangathan

In the 1990s, in an attempt to tackle the beast of corruption, Anjali and other like minded individuals turned to the RTI Act. The main issue was that there was no transparency in the way the system worked making it very easy for people in the government to siphon off funds that were meant for citizens. People in Rajasthan had begun to use the RTI, asking for information and linking it up to their wages. It sounded like a very potent and useful tool in the struggle to demand one’s rights and entitlements from the State.

In 2003, when Anjali was set up SNS and started activities in five slum clusters of the Malviya Nagar and Hauz Khas constituencies of Delhi—Jagdamba Camp, Malviya Nagar Corner, Begumpur, Lal Gumbad and Swami Nagar. However, the idea that information could actually transform one’s life was an abstract concept. To concretize the idea, she and her colleagues first took up the issue of ration, asking people to question why they were not getting their share of ration. (The First Challenge) A few women came forward and agreed to file RTI applications in the food department, asking to see the records of the fair price shop (FPS) to which their ration card was linked; they asked for a copy of the stock and sale registers of the past two years. The government then had no option but to share that information. This entire information was then shared with others who were not receiving ration, and thus started a movement. About 500 mass complaints were filed in the Food and Civil Supplies Department.

A jan sunwai (public hearing) was organized in July 2004 where all the senior officials from the ration department, as well as owners of FPS and representatives of the media were invited. About 500 people living in the vicinity attended the hearing and publicly discussed the records, questioning the officials and dealers on the discrepancies.  The effect of the jan sunwai was that suddenly, 95 per cent of the people all across the city who were not receiving ration began to get their due. FPS owners pulled up their socks before information regarding their shops was sought. Now there was the scenario where people could hold officials accountable and the myth that people were not empowered was broken.

Some people then come forward to SNS to get their children’s birth certificate made (The Struggle for Birth Certificates); in 2005 the issue of education was raised. Later, as per the Right to Education, private schools had to reserve 25 per cent of their seats for children from the economically weaker sections (EWS), and the struggle was to ensure that the children from the slums would get admitted to private schools. By 2007 SNS began to talk about the non receipt of pensions.

When SNS conducts capacity building trainings, even those women who one could write off as illiterate and ignorant, would come for those trainings to learn about RTI. When the sangathan would ask why they want to learn about RTI, they would reply that it was associated with every realm of life. They understand that its use can be diverse. It is a system that puts people in the heart of things and doesn’t allow the opportunity to leave people out. For people who are learning more about the Act and are using it, it is a life altering process for them. It is also effective in changing the balance of power.