"The Right to Information Act in India: Implications for International Development Work”

Wednesday, March 19th, 2008
On March 19th SID-Washington's Development Information Workgroup event, “The Right to Information Act in India: Implications for International Development Work”.  The panel was moderated by Joe Pringle, Forum One Communications.  A very special discussion was presented by Kohl S. Gill, Senior Analyst and AAAS Science and Technology Fellow, US Department of Energy.

Mr. Gill opened the discussion with a video on the Right to Information Act (RTI) produced by Kabir, an organization he joined while in India.  The video highlighted the onset of issues, such as falsely recorded food rationing cards, which broadened corruption, injustice, and, ultimately, starvation amongst India’s poorest citizens.  The RTI was created, in part, to agitate the many pathways of corruption between the government, ration shops, and citizens.  Under the jurisdiction of this law, citizens were able to apply for copies of their ration card records to ensure that they were receiving the entire ration which was allotted to them by the government.  The video concluded that the RTI was successful in bringing transparency to the rationing system, and thus alleviating almost all of the corruption and threats associated with the process.

Mr. Gill, who arrived in India in September 2005, just one month prior to RTI’s inception, provided profound insight into the Act as it relates to food security and greatly broadened the discussion to include its other far-reaching implications.   These implications include, but are not limited to, agitation within the Public Authority Unit, Public Service Divisions (i.e. passports), and the Indian Bureaucracy.  Citizens, employees of these organizations, and bureaucrats alike have successfully utilized the information they have received from the RTI to bring justice to otherwise disregarded situations.  As a result, greater transparency has been brought to different sectors within India.

Mr. Gill concluded by summarizing the many uses of the RTI relevant to international development organizations.  Conducting work in India, they can use the RTI in every step of a project, from inquiries regarding the bidding process to information about contractors.  This fluidity of information will facilitate operations and contribute to the sustainability of any development effort.

During the question and answer session, Gill was asked if he thought it was possible for a law similar to the RTI to be implemented in the United States or other countries.  He replied by saying that, in fact, countries in Eastern Europe and Northern Africa have been entertaining the idea of a transparency law.  However, the administrative burden of the RTI in the United States would be so overwhelming that he did not believe it to be feasible. Most members of the discussion concurred that the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), which currently exists in the U.S., would need immense improvements in information return rates and breadth of information available for it to be nearly as successful in the U.S. as the RTI has proved to be in India.