While founding fathers of our constitution emphasized the importance of welfare and a democratic state where people are supreme, today’s India is a stark contrast to their dreams and aspirations. True, we are the world’s largest democracy but the paradox lies in the degree to which our elected representatives exploit the very populace that catapults them to power. One definition of a successful democracy is where people are knowledgeable on how to elect effective leaders. A truly democratic nation is one where the citizen can make an informed choice that ensures equality, transparency, good governance, a corruption free bureaucracy and a speedy redressal of grievances.
Year on year, every government sanctions hefty funds from the public coffers towards agriculture, water, education, health care, employment, urban renewal, infrastructure etc. Yet India’s economic boom has failed to permeate to the rural citizen. Rampant corruption has become an integral part of each and every level of governance and there are no safeguards to uphold and protect the basic rights of the citizen in India’s rural heartland. Engaging rural India in its governance will purge the nation of its immense economical, social and political exploitation.
India is still a nation struggling with its past – centralized planning, state-run bureaucracies, monopolistic practices, and archaic pre-independence documentation harass the common man and prove to be an enormous impediment to avail basic services. Information and procedures are cryptic and cannot be understood by the average individual. The citizen is meted out a ‘favor’ and is considered a beneficiary when in fact, in a democracy, any government service is a fundamental right.
There is no route for redressal of problems encountered by citizens to avail of government services. In fact there is not even a help desk for enquiries to demystify the intricacies involved in government procedures. This allows for touts to cash in on the helpless citizen.
There is an urgent need to focus on public accountability. Lack of predictability of service is a huge complexity as there is no minimum timeframe for the completion of a government service. Citizens are tormented by the lackadaisical attitude of government officials, the long queues at a government offices and the possibility of bribing corrupt officials for the same procedure year on year without any guarantee of the service being provided within a stipulated timeframe.
Comat believes that information empowers. There is a tremendous need to educate the average Indian citizen to participate in the democratic process. We believe that a ‘bottom-up’ citizen engagement will trigger a revolution that will take India’s villages fast forward in time – forming economically viable units and growth engines, harnessing the potential of villagers, and opening up new horizons with the promise of a better tomorrow.
The Comat Rural Business Center (RBC) can be used as an effective tool to provide information to the rural citizen on their constitutional rights and privileges. As a committed social enterprise, we will work in sync with the average rural citizen towards stimulating thought and action. For instance, the RBCs will establish simple and relevant systems in coordination with the government that can be understood by the rural citizen. Timeframes can be laid out for the completion of a government service, thereby ensuring predictability.
It is our conviction that empowered by information, rural citizens and communities can demand better services from their elected representatives conscious that they are doing no more than obtaining their fundamental rights.