H ow many advertisements does it take to create awareness about a right every Indian now enjoys? Just three in as many years, going by the number of times the Indian government publicized the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
No wonder then that three years after it became law, RTI remains an urban weapon, with the rural masses largely unaware of it.
This dismal state of affairs came to light when an activist group filed an RTI application with the Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity (DAVP), the agency that oversees the governments ads.
DAVP released only two television ads and a radio spot on RTI in 2007. No print campaign took place on RTI during 2007, said Mattu J.P. Singh, DAVPs chief public information officer, responding to a query by Parivartana New Delhi-based citizens group for transparency and accountability in public governance.
The query was filed in January by Manish Sisodia, a vol unteer with Parivartan.
A Mint article in June 2007 had reported that not a single ad on RTI was released by the Union government till then to promote the right.
DAVPs Singh blamed the reluctance of other government departments towards RTI for the lack of an awareness campaign. DAVP has not received funds from any department for publicity on RTI. The publicity has been done from our own resources, he said.
The way the Act has been structured, the power to initiate publicity campaigns on the law lies with the department of personnel and training, which is part of the home ministry.
The Central Information Commission (CIC), the apex body responsible for ensuring access to public information, has expressed its dissatisfaction over the governments approach towards RTI. As of now, no fund is allocated for running campaigns on RTI.
The way the Union government is running ad campaigns for creating awareness on RTI is barely sufficient, said Wajahat Habibullah, chief information commissioner.
The Central commission has asked the government to form an independent committee to work with it on spreading awareness on the Act, he said.
RTI activists across the country have raised similar concerns. The budget for the promotion of other development programmes is much more than that for RTI. The governments commitment for promoting RTI is not high because they dont want people to use it, said Yogesh Kumar of Samarthan, a non-governmental organization based in Madhya Pradesh.
Malay Bhattacharya, an RTI activist from West Bengal RTI Manch, said: Awareness on RTI is at its lowest in the state.
People are not aware of this powerful tool, and those who are using it are not receiving information from the concerned departments. Research conducted last year by Participatory Research in Asia, or Pria, a non-profit, suggests that rural masses have not been able to use RTI due to poor awareness.
Pria conducted the survey in eight states to assess the implementation of the Act, based on data from 65 civil society representatives in 21 districts.
It revealed that disposal rates of appeals in Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Jharkhand were less than 50%.
So far, CIC has received 17,841 RTI applications. Of these, around 6,364 second appeals are pending with it. Second appeals are made when an RTI application elicits inadequate or no response.
Typically, a public organization has to respond to an RTI query within 30 days. If that doesnt happen, the appellant can file the first appeal before the appellate authority of the organization. The appellate authority then has 30 days to respond, failing which a second appeal can be filed with CIC. However, there is no time frame for deciding on second appeals.
Unlike the governments listless approach to publicizing RTI, other development programmes such as Bharat Nirman, a flagship plan to improve rural infrastructure, have garnered great amounts of publicity.
Media units of the ministry of information and broadcastingsuch as DAVP, All India Radio and Doordarshanhave been asked to help create awareness on such Central government schemes.
State governments, public sector undertakings and nationalized banks are also involved in promoting these.