Preamble:

Right To Information act and National Rural Employment Guarantee Act recently passed by the Indian Government in 2005 are extremely important for the common citizen and the poor of India and it is crucial that they are implemented properly. Employment act provides 100 days of work for every rural family and the RTI act is a tool for the citizen to get access to official records such as projects taken up by the government, money spent and muster rolls of the laborers. With rampant corruption, even well intended development programs fail because of the siphoning of money and resources. Using the RTI, one can get information of who in the village were on pay roll for a particular project and compare it with actual amounts paid.  AID volunteers recognize the need to fight corruption using the RTI act and see the potential in the NREGA to create food security for the poorest families. Not only this, the empowerment that RTI brings is of a very fundamental nature, which is rooted in our fundamental rights – Freedom of Speech and Expression; -- because in order to have free speech one needs to have information.

Nature of support need from AID:

Several NGOs and movements that have been active on the RTI and NREGA implementation have expressed the need for the following:

a)      Conducting training to facilitate civil society groups to file RTI applications

b)      To conduct social auditing of the Employment schemes taken under NREGA

c)      Support research and documentation

d)      Understanding failures by certain government departments to provide information and ensuring that there is public pressure and training for government officials for compliance with the act.

e)      Support to activists, trainers, NGOs and researchers.

For example, we are currently looking at a Saathiship proposal recommended by NCPRI, and Arvind Kejriwal has said that there is a need for supporting more full-tiimers in the project mode. So we also have $ 19,000 proposal from Nisarga for conducting social audits in 7 mandals in Andhra Pradesh. Col. Ramesh Wasudeo of Anna Hazare’s campaign said that there is a dire need for support and they would soon send two proposals to address immediate work and strategic work.  Aruna Roy has also welcomed the idea of AID supporting the effective implementation of the NREGA & RTI acts.

Considering the number of proposals on the way, instead of dealing with them independently, we should see the connection and have a plan for processing them.

We propose that a central team in AID consisting of interested volunteers from different regions focuses on this stream of work along with individual chapters that may take on particular project proposals. To enable the team to be more vibrant as well as to ensure that the initial enthusiasm of the chapters that may lead them to take on several proposals on the first year is coupled with a practical financial plan that will help sustain the collaboration in the second and third year as well, we propose the creation of “Anti-corruption fund” to which directed donations will be sought. Every proposal that comes in this stream will be approved by one chapter and the central team. So the chapter will commit funds from its resources while the central team will fill the gap as needed from the ACF. Initially chapters may have to support the substantial part of the proposal but as funds are raised in the ACF pool, stability and long-term support can be provided.

In the past, AID has had cells that have worked on different issues. One of their shortcomings was that there were no financial plans to engage the expertise being created with program-support activities – despite cells, all decisions were made by chapters and so while they succeeded in building the individual capacity of the volunteers, the functionality of the cells was limited and they have not sustained. Our proposal of the ACF fund and participation of the central team will ensure that the evolving expertise of this “cell” is meaningfully used.

Central team:

Currently, there are about 7-8 volunteers from different chapters who have been meeting regularly in conference calls and corresponding with NGOs in India and mobilizing volunteers for Arvind Kejriwal’s tour. This young team of AID has the enthusiasm and the capability for taking on the role of the central team in the previous section. While ensuring project approval, the central team and the chapters will identify people from within them who will take the responsibility of keeping the touch with the group in India and reporting the progress of the activity to the volunteer base and in AID media.