Summary

Focusing on strengthening democratic processes and people’s participation in democracy through awareness generation about the Right to Information (RTI) Act and the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) and monitoring of public funds in government programmes through conducting social audits in rural areas.

Goals

·    Awareness Generation and Facilitation  of RTI and NREGA

·   Facilitating the use of the RTI in various aspects of people’s lives

Organizing RTI and NREGA trainings for governmental and non-governmental groups in all districts of Rajasthan.

·    Conducting Social Audits in the NREGA districts of Rajasthan

·  RTI Helpline in Jaipur to help people with issues of RTI law, applications, appeals, and also facilitate the meeting with PIOs and concerned officials.   

·   Organizing election watch during parliamentary and assembly elections using RTI.

·   Be a support structure for movement related struggles in Rajasthan.

Achievements

The Centre for Equity Studies (CES), Jaipur, worked in association with the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, the organisation that spearheaded the RTI movement in the state. It helped independently in spreading awareness on this important right, which already existed at the state level, since 2001. It has been a constant endeavor of the CES to disseminate information regarding RTI and the NREGA through parchas, manuals, easy-to-read primers and visual CDs that simplify the law to the layperson.

CES has also played a pivotal role in the formation of the Rajasthan Election Watch, which carried out the compilation and analysis of the affidavits (containing disclosure of the assets, liabilities and criminal background) of all candidates who stood for the Lok Sabha elections in 2004 and put the results in front of people in villages to make an informed choice about the candidates.

CES also conducted a series of social audits (both post-facto and concurrent) of the development works done by panchayats and more recently, of works under the NREGA in many districts of Rajasthan. This results of the social audits are presented at a large public hearing (jan sunwai) where the labourers or beneficiaries villagers present their testimonies in front of the local elected representatives, administration and a cross-section of civil society.
 
CES participated in the intensive nationwide “Drive Against Bribe” campaign between July 1^st - 15^th 2006, by putting up a kiosk for the 15-day period outside the Collectorate and the Jaipur Development Authority to inform and help people filing of RTI applications or clarify doubts regarding the Act.