Abstract
India was a global leader in crafting Right to Information legislation, placing social equity at the center of the national law adopted in 2005. The law ensures that underrepresented citizens have public information access for free and that assistance is provided to requesters with vision issues or who are unable to read. More than 15 years after the law was adopted, data demonstrate the institutional innovations and challenges over time with implementing a socially equitable law. Using the case of India, this research builds on a framework of inclusive policymaking and administration to propose an ‘ideal-type’ equitable environment for information suppliers and requesters. This study utilized datasets from two field studies: one dataset included in-depth semi-structured interviews with 69 study participants in 17 cities and towns across India. The other dataset was a case study in the state of Bihar. We argue for why social equity should remain a focus in the writing of legislation and policies related to information rights in democratic countries, such as India, and how public participation in the process can work toward inclusion goals. In building our framework for social equity-centered information rights-based legislation and implementation, we examine historical constraints to openness and other barriers to entry and potential ways of addressing these issues. We argue for political leadership in this area, social equity as a pillar of public administration, introspective and reflective administration, and administration-society linkages in the India case and beyond. Our overarching research questions addressed to what extent marginalized individuals are included in the process of requesting information under the Right to Information Act (RTIA). What barriers, if any, have kept this accountability institution from working in disadvantaged communities of citizens? How has the Right to Information movement played a role in advancing information rights for marginalized people?
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Notes
- 1.
We conducted a qualitative field study in 17 cities and towns across north, south, east, west, and central geographic regions of India from October 14, 2016, to June 4, 2017. After receiving institutional approval for the research, we utilized a purposive sample from two publicly available lists of initial recruitment. From there we utilized the snowball method to recruit additional study participants. Our in-depth qualitative interviews included 61 civil society organization (CSO) representatives and 11 social activists (N = 72), who do outreach in communities of marginalized people. The interviews were recorded, transcribed, and then analyzed using NVivo. Our research also used secondary data from reports published by CSOs in India and academic research studies.
We compare our findings to other research and finally to a study (2014–2015) conducted by one of the authors in the state of Bihar, which historically has been considered challenging in terms of socio-economic development. Bihar has seen extensive use of RTI by its citizens. The case of Bihar provides us with information about the use of RTI by marginalized and minoritized individuals, given its history of challenges with socio-economic development.
- 2.
Two districts of Darbhanga and Supaul are examined keeping in view both socio-cultural similarities and economic-political dissimilarities. Darbhanga is comparatively prosperous with better development indicators (Economic Survey of Bihar, 2016, p. 21). In addition to field interviews conducted, applications of the RTI users from the two districts were analyzed by Jha (2018, 2019). For uniformity 10 percent of total applications reaching the State Information Commission in the state capital of Patna were selected for analysis (Jha, 2019). The research was carried out from January 15, 2014, to June 16, 2014, and between December 1, 2014 and March 31, 2015.
- 3.
This statistic shows the result from a survey conducted in 2018 among urban and rural households across 13 states in India about the awareness among Indians of the Right to Information Act (RTI) in 2008 and 2018 (Statista, 2022).
- 4.
The Bihar State Information Commission published annual reports only till 2011–2012.
- 5.
Interview with the deputy collector in charge of the Public Information Branch at Darbhanga collectorate, who is also additionally in charge of the Revenue Department, December 27, 2014.
- 6.
These figures are based on the applications that reached for appeal at the State Information Commission (SIC). Ten percent of the total sample size were analyzed as a representative sample. Using random selection method 100 applications out of 1000 were analyzed for Darbhanga, and for Supaul 70 applications were used out of the total sample size of 700.
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Relly, J.E., Rabbi, M.F., Jha, H., Pakanati, R., Sabharwal, M. (2023). Integrating Social Equity into Right to Information and Access to Information Laws and Policies: Drawing on the Indian Case. In: Zafarullah, H., Siddiquee, N.A. (eds) Open Government and Freedom of Information. Information Technology and Global Governance. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35863-0_11
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