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The Right to Information (RTI) Act was enacted in 2005 and even after a decade it remains under-utilised as less than 1% Indians use the right to know. 
 A study conducted by the <keyword id="78779" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Commonwealth-Human-Rights-Initiative">Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative</keyword> (CHRI) revealed that only 0.37-0.41% the country’s population sought information under the RTI Act last year in 2014. 
 
Also, the survey stated that 0.5-0.6% citizens of 18 years of age and above used the powerful tool. 
 
CHRI analysed the data of several states and concluded that Chhattisgarh captured the urban-rural break-up. 
 
Chhattisgarh witnessed a 21% increase in the number of RTI applications in 2014 but less than one-fifth of the applicants were living in villages. 
 
The study revealed that more men exercised their right to know when compared to women. In Chhattisgarh, women constituted 6.9% of the RTI applicants. 
 
Not only Chhattisgarh, even Nagaland witnessed gender break-up as in the latter state, 2.53% of the RTI applicants were women. 
Meanwhile, number of applicants from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes category increased. In Chhattisgarh, RTI applicants belonging to SC almost doubled in a year with 6.37%. Likewise, RTI applicants from ST increased from 3.06% in 2013 to 5.5% in 2014.

Has the RTI Act been a failure? 10 years hence only 0.41% Indians seek info via RTI Act

<ul><li>68 Right to Information (<keyword id="6356198" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="RTI">RTI</keyword>) <keyword id="41907" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="activists">activists</keyword> have been killed since 2005, while 6 have committed suicide, according to the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative. </li><li>There is no law to protect activists or to prevent their personal details from falling into the wrong hands. </li><li>The amended Whistle Blower Protection Bill has been stalled in Parliament since 2015.</li></ul> On March 20th, 38-year old Poipynhun Majaw was killed after receiving multiple blows from a wrench to his head in Meghalaya’s East Jaintia Hills district, a prominent mining area rich in coal and limestone. The motive behind his <keyword id="6355784" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="death">death</keyword> is yet to be confirmed by the district police, but it is likely tied to his investigation into the arrangements between the leaders of the Jaintia Hills district council and cement manufacturing firms. Majaw’s death, while tragic, is not surprising. The Right to Information (RTI) activist revealed last year that the district council had allowed cement companies to mine in the area without adequate licenses. As the head of the Jaintia Youth Federation, a social activist group, for six years, he rallied the district’s youth around a number of issues such as electoral fraud and environmental damage from business activities. Like many activists and journalists in the country who have used the RTI law to expose corruption, Majaw was a sitting duck. There was no adequate law to protect him or to prevent the personal details on his RTI application from falling into the wrong hands. The Right to Information Act The Right to Information Act , ranked <a href="http://www.rti-rating.org/">5th best</a> in the world in terms of strength according to the Centre for Law and Democracy, allows Indian citizens to request information from public institutions and the <keyword id="26362" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Government">government</keyword>. Since October 2005, when the RTI Act was implemented, the deaths of 74 activists have been documented in India, according to<a href="http://attacksonrtiusers.org/"> attacksonrtiusers.org</a>, a tracker set up by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI). An additional 164 activists have reported assaults while 180 have been threatened. A significant portion of these activists had exercised this right and asked for information, only to be harassed and in some cases, silenced permanently. Around 68 of the deaths are outright murders, while the rest have been ruled suicides. John Mascrinaus, a data analyst at the CHRI, says that 16 of these murders have taken place in Maharashtra, 12 and eight have occurred in Gujarat and Karnataka, respectively, while six each have taken place in Bihar and UP. And what of the stories of the slain activists? They have been consigned to the archives of the internet, mere statistics in a country where the truth is better left uncovered and cold-blooded killings are regular fixtures of the daytime news. Their stories bear revisiting. A list of their names is published on the CHRI tracker and here are a few cases:- Rajesh Savaliya, 31. Killed on July 19th, 2017. Savaliya was still alive when he was found near a temple on National Highway 8 in the Navsari district of Gujarat. Despite being rushed the hospital, he succumbed to his head injuries later in the night. Savaliya had been receiving threatening calls for the preceding month after filing multiple complaints with the District Education Officer about all the schools in the area that had been operating without necessary licenses. In the process, he raised the ire of a consortium of owners running the schools. The<a href="http://indianexpress.com/article/india/gujarat-rti-activist-who-took-on-education-mafia-found-dead-in-navsari/"> Indian Express</a> was the only national daily to report on Savilaya’s death. Bhupendra Vira, 72. Killed on October 15th, 2016. A father of three and member of a local citizens activist group, Vira was shot while watching television at his home in Santa Cruz East, Mumbai. He was killed over a land encroachment dispute. Vira had won a number of demolition orders for four illegal residences constructed by his landlord Razzaq Khan, a former member of the municipal corporation. The documents obtained through Vira’s RTI application had shown that his land was being unlawfully encroached upon. Khan and his son were subsequently arrested for the murder. Yallalinga Kuruba, 17. Killed on January 11th, 2014. The body of the first-year college student was found on the railway tracks on the periphery of Koppal, a district in northern Karnataka. On January 6th, Kuruba had told a local news channel about the corruption that was hindering the implementation of government schemes in his village. He specifically cited the lack of roads and drainage systems. On January 10th, he reportedly filed an RTI to ask for details about the development work being subcontracted under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme from the local Panchayat Development Officer. He was subsequently chased and killed by members of a gang that was loyal to Balan Gowda, a gram panchayat member. Ravinder Balwani, 61. Killed on April 26th, 2012. Balwani, a member of Parivartan, an NGO led by Arvind Kejriwal, was hit by a car in the Vasant Kunj neighbourhood in Delhi on April 23rd and died three days later after succumbing to his head injuries. Balwani had been receiving threats after filing a corruption complaint against a former official at Delhi Transco Ltd, the state transmission utility for the NCR region. He had also filed a complaint against the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission over the revision of tariffs.The cases reportedly involved a number of senior officials in the power sector. The perpetrators of the crime were never identified. Shashidhar Mishra, 35. Killed on February 14th, 2010. The street hawker and father of four was shot by some men on motorcycles in the Begusarai district of Bihar. Mishra, who was affectionately called Khabri Lal (news man) by his peers, had filed a number of complaints against panchayat and district officials. By the time he died, Mishra had filed close to a 1,000 RTI applications. His applications covered a range of issues, including the mistreatment of animals at a local dairy, unlicensed shops outside the railway station as well as land purchases and contracts given by local council officials- the latter being the last request he filed. What needs to be done? The deaths of the aforementioned people should not be in vain. The ability to exercise one’s right to information is an essential component of democracy and should be preserved. The personal details of RTI applicants need to be kept secure. The anonymous filing of RTI applications should be enabled. Additionally, applicants could also be required to furnish their email details as opposed to their address and mobile numbers. There needs to be a law to protect whistleblowers. The amended Whistle Blowers Protection (WBP) bill has been stalled in the upper house of India’s Parliament since 2015, when the NDA government moved to water down the original act with the removal of a clause that prevents whistleblowers from being prosecuted under the Official Secrets Act (OSA). This outdated anti-espionage act prohibits the disclosure of state secrets. In its attempt to preserve information that relates to national security, which the RTI act disallows applicants from obtaining in the first place, the government is compromising the personal security of its citizens. The proposed amendments to the Whistle Blower Protection act need to be withdrawn. Finally, the government authorities need to do a better job of disclosing information at the national, state and district level. A section of the RTI act calls for the “voluntary disclosure of information” by authorities. This includes all information related to government schemes and business licenses. This is precisely the information that Yallalinga Kuruba, mentioned above, was asking for. Out of the total number of RTIs filed to date, estimated at 24.9 million by CHRI, a vast majority are denied for reasons such as a “lack of information”, calling into question the purpose of the act itself. However, the act is genuinely capable of affecting change, as demonstrated by success stories such as<a href="http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-chandigarh-to-become-india-s-first-smoke-free-city-1102240"> Chandigarh’s decision to become a smoke free city</a> as a result of RTI petitions and the discovery that some funds used for the Commonwealth Games<a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Rs-744cr-dalit-fund-diverted-for-Games/articleshow/6173912.cms"> were actually earmarked for Scheduled Castes</a>. The government therefore has the responsibility of ensuring the safety of RTI applicants so the act can continue to be used to promote transparency, check corruption and ultimately, improve this country.

For 74 Indian activists, the punishment for seeking the truth has been death

The recent <keyword id="406897" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="farmer-protests">farmer protests</keyword> in <keyword id="13126" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Maharashtra">Maharashtra</keyword>, in which around 40,000 farmers and tribals staged a peaceful 180 km march from Nashik to <keyword id="6358070" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Mumbai">Mumbai</keyword>, has been lauded for its execution by politicians and media outlets alike, with The Hindu even calling it a <a href="http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/a-model-protest/article23229917.ece">“model protest”</a> and the chief minister of Maharashtra, Devendra Fadnavis, saying that he was “deeply humbled” before agreeing to their demands. What really made the farmers protests stand out and ultimately successful, was its amazing public relations machine. The farmers earned the sympathy of not only the citizens of Mumbai but the rest of India, as they marched at night to avoid disruptions to urban commuters and students sitting for their board exams. There were no overt theatrics or violence, unlike the farmer protests around Maharashtra between June last year which resulted in the announcement of the 34,000 crore <keyword id="56684" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="loan-waiver">loan waiver</keyword> scheme. The organisation sponsoring the march, All-India Kisan Sabha, an ally of the Communist Party of India, left no stone unturned when it came to social media. From the very first day of the march, they posted announcements and regular updates regarding the march’s progress on Twitter, using the hashtag #KisanLongMarch. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 They even posted interviews with some of the farmers and quoted statistics about farmer suicides. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 The march benefited from widespread media coverage. On March 12th, the Indian Express ran a <a href="http://epaper.indianexpress.com/1575825/Delhi/March-12,-2018#page/1/2">front page report</a> on the march and included interviews with 10 participating farmers on the problems they were facing. Scroll conducted <a href="https://www.facebook.com/scroll.in/videos/1718003171615889/?hc_ref=ARS9e9XHfRx2R7ilvXgedCUq-Zqf43UQC40hbD4YM2G547c0iDuf5AHHY0kBTg8_68E&amp;pnref=story.unseen-section">Facebook Live conversations</a> with farmers and Mid-Day ran a front-page headline that read, “Mumbaikars Welcome Farmers With Open Arms”. In a <a href="https://thewire.in/rights/i-walked-40km-with-the-farmers-in-maharashtra-heres-what-i-learnt">piece for the Wire,</a> Ayush Dubey, a young journalist, wrote of his experience as a participant in the march, stating “this is a real protest by a sad farmer community. They are working hard for their demands”. All news outlets explicitly mentioned that the farmers were looking for more than just debt forgiveness. It was clear that they were also calling for the implementation of property rights and minimum support prices for their produce as well as the cancellation of river-sharing agreements. Attention was also drawn to the severity of their conditions, epitomised by their bleeding, blistered feet- a sign of dignified, non-violent desperation. The public didn’t need any more convincing. Images of the march at night went viral on social media on March 11th. This achieved the holy grail from a public relations standpoint- it made a protest against the government look beautiful. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 There were also posts that highlighted the ingenuity of the farmers, making them stand out as individuals as opposed to faceless members of a crowd. The case of Lakshman Bhasre proved to be an important human interest story. Bhasre, a farmer from Nashik, had a solar panel on his head for charging phones. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 The march also received the support of prominent members of the Opposition such as Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the Congress and Aditya Thackeray, the leader of the youth wing of the Shiv Sena. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 The success of the march, especially in terms of public relations, points to why the protests by Tamil Nadu farmers in Delhi last year didn’t amount to much. Starting in March last year, around 150 farmers from Tamil Nadu staged a protest for 144 days outside the Jantar Mantar to ask for a loan waiver, which would be financed by the Centre’s drought relief fund. Their protests also received media coverage and sympathy from statesmen like Rahul Gandhi and the chief minister of Tamil Nadu but failed to elicit the same level of public support as the long march in Maharashtra. There are likely many reasons for this. First, the numbers might have been too low to justify a full-blown media frenzy. 150 farmers feels too small compared to a procession of 40,000 farmers. Secondly, given the fast pace of the 24-hours news cycle, the 144-day protest likely lost relevance to news readers and viewers well before its conclusion. The protest also lacked a groundswell of support from beginning as the farmers from Tamil Nadu weren’t on their home turf. Being stationed in the capital, which was necessary given that it was a federal rather than a state issue, might have actually worked against their favour. Lastly, unlike their counterparts in Maharashtra, their protest tactics, which included the brandishing of skulls, the consumption of faeces and stripping, might have proved too “unpalatable” to the public. With their well-oiled public relations machine and sponsorship by a national farmers union, the Maharashtra farmers were able to wrest public support and effectively demonstrate the importance of their cause.

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Has the RTI Act been a failure? 10 years hence only 0.41% Indians seek info via RTI Act

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For 74 Indian activists, the punishment for seeking the truth has been death

Dilsher Dhillon

The amazing public relations of the farmer protests in Maharashtra

Dilsher Dhillon

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