'Thorns to Competition' - You can order your copy online from here
Anil Sharma tells the story of a little woman’s big work
Undulating sand dunes, camels returning home against the setting sun, women in bright ghagra-odhni traversing the desert with vessels of water balanced on their heads, dancers wriggling in the exquisite Kalbeliya dance and the haunting strains of the sarangi and algoze travelling miles through the dark nights. These are some of the picturesque images that the mind conjures at the very mention of the sandy state of Rajasthan. Behind these picture postcard images, however, is the story of a hardy people struggling against geographical odds and a feudal past.
Every desert has its share of oasis and its human embodiment can well be found in Aruna Roy, the petite silver-haired woman of substance who worked hard for the enactment of the Right to Information Act in 2005. Roy, who received the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership was recently described as one of the 50 most illustrious women of the modern India, is well known among the common people of the state. There are many who still recall the first jan sunwai, (public hearing) was held at Kot Kirana village in Rajsamand on December 1994. When the jan sunwai began at 9 am, the sarpanch, ward members and government officials, who were all invited, were conspicuously absent. Shankar Singh, Roy's associate in a long and intense struggle, wielded the microphone. With puppets in hands, he started singing: ‘I don’t want Campa Cola, neither pizza, Coca Cola nor liquor, I only seek accounts’. It set the mood. Villagers began to congregate. And then Roy came forward and began the post-mortem of work done using government funds. This was the first step towards the Right to Information Act. Living as the poor lived and eating as the poor ate, Aruna and her comrades began assisting villagers to assert themselves against the local power structures.
She made a choice to be a social activist when she had power and prestige for the asking. Born in Chennai and raised in Delhi, Aruna had joined the IAS in 1968 and after serving as a bureaucrat for six years, she took the first train from Delhi to join her one time classmate and husband Sanjit "Bunker" Roy at Tilonia in Rajasthan where he had set up the Social Welfare Research Centre (SWRC) and started working there with the villagers. Her experience at SWRC convinced her that poor people must be the agents of their own economic and social improvement and, moreover, that political action is fundamental to their success.
In late 80s Aruna and Shankar Singh founded the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathana (MKSS), when she found that people, particularly the rural folk, did not know about their rights and the idea of right to information was born. Using traditional forms of protest such as hunger strikes and sit-ins, MKSS-led villagers insisted that local people hired for state projects be paid the legal minimum wage. They held open-air public hearings at which official records of state development projects were exposed to the scrutiny of the intended beneficiaries. Shocking revelations followed: of toilets, schoolhouses, and health clinics recorded as paid for but never constructed; of improvements to wells, irrigation canals, and roads that remained noticeably unimproved; of famine and drought relief services never rendered; and of wages paid to workers who have been dead for many years.
Information was the key to every success: bills, vouchers, employment rolls. People have the right to audit their leaders, was what Roy said. Thus, its campaign of public hearings also became a campaign for transparency in government. "Our money, our records," chanted villagers. Why don’t villages develop despite panchayats getting sufficient funds? Where does this fund go? Who eats it up? Aruna Roy and her friends were posing these simple questions to villagers. This was the time when the then Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, had famously said the 1 rupee that the Centre sends becomes 15 paisa by the time it reaches villages. Where do the remaining 85 paisa go to?
Aruna, finally achievied her target of making the RTI an Act in 2005 and today her action point is to demystify the Right to Information Act for the layman. Much before her achievement on the RTI front, she was honoured with the Magasaysay award in 2000. Aruna decided to use the award money of US $ 50,000 to set up a trust to support the process of democratic struggles. It was her spirit and the commitment to the task that forced the Union government to recognise that people have a right to information.
"She organised a number of campaign educating the masses on their right to information and has been stressing that the government cannot distance itself from the people and should provide all the information relating to the government’s working. Now a common man can obtain the information by filing an application. The Right to Information Act is the biggest gift to the people and Aruna is trying to make people know what is RTI and how to get the information through this Act" says Nikhil Dey, her long-time associate.
"The right to information will not only help control corruption and the arbitrary exercise of power – it will also merge with and strengthen the aspirations of people for participatory democracy. The adopted process of implementation is not smooth and there is apathy of the bureaucrats in answering the questions raised by the applicant. However, it must be understood that this legislation will only be effectively used over time," says Roy, a crusader who does not believe in resting on her laurels.
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Anil Sharma tells the story of a little woman’s big work
Undulating sand dunes, camels returning home against the setting sun, women in bright ghagra-odhni traversing the desert with vessels of water balanced on their heads, dancers wriggling in the exquisite Kalbeliya dance and the haunting strains of the sarangi and algoze travelling miles through the dark nights. These are some of the picturesque images that the mind conjures at the very mention of the sandy state of Rajasthan. Behind these picture postcard images, however, is the story of a hardy people struggling against geographical odds and a feudal past.
Every desert has its share of oasis and its human embodiment can well be found in Aruna Roy, the petite silver-haired woman of substance who worked hard for the enactment of the Right to Information Act in 2005. Roy, who received the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership was recently described as one of the 50 most illustrious women of the modern India, is well known among the common people of the state. There are many who still recall the first jan sunwai, (public hearing) was held at Kot Kirana village in Rajsamand on December 1994. When the jan sunwai began at 9 am, the sarpanch, ward members and government officials, who were all invited, were conspicuously absent. Shankar Singh, Roy's associate in a long and intense struggle, wielded the microphone. With puppets in hands, he started singing: ‘I don’t want Campa Cola, neither pizza, Coca Cola nor liquor, I only seek accounts’. It set the mood. Villagers began to congregate. And then Roy came forward and began the post-mortem of work done using government funds. This was the first step towards the Right to Information Act. Living as the poor lived and eating as the poor ate, Aruna and her comrades began assisting villagers to assert themselves against the local power structures.
She made a choice to be a social activist when she had power and prestige for the asking. Born in Chennai and raised in Delhi, Aruna had joined the IAS in 1968 and after serving as a bureaucrat for six years, she took the first train from Delhi to join her one time classmate and husband Sanjit "Bunker" Roy at Tilonia in Rajasthan where he had set up the Social Welfare Research Centre (SWRC) and started working there with the villagers. Her experience at SWRC convinced her that poor people must be the agents of their own economic and social improvement and, moreover, that political action is fundamental to their success.
In late 80s Aruna and Shankar Singh founded the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathana (MKSS), when she found that people, particularly the rural folk, did not know about their rights and the idea of right to information was born. Using traditional forms of protest such as hunger strikes and sit-ins, MKSS-led villagers insisted that local people hired for state projects be paid the legal minimum wage. They held open-air public hearings at which official records of state development projects were exposed to the scrutiny of the intended beneficiaries. Shocking revelations followed: of toilets, schoolhouses, and health clinics recorded as paid for but never constructed; of improvements to wells, irrigation canals, and roads that remained noticeably unimproved; of famine and drought relief services never rendered; and of wages paid to workers who have been dead for many years.
Information was the key to every success: bills, vouchers, employment rolls. People have the right to audit their leaders, was what Roy said. Thus, its campaign of public hearings also became a campaign for transparency in government. "Our money, our records," chanted villagers. Why don’t villages develop despite panchayats getting sufficient funds? Where does this fund go? Who eats it up? Aruna Roy and her friends were posing these simple questions to villagers. This was the time when the then Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, had famously said the 1 rupee that the Centre sends becomes 15 paisa by the time it reaches villages. Where do the remaining 85 paisa go to?
Aruna, finally achievied her target of making the RTI an Act in 2005 and today her action point is to demystify the Right to Information Act for the layman. Much before her achievement on the RTI front, she was honoured with the Magasaysay award in 2000. Aruna decided to use the award money of US $ 50,000 to set up a trust to support the process of democratic struggles. It was her spirit and the commitment to the task that forced the Union government to recognise that people have a right to information.
"She organised a number of campaign educating the masses on their right to information and has been stressing that the government cannot distance itself from the people and should provide all the information relating to the government’s working. Now a common man can obtain the information by filing an application. The Right to Information Act is the biggest gift to the people and Aruna is trying to make people know what is RTI and how to get the information through this Act" says Nikhil Dey, her long-time associate.
"The right to information will not only help control corruption and the arbitrary exercise of power – it will also merge with and strengthen the aspirations of people for participatory democracy. The adopted process of implementation is not smooth and there is apathy of the bureaucrats in answering the questions raised by the applicant. However, it must be understood that this legislation will only be effectively used over time," says Roy, a crusader who does not believe in resting on her laurels.
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri Dean Business School IIPM
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Kapil Sibal’s voters want Jan Lokpal, not Government-proposed Lokpal Bill
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"Thorns to Competition" amongst the top 10 best sellers of the week.
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