India: New freedom to find information

BANGALORE, India — In a country that has the dubious distinction of topping almost every ranking of the world’s corrupt, bribe-taking countries, a law called the Right to Information Act is altering the equation between the gigantic government and its vast citizenry.

The Right to Information Act — popularly called the RTI — was enacted as national law four years ago to pry open the opaque nature of governance in India.

Now do-gooder activists, zealous citizens and eager lawyers are turning RTI into an effective tool to whip India’s gargantuan democracy into shape. Acknowledging its power to shake up the age-old establishment, the Delhi High Court noted recently, “Sunlight is a powerful disinfectant."

“For the first time in six decades since independence, the common man has the power to right Indian democracy,” says Vikram Simha, a banker-turned-voluntary RTI activist in Bangalore.

Until recently, disclosure of public records was banned under "Official Secrets Act 1889" dating back to British rule. The RTI now allows Indians, for a small fee, to access any official record of the federal or state governments, with the exception of documents about the troubled Jammu & Kashmir state, and individuals’ income tax and medical records. Public authorities are required to respond within 30 days.

Indians are using the RTI for a range of uses, from questioning delays in getting power supply or water connections to their homes, to fixing the poor drains and missing street lights in their neighborhood — all without “chai-paani," or Hindi slang for bribes.

In New Delhi, slum workers have banded together to drive an anti-bribery campaign with RTI, using it to apply for passports, driving licenses or birth certificates.

Enthused by these small successes, Indians are starting to question major government decisions. In recent weeks, RTI has been used to scrutinize the joint statement by India and Pakistan which de-linked diplomatic talks from terror attacks. That statement, along with its drafts and file notings, is now open to public scrutiny.

Saritha Rai

Saritha Rai covers India for GlobalPost. Rai has spent her journalistic career tracking diverse subjects such as globalization, the technology industry and social change. For six years, she was the India-based business reporter for the New York Times, writing about the economy, outsourcing, liberalization and change. She has written for the International Herald Tribune, serve as the technology correspondent for Time magazine's Asia edition, and was the editor of online edition of the Economic Times, India's No. 1 business newspaper. She was a Knight Fellow at Stanford University where she focused on business, the Internet and emerging technologies, and in her early career, she worked with India Today, the country's most read newsmagazine, and the Telegraph, one of the country's largest newspapers. Rai's work has appeared in magazines such as Forbes, Worth and Ode. She has been part of documentary and feature teams for Discovery, NBC, Fox TV and the Australian Broadcasting Corp. Rai is a contributing editor with the Indian Express, one of India's biggest newspapers, and a columnist for CNET. She graduated with a degree in journalism from Bangalore.