Puru DubeyAIR 86 · CSE 2025 · 219 wordsTheir whole copy
Opening · a date or context
With Meghalaya institutionalising social audit & 20 years of RTI, it is pertinent to recall their role in participatory governance.
Body · points and prose
- Central Node: Financial Accountability in
- Left: Social Audit
- Sub-node: citizen score card
- Sub-node: consumer expenditure survey
- Right: RTI
- Sub-node: MKSS revealed corruption in MGNREGA
- Sub-node: SSSAT revealed corruption in Kerala
RTI & SOCIAL AUDITS AS INSTRUMENTS OF PARTICIPATORY ETHICS
| RTI | social audit |
|---|---|
| (1) Transparency: RTI Act, led to SC judges becoming public servants and earlier this year voluntarily disclosing assets. | (1) Transparency: Meghalaya social audit society revealed gaps in [pension] release. |
| (2) Accountability: ex) MKSS utilised [RTI] to create Jan sunwai in Rajasthan | (2) Accountability: ex) Meghalaya Social Audit society revealed absentee teachers in public school |
(3) ETHICAL GOVERNANCE
- Promotes Rule of Law : Information can't be denied if it can be presented in Parliament
- Voluntary disclosure leads to efficiency of governance
- ex) Himachal Pradesh simplified
(3) ETHICAL GOVERNANCE (i) Promotes grievance [redressal]
- ex) pension restored in Meghalaya after social audit (ii) Promotes feedback based governance
- ex) Nal se Jal scheme guidelines modified recently after feedback
However these face challenges (1) Pendency of cases: >5000 cases pending in CIC; (2) Lack of awareness & participation - waning of RTI movement. (1) Low institutionalisation
- social audit not part of legal mandate (2) Lack of participation
Way forward
- RTI Act -> 1% fund for voluntary disclosure
- Social Audit -> mandate social audit legally
Close · a way forward
Social accountability can solve the problem of apathy and create [corruption mukt bharat]
How toppers approach this question, and more on its topic: open the question.