Most media stories about politics and governance in the country these days come with predictions of doom and gloom. However, across the country, there are many politicians and bureaucrats who are diligently working towards improvement of public services. This year, three Indian projects received U.N. Public Service Awards. These awards recognize projects that fight poverty and promote sustainable development. Evaluation criteria for the awards include transparency, mechanisms instituted to increase public’s ability to seek and receive information in a timely manner and monitoring of government decision-making.

1) Mass Contact Programme (MCP) by The Chief Ministers Office, Kerala

Award Category: Preventing and Combating Corruption in the Public Service

Project Aim: Addressing red-tapism and bureaucratic complexities in administration

Party in Power: United Democratic Front (Congress + Indian Union Muslim League + Kerala Congress and others)

Problem Addressed: Before the MCP started in 2011, complaints about government officers were not entertained properly by government officials. Citizens had limited options for solutions to their problems with public services. This led to piling up of files in government departments, with 1,32,000 files pending in the Secretariat by mid-2011¹.

How it Works: MCP enables interaction between citizens and the government by encouraging people to approach the government directly to get their concerns addressed without delays or corrupt practices. Under the programme, the Chief Minister visits each town and organizes large-scale events where he can address their queries personally. By providing people with direct access to decision makers, the programme has improved accountability in the State. The initiative has reduced the time usually taken to respond to complaints and has fast tracked problem solving.

Results: Kerala’s CM received around 5.5 lakh petitions, of which around 3 lakh were resolved, and financial assistance of Rs 22.68 crore was distributed as part of the programme².

2) Swavalamban, District Administration, Dhanbad, Jharkhand

Award Category: Improving the Delivery of Public Services

Project Aim: Creation of an online old-age pensioners’ payment and monitoring system

Party in Power: JMM + BJP (during assessment period for award)

Problem Addressed:  Before the implementation of Swavalamban, there existed a largely manual process of disbursement in the payment of pensions. In particular, the registration of new pensioners was very cumbersome and involved a lot of paper work. Furthermore, the process was inefficient, non-transparent, and provided unreliable information. Pensioners were forced to wait months and sometimes had to pay bribes to get entitlements.

How it Works: Payments are made directly through bank or post office accounts located nearest to the pensioner’s panchayat. This has led to the elimination of middlemen and facilitated regular and timely payments. In remote rural areas, payment through Business Correspondents has dramatically improved the delivery of services. In addition, the database of all pensioners has been digitised thereby simplifying monitoring processes for the administration.

Results: The initiative has cut down the turnover time for these processes from three months to a maximum of three days, due to the automating of payments and creation of direct cash transfers into pensioners’ bank accounts ¹.

3) Gramin Haat, Department of Cottage and Rural Industries, Madhya Pradesh

Award Category: Promoting Gender-Responsive Delivery of Public Services

Project Aim: To strengthen Women Self Help Groups (SHGs) and help establish their access to resources and promote economic self-reliance

Party in Power: BJP

Problem Addressed: In large parts of MP, women have negligible participation in the decision-making processes at all levels. Women also have little control over resources and their contributions to the family and society remained largely unrecognized.

How it Works: The Haat Development Committee that operates weekly markets (haats) decided to create Women SHGs that would manage the haats. The first such initiative took place in Digwar village a decade back. This was the first time that a haat was managed by rural women who were illiterate and inexperienced in managing such enterprises. The project has gradually expanded substantially to other villages.

Results: The initiative today covers 1,775 shops in 36 haats benefiting almost 1,800 sellers and 4,15,000 villagers from 217 villages ¹. The Haats provide women an opportunity to acquire management skills, operate businesses and improve overall living conditions in their communities. This in turn increases self-confidence and helps elevate status of the women in the family and society.

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Additional Sources

1 – The Hindu, 27th June ’13, http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/un-public-service-awards-for-3-indian-projects/article4854050.ece

2 – Economic Times, 22nd May ’13, http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2013-05-22/news/39445317_1_mass-contact-programme-chandy-3-lakh

3 – Times of India, 19th May ’13, http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-05-19/ranchi/39369119_1_nations-public-service-award-swavalamban-dhanbad

4 – Muslim Mirror, 16th May ’13, http://muslimmirror.com/eng/madhya-pradesh-gets-united-nations-public-award/

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