Citizen’s Participation in Administration

Meaning of citizen participation: Citizens’ participation refers to the mechanism by which citizens can influence resources & decision making that directly impacts their lives.

It is a Bilateral Process:  

Creating an institutional environment that encourages citizen participation in government necessitates a bilateral process that includes the following steps:

• Citizens should be vigilant, proactive and responsible.
• The government should be transparent, responsive and receptive.

Benefits’ of Citizens’ Participation (Citizens’ Participation Contribution to Good Governance): 

Active citizens’ participation can contribute to good governance in the following ways:

• It increases the accountability and responsiveness of the government.
• It improves the effectiveness and longterm viability of government programmes.
• It gives impoverished and marginalised people a voice in public policy that impacts their lives.
• It makes people better appreciate that hard choices need to be made. Such awareness promotes maturing of democracy.
• It transforms a representative democracy into a participative grassroots democracy.
• It changes the image of citizens from merely recipients of development into the active participants in the process of development.

Mechanisms for Citizens’ Participation (5 Forms of Citizens’ Participation):

Following are the 5 forms of citizens’ participation:

• Citizens ‘seeking’ information;
• Citizens ‘giving’ suggestions;
• Citizens ‘demanding’ better services;
• Citizens ‘holding’ service providers/ government agencies accountable; and
• ‘Active’ citizens’ participation in administration/decision making.

Citizen seeking information:  

• Citizens’ engagement in governance is contingent on their having access to information.
• Recommendation: Citizens’ should be made aware of their rights under the Right to Information Act.

Citizen giving suggestions: 

• Citizen feedback and proposals for new ideas can be extremely useful at both the policymaking and implementation levels.

• Recommendations: 

⇒ Regular consultation: Listening to citizens’ voice should be an on-going process, instead of just during elections. It could be done through a suggestion box, public hearings, surveys, referenda etc.

⇒ Reward: Introduce a system of reward to acknowledge suggestions that lead to significant improvement.

⇒ Follow-up action: In order for this to be a useful exercise, concerned organisations should ensure that the proposals received are properly followed up on.

Citizens ‘demanding’ better services:

• The responsiveness of a government organisation to complaints/demands from its constituents is the best indicator of its efficiency.

• Recommendations:

  Every government organisation must have the following in place: I a fool proof method for registering all complaints, (ii) a set deadline for response and resolution, and (iii) a mechanism for monitoring and evaluating compliance with

⇒ the prescribed norms.

Citizens ‘holding’ service providers/ government agencies accountable:

• Government organisations (which are meant to serve people) should be made accountable to people. This will help to meet the criteria of efficiency, equity and customer satisfaction.
• Recommendations: On a regular basis, citizens should be able to rate the services provided by government organisations using the following methods:

⇒ Regular citizens’ feedback & survey and

⇒ Citizens report cards.

Active’ citizens’ participation in administration/decision making:

• In addition to periodic consultations, providing individuals with continual access to the decision-making process is a more mature and intensive form of citizen participation in governance, allowing citizens to barter with the government for better policies, plans, and projects.
• Recommendations: This should be done by encouraging:

⇒ Participation of citizens in the management committees of local government services such as schools and hospitals.

⇒  Participatory municipal budgeting.

⇒ A mechanism where for some proposals of public policies, projects laws, citizens can vote directly through a referendum.

⇒ Whenever there are projects or decisions which can affect the environment or local community, there should be mandatory public hearings before approval of such projects or decisions.

⇒  Social audit etc.

Bhagidari: Citizens’ Participation in Governance – Delhi:

• The Citizens’ Partnership in Governance, or “Bhagidari,” is a tool for facilitating people’s engagement in government. The project began in January 2000 and grew into a movement over the next eight years.
• Approximately 2000 citizen groups have become ‘Bhagidars’ in governance after attending many Bhagidari workshops.
• The “Bhagidari” has been successful in assisting public utility departments with maintenance and service upgrades in addition to resolving their day-to-day problems.

  Some examples are:

• The ‘Say no to plastic bags’ and ‘No crackers on Diwali’ campaigns were both successful.
• Switching on/off of streetlights by Residents Welfare Associations.

Citizen Report Cards (CRC) – Bengaluru:

• Three Citizen Report Cards were provided by Bengaluru’s Public Affairs Centre (1994, 1999 and 2003). The purpose of the surveys was to determine how happy users are with government services.
• A comparison of various serviceproviding agencies’ performance over the last ten years (i.e. the time span between the three studies) revealed a considerable improvement in serviceuser satisfaction.