Citizen’s Charter

A citizen’s charter is a document that represents a systematic effort of the government or an organisation to focus on its commitment towards a citizen-centric administration in terms of service quality, information, consultation, non-discrimination, accessibility, grievance redressal, courtesy, and value for money. It also includes the organisation’s expectations from citizens in terms of fulfilling the organisation’s commitment.  

Objectives and Principles

The major goal of the citizen’s charter is to inspire residents by ensuring that social programmes are transparent, accountable, and responsive to citizens’ needs. Simply defined, the charter is an attempt to solve the difficulties that citizens have when interacting with government agencies.

The six principles of citizen charter movement were:

•  Improving the public service
• The opportunity to choose from a variety of options
• Citizen expectations management with consequences for non-compliance
• Government-collected taxes effectively used
• Individual and public-sector accountability
• Unambiguous nature of the rules and regulations 

Goals of the citizen’s charter

The goal of the citizen’s charter in India is to act as the bridge between citizens and organisations, as well as to streamline organisations to better meet the needs of citizens.

If properly planned and executed, the Citizen’s Charter Act can motivate and enable organisations to tailor their planning, policy, and performance to meet the needs and concerns of citizens/ stakeholders/ users/clients. For this transformation, effective realisation strategies must be developed and implemented at multiple levels. 

Significance of the Citizen’s Charter

1. The Citizen’s Charter Act in India is important because it gives citizens more power over public services.
2. It improves accountability in the delivery of government services.
3.  It improves governance.
4.  It improves organisational effectiveness by establishing measurable standards.
5. It improves service quality by incorporating an internal and external monitoring entity. As it is citizen-centric, it fosters a professional and customer-oriented environment for service delivery. 
6. It also helps boost employee morale. 
7. Transparency and openness are improved as a result.

Issues with the Implementation

Some critical issues with the implementation are as follows:

1. Lack of Perspective: The outlook of the organisations that formulated the charter was that it was merely a formality, to be carried out only because it was a direction from the top.

2. Lack of Collaborative Mechanisms: The charters were meant to be consultative, but there was little to no involvement of the personnel or citizens. End-users, civil society organisations, and NGOs are not consulted when the charters are drafted.
3. Lack of Training: There was no proper training, orientation or sensitization for the employees responsible for its implementation.
4. Unrealistic Standards: In some cases, the standard of services mentioned in the citizen’s charter was either too lax or too tight, hence creating an unfavourable impression on the clients of the charter.

5. Poor Publicity: Awareness campaigns to educate the public about the charter were not conducted systematically.
6. Lack of Funds: No funds have been specifically earmarked for awareness generation of the charter or orientation of staff on its various components. There is also a lack of infrastructure to go alongside with this initiative.
7. Transfers and reshuffles of officers concerned at the crucial stages of formulation/implementation compromised the strategic processes which were put in place, thus hampering the progress of the initiative.
8. Outdated Charters: Charters are rarely revised which makes them an obsolete, one-time exercise.
9. Lack of Measurable Standards: The standards of delivery are not measurable in the charters, making the assessment of the desired level of service delivery difficult.
10. Lack of Motivation: There is no interest/motivation shown by the departments to adhere to their charters since there is no citizen-friendly or legal recourse mechanism in case of citizen grievances.
11. Lack of Inclusivity: It is observed that the needs of senior citizens, the disabled, and other marginalised groups are not taken into account during the formulation of the charters.

Recommendations

As mentioned above, the citizen’s charter has several shortcomings. To improve those, a charter should firstly try to establish clarity in its contents and standards. 

It should:

• Contain specific provisions 
• Set out specific obligations for the public services 
• The time within which the department would be obliged to provide a service or to respond to a query or complaint
• The remedy/penalty/compensation in case there is a default in meeting the standards spelt out in the charter

It is preferable to have a few commitments that can be kept, rather than a lengthy list of grandiose claims that are unattainable.

Conclusion 

Despite the fact that the charter is a comprehensive tool, it is not a goal in and of itself, but rather a technique for guaranteeing that citizens are always receiving the most out of any service delivery system. Constant work and evaluation of the charter can aid in the development of a service-oriented charter with maximum delivery emphasis. It is trying to bridge the gap between citizens and organisations as well as streamline organisations to better meet the needs of citizens. The implementation of the citizen’s charter in India is improving things, but it still has a long way to go.