Citizen Charter

The Citizens’ Charter is a document that intends to bring out transparency, accountability and make the organisation citizen friendly. It is a set of commitments made by the organisation vis-a-vis the standard of services that they deliver. It has its origins in the United Kingdom, where in 1991 the Citizens’ Charter Scheme was introduced. In India, the UK model was adopted in 1997, and since then, most government organisations have developed their Citizens’ Charter (CC). The Department of Administrative Reform and Public Grievances (DARPG) in the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances, and Pension (MoPP&P), Government of India, initiated the task of coordinating, formulating, and operationalising the Citizens’ Charter in India. Although the introduction of CC has aided in achieving good governance there are some deficiencies in the implementation of CC that need attention.

The Conservative Government of John Major introduced the Citizens' Charter Scheme in 1991. The main aim of Citizens' Charter was to empower citizens to demand the quality of services and to make public services citizen centric. Citizens' Charter is a public document that delineates the claims of the citizens against the organisation for the specific service, the standard of the service, the conditions to be met by the user, and a grievance redressal mechanism in case of non compliance. Following were the six principles of the Citizens’ Centric Movement:

• Quality: improving the quality of the service provided
• Choice: offering the user a choice wherever possible
• Standard: specify the standard of services that will be provided in a specific time period
• Value: for the taxpayers’ money
• Accountability: of the organisation
• Transparency: in rules, procedures, and grievance redressal

India is a fast growing economy, and in addition to this, the literacy rate in India has been increasing over the years. Both of these factors have enabled citizens to become more aware of their rights. The Government on its part has also tried to spread awareness among the citizens regarding various welfare schemes. Citizens now expect more from the service provider and the service provider has to respond accordingly.
Citizens' Charter in India was introduced in the 1990s. The idea of Citizens' Charter for all public services received major support at the Chief Ministers’ Conference in May 1997. One of the key decisions of the Conference was to formulate and operationalise Citizens' Charter for different levels in the state and central government, especially the sectors that involve public interfaces such as Indian Railways, Telecom, Posts, Public Distribution System, etc. DARPG initiated the task of formulating the outlines of CC and circulated the guidelines for developing CC to various government departments/organisations. DARPG gave the following guidelines to formulate the Citizens' Charter

• It must be simple to understand.
• It must be framed after consultation with the senior experts and the staff who will finally implement it. Also, the user who will eventually be making use of CC must be consulted.
• Just issuing the CC will not change the way of functioning. There should be training and interaction with staff to generate a responsive climate.
• Mention the services that are being offered. This must be accompanied by the entitlement of the user, the standard of service, and the remedies available in case of non-compliance.
• Create a mechanism for obtaining feedback and a performance audit, and dedicate time to reviewing CC after every six months.

An ideal CC must incorporate the following elements:

• Vision and Mission Statement
• Details of the service provided by the organisation
• Details about the user
• Details of the service provided to each user group
• Details of the grievance redressal mechanism and how to access it
• Expectations from the user

The above elements are inspired by the UK model, but ‘Expectation from the user’ is an Indian addition. It is emphasised in Indian Citizens' Charter that all the stakeholders, including the user, must be involved in the development of Citizens' Charter so that it meets the expectations of the user.

• Brings transparency and accountability in the organisation.
• A tool to engage all the stakeholders, such as civil society, NGOs, etc., in the effective functioning of the government.
• It aims to raise the standards of public service delivery.
• It makes the government more receptive to people’s needs.
• A culture of awareness and responsiveness is created, and citizens are more aware of their rights.
• Time-bound service delivery is ensured.

• Poor Design and content: Critical information that can ensure accountability of the organisation is often missing in the Citizens' Charter. Also, most organisations do not have the capacity to draft a meaningful Citizens' Charter.
• Lack of awareness: Although most government organisations/departments have adopted the CC but the end user is not aware of its usefulness. There has not been an adequate effort to spread awareness among the citizens. Hence, CC remains ineffective.
• Inadequate groundwork: Preliminary work that needs to be put in by the organisation for formulating CC is often missing.
• CC is rarely updated: DARPG guidelines recommend that CC must be reviewed and updated according to the need. But such reviews and updations rarely occur.
• All stakeholders not consulted: Civil society, NGOs and other stakeholders are not consulted when drafting the CC. Since the CC is made to cater to the end users, their opinion is very important.
• Resistance to change: The attitude and behaviour of the staff that is implementing the CC are slow to change. There are some vested interests that often hinder the complete implementation of CC.
• Disadvantaged groups not consulted: Some groups that are at a disadvantage, such as the differently abled, transgenders, senior citizens, etc., have some special needs that are often not catered to in the CC.
• Lack of legal backing: CC is not legally enforceable and is only a promise of commitment.
• Vernacular versions of CC are not prepared by most organisations.

The 2nd Administrative Reform Commission report made some observation on CC implementation and suggested some measures for improvement.

• Internal restructuring should precede CC formation: There should be a complete analysis of the internal structure and workings of the organisation. If needed, there should be restructuring and new initiatives adopted such as training of staff and capacity building. Without this internal reform, the CC would not be more effective and would remain a mere desk exercise.
• One size does not fit all: Since the capabilities and resources available at disposal vary across the country, there must also be a different framework for CC for different organisations. In other words, the formation of CC should be a decentralised activity, and the head office should just provide broad guidelines.
• Wide consultation process: CC must be formulated after wide consultation with civil society, NGOs, and other stakeholders. Also, the views of field experts may be considered.
• Firm commitments to be made: Commitments made regarding the standard of service delivery in the CC must be precise and firm. And with time more stringent standards of the service delivery must be promised.
• Redressal mechanism in case of default: CC must clearly state the relief measure in case the commitments made vis-a-vis the standard of services are not fulfilled. Also, if there is a default in service delivery, there must be a robust grievance redressal mechanism for citizens.
• Periodic evaluation of CC: There should be a periodic evaluation of CC in every organisation. An external agency may be engaged for this process. This evaluation must be an objective analysis of promises made and their fulfilment within the defined parameters. The result of this evaluation should serve as a guideline to improve the CC. This is necessary because the CC is a dynamic document that changes according to need.
• Benchmark using end-user feedback:
End-user feedback can be an important tool to assess the progress and outcome of the agency implementing the CC.
• Hold officers accountable in the process:
There is a need to fix the accountability of various officers who are responsible for the implementation of CC. To do this, there should be a monitoring process to identify the specific responsibilities of the officers in cases of non-compliance with the CC.

To achieve social as well as economic sustainable development, there is a need for Good Governance. The three most essential elements of good governance are accountability, transparency and the responsiveness of the administration. The Citizens’ Charter initiative is a quest to make the administration more responsive to citizens. But due to several deficiencies in its implementation, it has been found that the CC has been more static than dynamic in nature. Hence, there is an urgent need to adopt the Sevottam model (a service delivery excellence model) as suggested by the 2nd ARC to ensure ‘minimum government and maximum governance’.