RTI : People's Law

The impact of RTI goes beyond just providing access to information. Here’s a look at the far-reaching systemic and attitudinal changes wrought by the law since its inception eight years ago:

Empowering the poor
For all the spotlight it has enjoyed in recent years, the RTI movement was actually started without much fanfare by the poor. It was in the remote villages of Rajasthan where, mobilized by activists like Aruna Roy, the assumed beneficiaries of development began raising hard questions about the gap between the rhetoric and reality of fund disbursement. Ghost entries in muster rolls deprived real people of their entitlements. There were also demands to account for glaring discrepancies between development work on paper and on the ground. Social audit in the form of public hearings and prolonged agitations culminated in the first-ever RTI measure in 1997, when the Rajasthan government issued a notification declaring that people were entitled to copies of government documents. Similar grassroots movements were instrumental in the enactment of RTI laws in nine states before the central Act finally came in 2005. Given its origins, it was but natural for the poor and marginalized to have taken to RTI, both in urban and rural areas, for a range of issues concerning them.
Breaching the steel frame 
For those holding the reins of governance, RTI has subverted a colonial law called the Official Secrets Act, the Holy Grail that allowed them to keep the people out of the loop. Officials had the impunity to label all their documents with any of the four classifications of opacity: “restricted”, “confidential”, “secret” and “top secret”. But RTI changed that by making access the rule, secrecy the exception. Now citizens can only be denied information falling under 10 exempted categories in Section 8 of the RTI. Officials have been forced to recognize that public interest takes precedence over secrecy. Further, Section 4 of the RTI requires public authorities to make proactive or suo motu disclosures of information, reducing the need for applications.
Deepening democracy
Before the enactment of RTI in 2005, only MPs were authorized to put questions to the central government and MLAs to their respective state governments. In a revolutionary change, any of the 1.2 billion citizens of India is now statutorily empowered to put questions, which the public authority concerned would have to reply within 30 days. Thus, democracy is no more about just exercising franchise at the time of elections. More importantly, it is about constantly engaging with the government through the RTI mechanism. RTI gives flesh to the first principle of democracy that people are the sovereign.
Exposing corruption
RTI has emerged as an anti-corruption tool for whistleblowers. It has been so effective in unearthing corruption that it triggered off a wave of fatal attacks on RTI activists. The repercussions of the greater transparency ushered in by RTI have forced the government to come up with a slew of Bills demanded by civil society: to protect whistleblowers, to redress public grievances and to set up a Lokpal or Lokayukta to deal with corruption allegations.

The Act has changed the power equation of the Indian citizen with the government. It has given the ordinary Indian a tool to exercise her sovereignty —  to ask questions and demand answers. The RTI application has forced panchayats, states and the Centre to disclose information, and has initiated an era of citizen-driven transparency and accountability. It has brought the energies of public-spirited Indians to the domain of democratic governance. It has helped reduce corruption and arbitrary use of power. The citizen’s sustained struggle against injustice and inequality is its most significant contribution and the most encouraging sign for Indian democracy .