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>View discussions about this entry País: India
Organization: KABIR
Focus of activity - Other
Year the initative began (yyyy) - 2005
Positioning in the Mosaic of solutions
Description of initiative - What is the main focus (products, services, etc.) of your initiative and how does it contribute to ending corruption? What avenues of corruption are you primarily addressing? What activities does it involve for your organization? Who are your primary beneficiaries and target groups? In India, Various groups and individuals are using Right To Information Act 2005 as a tool to fight against corruption, in very innovative ways. It’s encouraging to see how ordinary people, who usually do not have access to government officials and machinery, are forcing governments to respond. There are numerous examples of the empowerment of people in this way. But still these examples of using RTI were isolated and not too frequent. A large number of people were not even aware of the existence of such a law and it’s impact on the lives of other people like them. To motivate people, these success stories need to be spread. People would also need to be educated on how and where to use RTI Act.
Kabir, being a communication initiative aims to bridge this gap by getting all relevant information out to the masses. One of the key operations of Kabir has been the collection of positive examples of implementation of the RTI Act from across the country. This information is then disseminated amongst the masses (both rural and urban) by using conventional and non conventional media. Kabir produces short films & documentaries, and publishes booklets based on the success stories of RTI Act – which are then disseminated to the masses through mainstream media, workshops, campaigns and other NGOs. Apart from these initiatives, Kabir also organizes media-community partnerships, so as to ensure the even progress of India’s urban and rural areas, and to widely publicize the current problems being faced in any given area of using RTI. As a result of our efforts, we create and broaden the scope of a repetitive cycle of people’s learning about the effectiveness of the RTI Act in their life from examples of other people, and gradually becoming an inspiration for others. Innovation - How does your approach differ from existing programs in the field? Which components of your initiative are particularly novel or unique (e.g. the products and services, the technology used, the delivery or financing mechanism)? There are lots of organisations and individuals involved with Right To Information campaign. But their efforts are largely limited by geographical region or a specific area of governance. We are trying to work as a bridge between their experiences and the rest of society. We not only collect their stories and take them to masses through media but also make them aware of others’ experiences. For instance, immediately after the enactment of the RTI Act in 2005, Kabir started recording experiences of various individuals and organisations. This included pioneer organisations like Majdoor Kisaan Shakti Sangathan, Parivartan and very common citizen from remote parts of the country. Their efforts, though very effective, were limited geographically. However, Kabir widely publicised their experiences approaches, and subsequent successes. As a result, many other organisations and people were inspired and effectively used a combination of the approaches used by them.
Hence, Kabir’s approach is very unique in inspiring people, by providing them with a storehouse of related information from all over. Delivery Model - How does your initiative reach its target populations? What communications mechanism(s) do you have in place? How do you measure their impact? The core activities of Kabir are divided into following three distinct areas. These areas are categorised by the activity in each area, namely Collection, Analysis and Dissemination.
a) Documentation: Collecting raw information from all over the country about various developments taking place on the right to information. This includes a database of RTI activists and volunteers from across the country, their success stories, and events related to the RTI. The data is collected through a network of individuals and organisations, who are actively associated with the RTI movement, and field visits to different places to document and record various stories and events on audio-visual medium. The information recorded at this stage is fed to the Kabir Media Space. b) Kabir Media Space: The information collected at the first phase is analysed and discussed at this stage. The core team, in consultation with experts, decides the best strategies that should be employed for the preparation and presentation of the content. This includes developing various types of material, which is used for wide dissemination like media coverage, short films on success stories, ad films, spots, pamphlets, banners, posters and stickers (which are used during workshops and for running campaigns). c) Dissemination: Our dissemination activities involve a series of strategies to get information to the right place through the right sources. This entails creating a series of collaborations with individuals, organisations and media houses. Well prepared inputs to media are provided on regular basis. We also coordinate national and regional level partnership campaigns with media that involve local groups as well. Assistance in using RTI is also provided to individuals. This assistance may be in person or on phone or guiding them through network RTI expert-volunteers in their own city or nearby. Key Operational Partnerships - What key partnerships have you established to make your model possible or more efficient? Who are your partners (business, social, government, other) and what are their roles? How central are these partnerships for your initiative. Kabir’s model relies heavily on informal partnerships with various individuals and organisations at different levels. We have teamed up with media houses, campaigners, activists, student groups, professionals. Campaigns are also being supported by various corporate entities, and people of Indian origin residing overseas. Broadly we can put our formal and informal partners into four categories-
RTI Users : Those individuals and groups who are using RTI and have got remarkable experience to share. Media : Media Houses including print and electronics media are always in hunt for good stories. We have informal (sometimes formal too) partnership with them to get these stories published. Hundreds of such stories have been carried by media. We are also providing regular inputs to a weekly program on Doordarshan News (state owned news channel) on RTI named Jaanane Ka Haque (Right to Know). Individuals and Groups looking to know about RTI: These are citizen’s, student’s, professional’s groups and social workers who want to learn and know more about RTI. This also includes NGOs who want to be a part of RTI awareness campaign. Supporters: Kabir receives infrastructure support from the Ford Foundation. Financial Model - Which mechanisms do you have in place to ensure that your beneficiaries can afford your products or services? Do you have financial schemes or arrangements for low-income and marginalized populations? The entire concept of RTI campaign is based on making people use this act and question the government about it’s activities. The costs of an application under the RTI Act are negligible, with application fees ranging from zero (for a person below the poverty line) to Rs. 10. So the beneficiaries of the RTI Act (and hence of Kabir’s activities) are not required to bear substantial costs.
Kabir does charge a minimal fee for some of the material it distributes (such as video CDs, and information booklets on the RTI Act). However, these materials are distributed at a price low enough to cover the replication costs faced by Kabir. Most of our production costs and minor infrastructure costs are covered by a grant from the Ford Foundation. In addition, Kabir organises workshops, camps and seminars, which are open to all individuals. These workshops are mainly organised by partner groups.
Effectiveness - What has been the concrete impact of your project to date? How many people have benefited from your program in total? What policies, communities, or institutions have been influenced to make fundamental changes because of your work? Though Kabir's activities are structured to slowly impact the very fabric of society in India, it has had a direct and measurable impact on the lives of hundreds of thousands of people across the country. Some of Kabir's aggressive media campaigns in the past have made Right to Information an important issue. These campaigns have not only generated mass awareness but also actvated lots of groups to get involved with RTI related activities.
Moreover, print and electronic media all over the country has become sensitised to the issues of the RTI Act as a result of these campaigns. This has led to the issue of the Right to Information in India receiving continuous and broad media publicity for a long time – which in turn causes the common man to be inspired to use the Act himself. However, Kabir aims to be a people's movement, and so a complete discussion of Kabir's impact would involve the impact of the activities of the people of India in general.
Scaling up Strategy - What is your priority for the next 3 years and please describe why. Kabir aims to scale up its efforts by working with more & more activists and volunteers to spread the word of RTI all across the country. Recently, Kabir has witnessed a lot of growth in this area. For instance, a convention organised in the city of Pune was a big success – with RTI activists from 23 different states in the country being represented. These are the sort of activities that Kabir intends to continue organising, to further the creation of personal bonding among all the RTI activists in the country.
Kabir’s priority in the next 3 years is to get every citizen of India to be aware of (and well versed in) the RTI Act.
Origin of the Initiative - Tell the personal story that will help people connect to your work. How did the initiative start? Was there a particular individual or event driving the idea? Tell the reader the story behind the innovation. Kabir started when Manish Sisodia, a newsperson from a national news channel (Zee News) felt the need for a more active co-operation between the media and various entities working in the field of the Right To Information. As an active part of the RTI campaign, Manish felt that the media would find it easier to report on the state of governance in the country if they found the information in the right form. This co-operation took the shape of the media initiative that came to be called Kabir. Since then, Kabir has worked closely with various media organisations, providing them with information in a form that they can easily adapt for their own use.
Main Obstacles to Scaling Up - List the two (2) main obstacles to scale up your innovation (policy, legal, organizational, people, financial, etc.)? 1) Apathy of government workers – the government officials, in their own interest, are not responsive to any movement that brings about a change in the style of working (or lack thereof) in their offices. This is perhaps the biggest obstacle in the way of the RTI movement.
2) Apathy of people – sometimes, the notion that corruption is an unchangeable fact of life becomes lodged in people’s minds. This presents itself in the form of scepticism of the common man towards any new law or movement designed to bring about greater transparency. Main Partnership Challenges - What are your major challenges with partnerships? (E.g., identification of partners, implementation of partnerships, relationship management, etc.) The Right To Information, being a new movement, is generally being very well accepted by the people and the media. So far Kabir’s partners have been very willing and eager, and Kabir has not had any difficulty setting up key partnership – either with media entities or with other RTI activist groups.
Contact Information:
Manish Sisodia
Chief Functionary KABIR (NGO) msisodia@gmail.com Right to Information Campaign KABIR E-109, Pandav Nagar, Delhi 110092, India India Tel: 0091-11-22485139, 0091-9868875898 Fax: +91-11-22485139 Website: www.kabir.org.in, www.righttoinformation.org Discussions about this entry
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Kabir : A communication initiative on Right to Information
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It's not an act only but it's a weapon to disclose the corruption.
all of us are trying to do something to restirct corruption from govt. side but firstly we have cultivate our selves in our locality that every person that works for public without giving bribe and we have to educate others about this thing and also made to follow the rules and consequently ask those govt. people to cultivate this habit to their officials by inspiring them and even if necessary they should be prepared to do anything to eradicate this thing.
for this to happen every common man should know about this thing and inspire others not by doing and giving bribe
hope this may by 2010
a govenament officer is taking money from poor people to give water to them
In today's world, where technology is a given and where the concept of a global village is indeed coming to pass, there can be no doubt in anyone's mind that every person, rich or poor, well educated or not, has both the right to information and a need to access and be able to understand and interpret it. Communication and culture are intertwined and in order to create the best communication experiences, culture must play a part.
Kabir's initiative is taking the right to information and most importantly the ability to access information to the masses. People need to be aware of their rights and options in order to get the best out of life, and by providing this opportunity, we can hope that a more aware and engaged citizenship comes to life.
Good going and the best of luck, and looking forward to more such inspired and inspiring work.
Natasha Ali
The basic objective of democratic societies is to follow the best practices in effective governance. A healthy democracy survives on empowering citizens by keeping them informed of its intent and actions. Democracy is not just electoral politics but as Amartya Sen states, it is “collective participation of public reasoning”. Elections are but one component of democratization. Lack of knowledge of the law and provisions like the RTI Act only aids in the exploitation of the impoverished and needy members of our society by the entrenched vested interests. In the absence of any form of public accountability and mechanisms of social audit, the various policies of the government go unevaluated in terms of whether they have any real impact on the people they are designed to help or issues they purport to resolve. As a result, the gulf between the people and their government widens undermining the very basis of our democratic framework. In this context, Kabir’s communication initiative is a small but a firm step in the right direction. The significance of the organization in spreading the message and encouraging people’s participation in their development cannot be overstated.
The efforts made by Kabir in encouraging the citizens and their government to forge a system of effective and timely communication are commendable. It is heartening to learn that the media has assumed its appropriate social responsibility in empowering citizens and making the government more accountable. Democracy is after all not just the electoral process but a system where the people actively participate in their development and public policy becomes a self sustaining and viable instrument of societal betterment. In this connection I have a few suggestions and questions for Kabir:
1. What is the procedure for monitoring the follow up action on a RTI application? Also, is there a yardstick in place for measuring the benefits accrued to the people who have successfully used the RTI Act?
2. Is there a database maintained by Kabir for all the success stories that this communications initiative has generated? Publishing these and making the information readily available, say on the website etc. would lend this initiative both credibility and support.
3. Does Kabir liaison with government at any level to facilitate action on the demands and the requests made by the people under the RTI Act?
4. Does Kabir collaborate with other organizations, such as local print and electronic media or theatre groups in popularizing the concept or encouraging people to exercise their rights under the RTI Act?
I appreciate the work done by Kabir and wish it the very best in continuing its endeavors. Such initiatives bode well for the government of, for and by the people of my country.
Lily Pandeya
Hello,
My name is Rich Gottbreht from Global Insights and I am one of the entrants in the competition. Our work centers on helping anyone concerned about corruption learn about the subject through my book, our board game and its associated seminars, as well as low cost consulting. To find out more about us please visit our website www.globalinsights.biz. From the home page, you can link to information about us, our products and what people say about our products and services. From the details in the initiative we submitted you should also note that some of the proceeds from our sales will eventually go to a high integrity leadership development foundation. Also, if you are interested, down the road we will be looking for alliances and contacts in every country.
Thanks,
Rich Gottbreht