e-solutions -- Effective solutions ???

The Union government launched a new initiative, Twitter Samvad a few days ago to enable and keep the government-citizen conversation going. This government’s determination towards e-governance was evident in ‘Digital India’ initiative - to build infrastructure, deliver services electronically and spread digital literacy. Even the previous government and a few state governments enthusiastically took up e-delivery of certain services and grievance redressal through social media. Of course, we all should hope that a day would come soon where most people will have devices to click, know where to click and that the governments would only be a click away from citizens.

Definitely, this is an ambitious target and it is a huge transformation from the present. As of now, there is only around 20-25% internet penetration in the country. This is least of our problems. The transformation from traditional to digital poses two major challenges. First, newly built service delivery/grievance systems should only ease the processes instead of complicating them. Second, the implementing agencies should be ‘willing to’ and be ‘able to’ deliver electronically.

The both of these are very vital issues – system and personnel. IRCTC though made ticket booking easy, issues like server errors, peak hour traffic, tatkal booking made user’s life difficult. This gave way to many unauthorized agents, fraudsters who took advantage of the loopholes and looted both the government and the passengers. And, most of the implementing personnel are still e-illiterates. The systems being built are beyond their capacity to comprehend. They might be having basic knowledge, but definitely not problem solving ability.

In addition to these, there are two more issues that are prominent, rural-urban divide and side lining of traditional grievance redressal mechanisms. Rural urban divide not just with respect to infrastructure, e-literacy but the very kind of service delivery and grievances arising are very different for rural and urban. The recent initiatives of participatory governance (mygov, twitter samvad) and grievance redressal mechanisms caters only to that 20-25% who use internet. This too is required especially as internet users are increasing year on and expected to reach around 40-50% by 2050.

However, the rural India needs more customised approach, though technology can still play a major role. Bangalore electricity board, Police are very active on facebook and twitter to not only keep people in the loop but also for grievance redressal. Two things help smoothen grievance redressal process through social media. One, ease of access in raising the complaint as it is just a click away. Two, doing so in the presence of many co-users and officials improves transparency and gives strength to the complaint. Rural areas rate zero on ease of access indicator; and access to wider audience is also limited to the people around and local officials. This way, the overall power a village has is lesser compared to its urban counterpart. Also, the fear of losing access to goods and services takes over the urge to raise a grievance.

The opportunity and transaction costs for public participation in governance or in getting their grievances redressed are higher in rural compared to urban. Opportunity costs include – daily wages for wage labourers, a day’s work for agriculturists etc. Transaction costs include – transportation charges for repeated visits to public authorities, time spent and the fear of losing the delivery itself for any complaint would invite the wrath of local officials.

To bypass all these, e-initiatives would have worked to an extent at least in an ideal situation, where the required infrastructure is available and e-literacy levels are high. That is not the case though, not only in rural but in most of the urban areas. So, it would be wiser to work on other forms of improving service delivery and grievance redressal mechanisms than waiting for ideal e-situations to develop.

A single window grievance centre for all grievances in every gram panchayat should be a good thing to start with. The application form should be treated as a complaint-cum-RTI application. Hence, the complaint should get a reply for the grievance raised within 30 days like in RTI. This has two advantages. One, many who would not have heard of the powerful tool called RTI, can take advantage of it easily. Two, government-citizen interaction improves, time bound redressal is assured and accountability of public authorities towards people increases.

In many of our states, (and even Union government’s) legislations for time bound service delivery of goods and services were enacted. They all have either two or three tier appeal authorities – at district, state/centre. Even the first appeal and second appeal be allowed to be given at the GP level at the single window grievance cell. Only a single format form for all grievances will eliminate all confusions and let people utilise the opportunity and get services delivered. They may be given a receipt as in RTI and charged a minimum fee. On the question as to who should be running the grievance cell can be debated. Nevertheless, it should be an independent body with very less stakes in the day-to-day administration.

The process should be as simple as the one laid down by Supreme Court in case of a PIL. It said a postcard would suffice. Our huge postal network can come in handy in strengthening the grievance system. If the locality has sufficient levels of e-literacy or even otherwise, user friendly interactive kiosks which record the grievances instantly can be set up.

In this digital era where everything seems to be easy to be implemented in an e-way through technology, it is important to strengthen traditional ways of grievance redressal. Though PM is trying to take utmost use of the radio network and rejuvenate it, it has been a one-side affair so far. To get more inputs from people, setting up of community radios may be encouraged, which works the same way as a social media, (people generated content, shared across a community but specific to a geographic location) but without internet. This government managed to build a good narrative around ‘digitizing India’. Similar focus should be given to all weather grievance redressal at everyone’s doorstep – digital or non-digital.