Citizen’s Charter

A Citizens' Charter represents the commitment of the Organization towards standard, quality and time frame of service delivery, grievance redress mechanism, transparency and accountability. Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances, in the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Government of India, in its efforts to provide more responsive and citizen-friendly governance coordinates the efforts to formulate and operationalise Citizens' Charters. Various Central Government Ministries/ Departments/ Organisations have brought out their Citizens' Charters. With a view to ensure effective implementation of Citizens' Charter, Nodal Officers have been appointed in the concerned Central Government Ministries/ Departments/ Organisations.

• Nodal Officers
            Central Government

          State Government/U.T. Administration

• Citizens' Charters
            Central Government

           State Government

The main objective of the exercise to issue the Citizen's Charter of an organisation is to improve the quality of public services. This is done by letting people know the mandate of the concerned Ministry/ Department/ Organisation, how one can get in touch with its officials, what to expect by way of services and how to seek a remedy if something goes wrong. The Citizen's Charter does not by itself create new legal rights, but it surely helps in enforcing existing rights.

THE CITIZENS’ CHARTER : INDIAN EXPERIENCE

 Basic Concept, Origin and Principles

It has been recognised world over that good governance is essential for sustainable development, both economic and social.  The three essential aspects emphasised in good governance are transparency, accountability and responsiveness of the administration.  “Citizens’ Charters” initiative is a response to the quest for solving the problems which a citizen encounters, day in and day out, while dealing with the organisations providing public services.

The concept of Citizens’ Charter enshrines the trust between the service provider and its users.  The concept was first articulated and implemented in the United Kingdom by the Conservative Government of John Major in 1991 as a national programme with a simple aim: to continuously improve the quality of public services for the people of the country so that these services respond to the needs and wishes of the users.  The programme was re-launched in 1998 by the Labour Government of Tony Blair which rechristened it “Services First”.

The basic objective of the Citizens’ Charter is to empower the citizen in relation to public service delivery. Six principles of the Citizens’ Charter movement as originally framed, were: (i) Quality: Improving the quality of services; (ii) Choice: Wherever possible; (iii) Standards: Specify what to expect and how to act if standards are not met; (iv) Value: For the taxpayers’ money; (v) Accountability: Individuals and Organisations; and (vi) Transparency: Rules/ Procedures/ Schemes/Grievances. These were later elaborated by the Labour Government as following nine principles of Service Delivery (1998) :-

·         Set standards of service

·         Be open and provide full information

·         Consult and involve

·         Encourage access and the promotion of choice

·         Treat all fairly

·         Put things right when they go wrong

·         Use resources effectively

·         Innovate and improve

·         Work with other providers.

The Indian Scene

            Over the years, in India, significant progress has been made in the field of economic development.  This, along with a substantial increase in the literacy rate, (from 51.63% to 65.38% in the last decade) has made Indian citizens increasingly aware of their rights.  Citizens have become more articulate and expect the administration not merely to respond to their demands but also to anticipate them.  It was in this climate that since 1996 a consensus had evolved in the Government on effective and responsive administration.  In a Conference of Chief Ministers of various States and Union Territories held on 24 May, 1997 in New Delhi, presided over by the Prime Minister of India, an “Action Plan for Effective and Responsive Government” at the Centre and State levels was adopted.  One of the major decisions at that Conference was that the Central and State Governments would formulate Citizens’ Charters, starting with those sectors that have a large public interface (e.g. Railways, Telecom, Posts, Public Distribution Systems). These Charters were required to include standards of service and time limits that the public can reasonably expect, avenues of grievance redress and a provision for independent scrutiny with the involvement of citizen and consumer groups.

            Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances in Government of India (DARPG) initiated the task of coordinating, formulating and operationalising Citizens’ Charters.  Guidelines for formulating the Charters as well as a list of do’s and don’ts were communicated to various government departments/organisations to enable them to bring out focused and effective charters. For the formulation of the Charters, the government agencies at the Centre and State levels were advised to constitute a task force with representation from users, senior management and the cutting edge staff.  A Handbook on Citizen's Charter has been developed by the Department and sent to all the State Governments/UT Administrations.

The Charters are expected to incorporate the following elements :-(i)  Vision and Mission Statement; (ii)  Details of business transacted by the organisation; (iii)  Details of clients; (iv)  Details of services provided to each client group; (v)  Details of grievance redress mechanism and how to access it; and (vi)  Expectations from the clients.

           Primarily an adaptation of the UK model, the Indian Citizens’ Charter has an additional component of ‘expectations from the clients’ or in other words ‘obligations of the users’.  Involvement of consumer organisations, citizen groups, and other stakeholders in the formulation of the Citizens’ Charter is emphasised to ensure that the Citizens’ Charter meets the needs of the users.  Regular monitoring, review and evaluation of the Charters, both internally and through external agencies, are enjoined.  Till April, 2006, 111 Citizens’ Charters had been formulated by the Central Government Ministries/ Departments/ Organisations and 668 Charters by various agencies of State Governments & Administrations of Union Territories.  Most of the national Charters are posted on the government’s websites and are open to public scrutiny.  The organisations with Citizens’ Charters are advised to give publicity to their Charters through such means as print/ electronic media and awareness campaigns.

Comprehensive Website on Citizens’ Charters

            A comprehensive website of Citizens’ Charters in Government of India (www.goicharters.nic.in) has been developed and was launched by the Department  of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances on 31 May, 2002.  This contains the Citizens’ Charters issued by various Central Government Ministries/ Departments/ Organisations.  The website provides useful information, data and links

NATIONAL RURAL HEALTH MISSION

PREAMBLE- Recognizing the importance of Health in the process of economic and social

Development and improving the quality of life of our citizens, the Government of India has

resolved to launch the National Rural Health Mission to carry out necessary architectural

correction in the basic health care delivery system.  The Mission adopts a synergistic

Approach by relating health to determinants of good health viz. segments of  nutrition,

sanitation, hygiene and safe drinking water. It also aims at mainstreaming the Indian

systems of medicine to facilitate health care. The Plan of Action includes increasing public

expenditure on health, reducing regional imbalance in health infrastructure, pooling

resources, integration of organizational structures, optimization of health manpower,

decentralization and district management of health programmes, community participation

and ownership of assets, induction of management and financial personnel into district

health system and operationalizing community health centers into functional hospitals

meeting Indian Public Health Standards in each Block of the Country. 

The Goal of the Mission is to improve the availability of and access to  quality

health care by people, especially for those residing in rural areas, the poor, women and

children

National Rural Health Missionis one of the largest and the most ambitious programmes to revive healthcare in the world.

Launched in 2005,this mission has many achievements to its credit. It seeks to provide universal access to healthcare, which is affordable, equitable and of good quality. It has revived and revitalized a neglected health care delivery system.

NRHM seeks to provide effective healthcare to urban and rural population throughout the state with special focus on the backward districts with weak human development and health indicators especially among the poor and marginalized groups like women and vulnerable sections of the society.

18 states have special focus in this scheme. These 18 States are Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Jammu & Kashmir, Manipur, Mizoram,

Meghalaya, Madhya Pradesh, Nagaland, Orissa, Rajasthan, Sikkim,

Tripura, Uttaranchal and Uttar Pradesh. 

The Mission is an articulation of the commitment of the Government to

raise public spending on Health from 0.9% of GDP to 2-3% of GDP.

-It has as its key components provision of a female health activist in each

village;

 a village health plan prepared through a local team headed by the

Health & Sanitation Committee of the Panchayat;

strengthening of the rural hospital for effective curative care and made measurable and

accountable to the community through Indian Public Health Standards

(IPHS);

and integration of vertical Health & Family Welfare Programmes

and Funds for  optimal utilization of funds and infrastructure and

strengthening delivery of primary healthcare

GOALS

· Reduction in Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) and Maternal Mortality

Ratio (MMR)

· Universal access to public health services such as Women’s health,

child health, water, sanitation & hygiene, immunization, and Nutrition.

· Prevention and control of communicable and non-communicable

diseases, including locally endemic diseases

· Access to integrated comprehensive primary healthcare

· Population stabilization, gender and demographic balance.

· Revitalize local health traditions and mainstream AYUSH

· Promotion of healthy life styles 

It has facilitated financial management, assisted in computerization of health data, suggested centralized procurement of drugs, equipment and supplies, mandated the formation of village health and hospital committees and community monitoring of services.

CHALLENGES

NRHM has injected new hope into the healthcare delivery system in India. However it faces new and diverse challenges which need to be addressed in order to achieve its future goals.

·         Health  is a state subject and NRHM seeks to build a partnership with states to ensure meaningful reforms with more resources. The NRHM is currently functioning under the Govt. of India is due to end in 2012. Its significant contribution to improving healthcare infrastructure and service delivery across the country will be frittered away if its funding ceases with the 11^th FYP. This mission should not only be included in the 12^th FYP, and should be incorporated with more innovative ideas to ensure it as a permanent solution to the healthcare problem in India.

·         Another challenge is to craft credible public systems and this would also call for new systems of public recruitments which are institution specific and based on service guarantees with complete local level accountability.

·         In spite of its achievements, its impact on reinventing and reinvigorating systems seems to be limited. There is a need for a more coordinated approach which optimally utilizes resources.

SOLUTIONS

The government must move from the population and contraceptive tech agenda which was a focus of the earliest version of this mission to a truly comprehensive primary health care orientation that stresses empowerment and rights based approach to health care.

The mission must build systems and institutional mechanisms at the peripheral level if its community based and community oriented goals are to be met. Unless it addresses the realities of the lives of the poor and the marginalized in the rural, tribal abd poor urban communities, it will remain yet another populist exercise on paper.

Promoting decentralization of healthcare and encouraging a truly inter sectoral approach is a basic requirement and a challenge.

The mission must become part of a bold padagrim shift,from providing services through ‘top down planning” to building capacity and empowering communities to manage their own healthcare needs.