BPL BENEFICIARIES: CIC orders publication of PDS details

CIC Shailesh Gandhi orders that information about the public distribution system and its beneficiaries should be made public, offering hope that a corrupt system may finally see some reform. Shaweta Anand reports.

13 January 2010 - Musmat Musarrat has two children to support on her own - she is a widow - but she earns a mere Rs.1000-1200 each month to run her family's finances. One source of succour for people like her is the Below Poverty Line (BPL) card she is entitled to from the government. But getting and keeping this document has proved quite difficult.

In Bawana'a JJ Colony in Delhi, Musarrat and many others have been hopelessly pursuing government officials, enquiring about the status of BPL cards that were deposited with them for renewal back in 2007, during a 'renewal drive' by the Delhi government. If the card were with her today, she could have purchased basic food items at subsidised rates under the government’s Public Distribution System (PDS), which is one of the largest welfare distribution systems in the world. But having surrendered the old card for renewal, she is caught between the loss of that card and the yet-to-be-issued new one.

Musarrat represents not only the plight of people of Bawana Colony but also that of poor people spread out in various parts of the city, who are fighting a PDS that is both corrupt and functions dismally.

The ration shops, which should open for 25 days a month, are in fact open only for about five days.

Pardarshita, a non-profit organisation, has been working to make various governmant departments in Delhi more transparent and accountable through extensive use of the Right to Information Act 2005, and also including communities in this struggle for social justice. "Like Musmat, about 1.5 lakh poor people in Delhi are struggling to make ends meet and running around government offices to find out status of their card. [This is the case with] not only those who have applied for renewal of BPL cards but also those who have applied for new ration cards, the status of which they should ideally know within 45 days of the first application," says Ritu, an activist with Pardarshita.

"This is not the only problem with PDS," adds her fellow activist Rajiv Kumar, "even the ration shops, which should open for 25 days a month, are open only for about five days, if you enquire!"

With complaints piling up from people of many resettlement colonies - Bawana, New Seemapuri, Sundernagari to name a few - Pardarshita filed a complaint under Section 18 of RTI Act 2005 to the Central Information Commission that the Delhi Food & Supply Department is not following Section 4 of the RTI Act, which mandates government departments must sou moto disclose information about their work. Pardarshita sought the list of people whose BPL card applications were cancelled, as well as the reasons for their rejection. Additionally, a list of beneficiaries of PDS system was also asked for.

Following this complaint, Central Information Commission member Shailesh Gandhi notified the Food Secretary, and held a hearing on 21 December. The meeting was followed by an order the following day, directing all concerned to display the following information online and outside 70 ration shops/circles of Delhi, before 31 January. A complaince report detailing how much of this order has been carried out, has also been demanded by CIC, to be provided by 5 February 2010.

The information to be published includes:

• Entitlement of essential commodities for all type of Ration Cards.
• Scale of issue of each essential commodity for all types of ration cards.
• Retail price of each essential commodity for all types of ration cards.
• Working hours of Fair Price Shops.
• Stock of essential items received during the month.
• Opening and closing stock of essential commodities.
• Name, designation and contact numbers of officials for redressal of grievances with respect to quality and quantity of essential commodities.
• Daily updating of stock position information.
• Information about inspection of records by any citizen on every Saturday except for second Saturday as per the PDS Control Order 15/06/06.
• Display of samples of food grains being supplied through Fair Price Shops.

Soon after these directions by the Commission, its impact can already be seen, at least on the Government of India's Food & Supply Department website, which now provides some information on the above-mentioned lines. According to the order, such information is also to be provided at the points-of-delivery of the rations (i.e. the fair price shops themselves), and that will be an even bigger boost to the transparent functioning of the distribution system.

Disclosure of all this information will be an important milestone in larger struggle for effective PDS in India, which has been going on for many years now. When information regarding the quality and price of grains and other essential commodities becomes available at every FPS, daily, including lists of bonafide card holders and people to contact for grievance redressal at Circle Offices, then there will be much less scope for corrupt officials to deny proper rations to the beneficiaries, or to seek bribes from them to give them what is their due. This should also bring down the practice of shop-owners hoarding essential items for sale in the open market, after diverting them from the beneficiaries.

Moreover, an increasing number of citizens and activist groups will know what to do about unjust practices rampant, and they can in turn intervene on behalf of the poor, even if the beneficiaries themselves are not confident of taking on the system. "The other advantage," says Rajiv Kumar, "is that through the new lists of beneficiary card holders, all bogus card holders will stand exposed. A lot of essential items were earlier taken away from the PDS under the guise of distribution to such fake beneficiaries, and these are instead sold at market rates for earning hefty profits,".

This CIC's order promises to cast new rays of light on the dark corruption of the PDS, and offers hope that poor people like Musmat Musarrat will be able to get the rations they desperately need. ⊕

Shaweta Anand is a freelance writer and a volunteer with Pardarshita.

http://indiatogether.org/2010/jan/pov-pds.htm

My association with Pardarshita

I have known Rajivji since about five years now. That time, I was working with The Times of India and wanted to write a story on the utility of RTI in the life of common man. Travelling to Seemapuri (East Delhi) was a difficult proposition that time because there was no connectivity through metro, unlike today. So a long bus ride from ITO, followed by enquiries here and there, got me straight to Parivartan's small but famous one-room office. I remember there was one computer tucked away in a corner of a big room. About 4-5 people worked around it, sometimes in notebooks, sometimes on the desktop. I distinctly remember one of them as a young girl, who later told me someone had put a blade in her neck because she wouldn't stop venturing out and working for the community... These were some of the first impressions of the people I was going to associate with a lot more in the future.

So, after interviewing some people who benefitted from RTIs that Parivartan helped them file, like someone got their voter I-card, someone could afford to get their kid in school, that story did finally come out. It was hugely appreciated and became my first, and most memorable byline (http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=Q0FQLzIwMDUvMDgvMTcjQXIwMDIwMA==&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-custom).

Since then, whenever possible, we have collaborated on many occasions, even though Rajivji and few others now call themselves members of an offshoot organisation- Pardarshita. No matter what they call themselves, these people and their relentless fight against a corrupt system remains unwavered.

One time, we went for a survey of schools run by the Delhi Government in the South Delhi Zone to contrast ground realities there with government schools of East Delhi, more specifically, to inspect whether the school notice boards displayed information about money due to students of EWS quota, whether they were getting free books and uniforms as per the Central Information Commission (CIC) order etc. In East Delhi, I was told, there may not even be a concrete school building, even through papers would indicate a properly running school! 'Many times,' my friend Ritu added, 'a panic attack would grip school administration a day before inspection by some higher-ups. School staff would ensure that flower pots appeared outside the main gate, descrepit roofs got a fan or two, maybe a light bulb if lucky, to pass off as a 'fully' functional government school!' In South Delhi, the state of  government schools was much better than in East Delhi, at least at a cursory glance. Of the 4-5 schools we inspected that day, most children said they were getting free uniforms and books or at least partly, while the rest 'was due' in future. As far as display of information was concerned, at least three schools displayed some information, though not all of it and that too, scribbled on a blackboard with chalk instead of beign displayed on hard boards as per the CIC order.

Anyway, what also struck me most, other than the scope for corruption worth crores of rupees by school administrations, in one school, the principal authoritatively called out to few senior girls, probably the class monitors, to serve us biscuits and tea, almost like it was part of their job as a student. I was left wondering what they were teaching their girls anyway. That hypothetically, even if all schools, everywhere, get every piece of physical infrastructure in place, what if every poor student got his/her due towards attaining a school degree, what if teachers start attending school and teaching delligently, does it mean they’ll churn out ‘thinkers’ of tomorrow? Agreed, it’s important to have a room to teach in, benches to sit on and blackboards to write on, water, electricity etc, besides children who can afford to sit in those classes, with books to read, but all this for what? In the Indian education system, Indians are being ‘trained’, not ‘educated,’ a big lesson from 3-Idiots, if you have seen the film.

Site Visit Report

Date of visit: 10.1.09

Visit done by: M.R. Ravi, IIT Delhi Professor and volunteer for Asha-Delhi

The project is in operation under Asha Delhi. The project steward keeps changing, but the Asha Volunteer who has constantly beein in touch with the project, monitoring the project and making sure that payments reach the Pardarshita volunteers is Uday Gosain. The work of the field volunteers, from the voluntary group Pardarshita (erstwhile members of the voluntary group Parivartan, started by Magsaysay Awardee Arvind Kejriwal along with some friends), involves interacting with communities, primarily lodged in slums or unauthorized colonies, for:

• Making them aware of their rights, principally towards the reservation available for the economically weaker sections (EWS) in all the private schools of Delhi, especially those which were given land at concessional rates by the Delhi Development Authority.

• Helping them with preparing the documents they might need to secure admission for their children in such schools: proof of residence, birth certificate / affidavit, etc.

• In case the schools refuse to give them application forms, refuses admission or poses other bureaucratic hassles, supporting them to lodge a complaint with the Education Directorate, and following up the complaint

with a Right to Information petition that ensures that the Education Directorate takes action on the complaint promptly.

• Monitoring the children admitted to schools in the past to ensure that the schools do not start eventually charging them fees of any kind, ensuring that the Governmental aid available for books and uniforms for

EWS children are made available to the parents through the school, and meeting the school authorities from time to time in case of need.

The project has now completed three years, and a record of direct beneficiaries in the form of children admitted to the schools through the efforts of this project have been documented and have been kept in the

project website. There is no direct and simple means to verify this data.

But the visit to a couple of communities and talking to Ritu and Rajiv, the Pardarshita volunteers, gave a lot of confidence. Here is a brief account of the site visit.

Originally, I had planned to include a visit to one of the schools to see for myself the EWS children in the school and interact with the teachers to know how they were doing, but somehow the date which suited me happened to be a second Saturday, holiday for schools. So, I had to be content with the visit to the office of Pardarshita in New Seemapuri and to the communities in New Seemapuri and Rajiv Camp. The visit was announced to Ritu in advance. I found no point in doing a surprise check, since in a project of this kind, nothing can be fabricated for the visit.

I reached the office of Pardarshita at F-221 New Seemapuri at 11.45 a.m., after a metro ride upto the last station: Dilshad Garden and then a cycle rickshaw ride for about 10 minutes. After a bit of looking around and asking people, I reached the innocuous first floor office of Pardarshita, in the narrow streets of New Seemapuri area. About 8-10 women from a nearby community were sitting around Ritu on the floor in the verandah, and I went into the office room which had a computer, a couple of almirahs full of files neatly arranged, and no furniture, accompanied by Rajiv. He was talking to me about the work they were doing and the areas they were working. The work started in the East District of Delhi and covered North-East as well. In each District they were covering several colonies or communities, which comprise of small or large residential areas of EWS people: the New Seemapuri colony seemed to house more than 50 families, while the Rajiv camp looked relatively smaller to me, though I did not ask about the size of these colonies. East District includes five or six such colonies, and accounts for the largest area covered by the team. There are similarly some communities in the north east district and Shriniwas Puri District. In the past couple of years the activity has spread to South West A district (RK Puram) and North West District (Vikas Puri) with other volunteers, Prakash et al.

During the last school admission year, Pardarshita carried out active campaigns in Metro stations, local administrative offices such as RTO office, Ration card office, etc, by placing posters and distributing notices about the availability of reservation for EWS children in public schools and the possibility of availing of the admission, along with contact telephone numbers. This resulted in a really widespread response, and a large number of children applied. Pardarshita had its hands full with complaints, RTI petitions, etc., and a large fraction of these children got admitted. This also resulted in spreading of the message by word of mouth, and the project got to the status of a movement in some colonies. Now they have no idea how many children have actually benefitted, but the data presented in the project website is only those who took the help of Pardarshita directly.

Rajiv remarked, however, that all the effect that the work is able to have is local and individual. Although last year’s increase in number of complaints made the Delhi Govt assure centralization of EWS admissions to

public schools, no such action has taken place yet. Court cases send directives to schools, RTI petitions are on complaints against schools in specific cases. The effect would be more generic and permanent if the directive is to the Government, and the Government is held legally accountable.

Pardarshita has helped people get admissions to MCD and Delhi Govt schools as well: although on paper these schools are supposed to admit anyone who wants to be admitted, they pose unnecessary hassles to parents to minimize their own work. Pardarshita intervened and got about 250-300 children in the New Seemapuri area admitted in the 2 Govt schools and 1 MCD school in the area. The intervention in one Government school was quite fruitful, thanks to the cooperation of the new principal of the school.

I interacted with the women who were sitting with Ritu in the office, and understood that they were very happy with the fact that their children are now going to good schools. One of them remarked, that now they can rest assured that their children would be educated. The public schools in the vicinity are not enormously elite schools, and they cater to middle class population. So, expenses such as occasional picnics or class tours do not pinch the parents’ pockets too much, and the parents on their part are willing to part with that kind of money once in a while to make their children not feel inferior to their peers.

I then went to New Seemapuri colony. Ritu and Rajiv took us to a gali (street) where most children had been admitted to public schools. A majority of children from this street were going to the Hans Raj Smarak School. I spoke to a couple of class III and IV children, and found that their basic English vocabulary and arithmetic was good. All of them told me about their favourite teachers at school and why they liked them. The most common reasons were: “she teaches very well” and “she speaks to us with love and care”. Often, it happened to be the Arithmetic teacher. In one or two cases, it was the Hindi or English teachers. I could get a feeling that the children were in good and caring hands at school. The kind of love and respect Ritu and Rajiv commanded in the community said it all: here is a group of genuine people, caring for the EWS communities.

Ritu is an MA, BEd, former teacher, now dedicated her life to service, full-time. Rajiv is also a graduate, working full-time: at the time when I met him, his support had gotten over and he did not know for sure when

the next funding would be available. Subsequently, I accompanied Ritu to the Rajiv Camp. Unlike New Seemapuri, which had a predominantly Muslim population, this place had a majority of Hindus. The problems were similar, and what a support they found in these volunteers. This colony had two new schools into which children’s admission had begun, so there were more teething troubles. All these people have such great faith in Ritu and her colleagues. Only, these people were farther away from Pardarshita office to frequent them for help. I talked to Rohini, a class VIII student, who has been going to this school since class VI. I asked her if she could compare her previous school and the present one, she said dismissively that the present one was far superior. When I persisted asking why she thought so, she gave me a look as if asking me why I did not understand the obvious, and said in a matter of fact way, “ Here the teachers are caring, and they teach well”.

When I walked back to the Metro station, Ritu said in a thoughtful tone: I have been brought up in New Seemapuri, and went to college from here: but never knew that there were so many people living in here! And I thought, “thanks to you and Asha, I also got to meet them. Hats off to you people!” I believe that for the output they are producing, the investment Asha is doing is really nothing at all. This is a genuine set of people, and they have made so much difference in the past few years to the lives of so many people. This project should continue. While spreading it to other regions, care should be taken that we get people of the same level of commitment. If this is done, then this can soon become a mass movement that would sustain itself: I am sure that it would produce one Ritu and one Rajiv in each of these colonies: that would be the culmination of this project in the real sense.