NGO: Transparency International India

by Governance and InnovationNgo's

NGO: Transparency International India

Transparency International India (TII) is a non-political and non-governmental -anti-corruption organization of India. This pan-India organization has extensive expertise in understanding of corruption issues experienced by common man in the country. The organization’s main aim is to reduce corruption, bribery and abuse of power, and, promote good governance and rule of law. TII works in the interest of the country with Union and State governments, civil organizations, media, academia and common people. They raise awareness about corruption and give voice to the victims and witnesses of corruption.

IDRF partner since: 2004

  • Focus Area:  Good Governance
  • Location: Bihar, Jharkhand
  • Project Title: Pahal: ‘Shasan Sudhar Ki Ore’ (Moving Towards Good Governance)
  • Details:  Transparency International India (TII) started Project Pahal in Bihar with the financial support of IDRF. This project promotes grassroots intervention for improving governance in rural areas of the state. Pahal team is working closely with the partner-NGO and activist in four districts of Bihar namely: Muzaffarpur, Darbhanga, Madhubani, and Supaul in 54 revenue villages.

There are two main cause of widespread corruption in the country: first, is the lack of awareness among citizen about their rights and entitlements, and, second is the lack of courage to fight back against corruption and injustice. Project Pahal is addressing both these causes of corruption and is making efforts to reach out to both: the victims and socially disadvantaged communities that are vulnerable to corruption. It acts as a platform for voicing the concerns of citizens and finding solutions for grievances through amicable measures.

TII uses various methods for creating awareness and spreading the helpline number as part of their outreach efforts. Stickers and posters have been placed at public places like: schools, banks and courts, etc. Leaflets with information on Pahal and its functions were distributed. Calendars for the year 2014 were designed and printed with Helpline Number and IDRF logo were also distributed among various people. The outreach material was designed in both Hindi and English languages.

As a result of their 2008 study, TII has taken local action by organizing trainings, community meetings, and engagement workshops on RTS (Right to Service), RTI (Right to Information), and Social Audits. The Pahal program in Bihar, sponsored by IDRF, has benefitted more than 3,500 men and women who are refusing to pay bribes.

The recent one-year project (2017– 2018) ‘Pahal’ for promoting Good Governance and Fighting Corruption through Multi-level Intervention is aimed at raising awareness of the poor, marginalized and illiterate people about their legal rights and entitlements in four districts in each of the states. The project also disseminates knowledge about tools of good governance like Right to Information (RTI), Social Audit, regular Gram Sabhas, Citizen Charter and e-governance, etc. to common people especially focusing on Below Poverty Line families (BPL), tribal women and youth.

Further, this project is also promoting positive interaction, participation and partnership between citizens and government officials to improve service delivery and good governance. The citizens are being provided an effective support system by way of a grievances redressal mechanism for combating corruption in their everyday lives and free legal/administrative advice for reporting mal-governance.

A baseline survey has been conducted as a starting point for monitoring changes in attributes over the duration of the project. Training workshops are being held for youth volunteers to train them about various citizen rights, entitlements, welfare schemes and tools of good governance. The project team and volunteers visit the intervention areas to understand issues emerging at grassroots’ level.

Thus this project is serving two-fold purpose of creating awareness about rights and entitlements of rural citizens and also providing support with helpline in case the rights are infringed. The program has already started benefitting thousands of rural poor who are not only refusing to pay bribes but also ensuring that corrupt government officials are held accountable for their crimes!

 

RTI Training Program

Youth Training Program

Outreach literature distributed by Transparency International India

Please click on the link to learn more about Transparency International India’s various programs and activities.
http://www.transparencyindia.org/

NGO: Janaagraha Center for Citizenship & Democracy

by Governance and InnovationNgo's

NGO: Janaagraha Center for Citizenship & Democracy

Janaagraha was co-founded by Swati and Ramesh Ramanathan in 2001, who returned back to India from the United States with a dream to improve urban living. This organization focuses on pan-India campaigns encouraging Indians to implement social changes in their local urban communities by enabling citizen participation in public governance. Janaagraha’s web-based and physical campaigns target youths and everyday people to make necessary changes, rather than accept many institutional realities, like corruption. Today, Janaagraha has grown into one of the leading institutions for systematic urban change in India.

IDRF partner since: 2012

  • Focus Area: Good Governance
  • Location: Urban India
  • Project Title: I Paid A Bribe, I Change My City, Bala Janaagraha, imatter and Community Policing
  • Details:  Janaagraha works to improve quality of life in India’s cities and towns through urban good governance and citizen empowerment. The have been striving to find permanent, scalable solutions to urban challenges through a structured roadmap of action, that they call their “City-System Framework”. IDRF started their association with Janaagraha by launching two campaigns: I Paid A Bribe and I Change My City

I Paid A Bribe: became a very popular pan-India campaign that encouraged Indians to engage in a dialogue regarding their everyday and institutional experiences with corruption in India. Janaagraha’s I Paid A Bribe campaign is largely web-based and focuses on educating the public on ways to move beyond corruption as a form of interaction, commerce, etc. This campaign became so popular that, NGOs and government agencies from at least 17 countries had contacted Janaagraha to ask about obtaining the source code and setting up a site of their own.

I Change My City: is another web-based governance campaign that gives locals an opportunity to file grievances regarding institutional failures that have impacted their daily lives. This campaign provides advocacy and training resources to empower several local communities and has led to greater governmental transparency on both the local and national levels.

IDRF is continuing its mission of good-governance with Janaagraha to improve quality of life in urban centers through citizen empowerment. The success of this mission requires a multilevel approach that brings together school children, corporate employees and heads of urban local bodies by launching the following campaigns under civil learning and civil participation:

Bala Janaagraha: is a civic learning program that aims to transform today’s children into informed, responsible and active citizens that focus on addressing local civic issues. The program covered over 40,000 eighth grade students across 527 schools in 25 cities of India.

Imatter: is an innovative civic learning intervention for corporate employees. It intends to increase citizen participation in local governance through civic awareness. This program has reached 114 employees from 9 corporates and has received widespread support and recognition.

Community policing: a civil participation campaign, was launched in 2013 by the Bengaluru City Police in partnership with Janaagraha to enhance neighborhood safety and security perceptions through police-public partnership. This program has reached 236,882 citizens through various platforms of citizen interfacing with the police, like awareness programs and activity campaigns.

Janagraaha has been approached by NITI Aayog,* the think tank of the Government of India to seek their help and support in drafting the ‘15 year Urban Vision Document’, that will be accompanied by a ‘7 year Strategy’ and a ‘3 year Action Plan’.  I Change My City – the world’s largest online hyper local civic change platform was approached by the Swachh Bharat Mission, Ministry of Urban Development to launch “Swachhata Solutions” a 4th Generation Complaint Redressal mobile platform, to fulfil the key Swacch Bharat Mission objectives of a Clean India. The MOU with the Mission mandated Janaagraha to develop, host and maintain Swachhata Apps in 4,041Cities and Towns across India.   Swachhata App was launched in August, 2016 and in a span of 10 months able to have on board 1,405 cities, with one million plus registered users, and, more than 6 million complaints.

Student Participants of Bala Janaagraha

Co-founder Swati Ramanathan at the Community Policing Campaign Launch

Swachhata App

New Swachhata App Helped a Citizen Get Rid of a Garbage Dump in His Area in Just a Few Hours

*NITI Aayog (National Institute for Transforming India) Government of India. http://niti.gov.in/

Please click on the links to learn more about Janaagraha’s various campaigns launched in pan-India.

http://www.janaagraha.org/about-us/, http://www.ipaidabribe.com/#gsc.tab=0, www.ichangemycity.com ,
http://swachh.city/