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Filing of Right To Information applications
Partner Organisation : 19 partner organisations
State: Uttrakhand
Supported by : Asha
Village level Workshop Report
During the RTI workshop in Nov 2008, it had been discussed that each partner NGOs would identify 5 Baal Panchayats that had 30 members or more and would conduct a 2 day workshop with each. The village level workshops would help the children not only to learn how to prepare an application for RTI but would culminate in the children preparing a number of RTI applications of which 5 applications that addressed the most pressing issues would be then voted for by the children and would be sent on to the concerned departments.
Dwarika Prasad Nauni ,State RTI Coordinator , Mountain Children’s Forum would attend at least one workshop per partner and also assist with the follow up to the applications where necessary.
Case studies and follow up for the RTI applications would also be carried out.
The workshops follow a definite format:
Day 1
The children discuss the RTI Act and how it can help them get answers to many queries they may have. They also discuss how an RTI application should to be prepared and what types of questions must be asked to elicit complete information. The RTI can help fix responsibility for work not done and can enable a follow up to get the required work completed.
This discussion is followed by the children identifying issues that concern them and to which they would like to collect information. Some of these issues that are common to most Baal Panchayats are listed below
- Requirement of a play field
- The lack of adequate electricity and drinking water in the village
- The lack of proper roads in the village
- Non functional street lights in the village
- Lack of adequate community health facilities
- No adequate transport to the city from the village
- Non availability of community toilets
- Lack of general cleanliness in the village
- Lack of subject teachers in the school
- Lack of computer education at school level
- The non availability of drinking water in the schools
- Lack of toilets in the school
By the end of Day 1 the children are asked to prepare and RTI application on an issue closest to their heart.
Day 2
The day starts with discussing the applications prepared by the children. Each application is carefully scrutinized and suggestions were given as to what should be kept in mind while making out an application. Special emphasis is laid on the fact that
- One application should ask for information on one issue only
- information asked for should be very specific to the concerned cause
- A point wise list should be made of all the information requested
- The application should be from one person and not from a group
- Full name and complete address of the applicant is a must
The children then participate in a question and answer session to gauge the level of their understanding of the procedure. To further their understanding role plays are also put forward by the children.
The second half of the day is spent writing out applications keeping all the issues that have been discussed during the workshop in mind. The facilitators then assist in fine tuning the application. The children then take a vote on all the applications and decided which applications are to be sent to the concerned departments. Normally about 4 to 5 applications would be identified and sent.
Information to their applications is expected to be received after 30 days of submission of their applications.
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