Workshop Report

On 24th & 25th Nov. 2008, a two day facilitators’ workshop was hosted by the Mountain Children’s Foundation and supported by Asha for Education SV, at Dehradun. This was the second in a series of workshops on RTI. The first was held on 12th -13th Oct 2008.
 A total of 37 participants attended the workshop comprising of 29 facilitators from 18 partner organizations, two members from Baal Panchayat Horrawala, two from World Vision India and four from MCF. The trainers were Ms. Santosh and Mr. Ramashraya from Parivartan, New Delhi.
Day 1 Session 1
After the introductory session Dwarika Prasad Nauni of the MCF gave a comprehensive presentation on the Right to Information Act, 2005. The presentation focused on simplifying the act for the facilitators with special emphasis on :

Session II

Background: In 2001 some illiterate laborers, in Rajasthan were building a water recharging lake under the “Rozgaar Guarantee” scheme. Even though they signed the muster roll they were not paid the full amount they had signed for. They demanded to see the muster roll and realized they were getting short changed. This was the beginning of the RTI act. In 2001 this act was implemented in 9 states. The Right to Information act was then implemented in the rest of the country (accept Jammu & Kashmir) in 2005.
Some success stories on the use of the RTI were shared with the participants. One example was of a laborer, Nannu who lives in a slum area of Delhi, who got his duplicate ration card within days of filing his RTI application. Previously when he had complained about the loss of the ration card the officers in charge did not give him information on the status of his duplicate card. The other example was of Mrs. Madhu, a resident of South Delhi, who prevented the privatization of water in Delhi through the use of RTI.

The training was hands on. The participants were given a work book prepared by Parivartan on RTI act 2005. Through the work book they explain the RTI Act and answered the questions of the participants. A flow chart was used to explain the structure of how information can be accessed. The detailed procedure for appeal was also discussed via a flow chart.
The following case study was presented to the participants and they were asked to prepare the RTI application. Mr. Ashok Kumar who was a BPL (below the poverty line) candidate, wanted to admit his daughter to a public school. According to a high court judgment, those schools which have received land from the government have to give admission to a certain percentage of BPL families.
The trainers examined and discussed the applications with the group and gave their suggestions as to how to make the application more appropriate to elicit the required information.
The session ended with the participants being asked to prepare another RTI application, but this time on issues relevant to them, their village, district or State.

Back

Day 2 Session I

The session commenced with each participant reading out the applications prepared as part of homework. A detailed discussion followed within the group on how to make a more forceful application. Suggestions from the trainers were also forthcoming.  This was followed by a role play which conveyed to the participants exactly how difficult it was to elicit the exact information they wanted and how being direct and precise rather than being verbose and long winded would generate better results.
A question and answer session followed the play to gauge how well the participants had understood the concept, procedures and appeal processes of an RTI application.
Session II

As discussed in the “way forward” during the workshop held on Oct 12-13th Oct the children were to conduct a survey of their villages to gauge the level of awareness of the RTI. The facilitators had prepared the survey reports with the children and the following observations were made:

During a detailed discussion and feedback session the major apprehension of the facilitators was as to the issues that the children could use to file an RTI application. Mr Sudhir Bhatt (MCF) discussed the matter with them and explained that the Uttarakhand Chief Information Commissioner, Dr. R.S Tolia, in his address on the 12-13th Oct workshop had said that an RTI application could be filed by any citizen of India irrespective of age. The children would naturally be interested in issues that concerned them which they raised during their Baal Panchayat meetings, such as: electricity in their village, drinking water and sanitation in schools, availability of teachers during the school term, playgrounds etc. As the children were educated they could also help the less educated villagers in filing an application if required. 

To further help the facilitators understand the potential of the children as RTI applicants the participants were then divided into three groups. Each group was asked to identify issues on which the children could use RTI in their villages. The issues were discussed thoroughly and the group conferred on how to prepare effective applications in each case.

The session ended with a discussion on the next steps.

An information guideline prepared by MCF and other RTI material like hand out, brochures were distributed to the participants. A poster was specially prepared for the RTI program in the field and was launched at the workshop. These posters were also distributed to the participants so that they could take them back and display and distribute them to their community.

The vote of thanks was given by the MCF president Aditi P. Kaur.

Back

Dwarika Prasad Nauni
State Coordinator (RTI)
Mountain Children’s Foundation
63-A, Vyom Prasth GMS Road
Dehradun, Uttarakhand.