People’s Monitoring of the RTI Regime in India (2011-13)

Right to Information Assessment and Advocacy Group (RaaG) came into existence, in 2008 when a group of RTI activists, researchers and academics got together to create a group dedicated to the ongoing assessment and advocacy of the RTI regime in India.Five years after the first assessment had been completed, there remained many hurdles to the proper functioning of the RTI regime and many wrong impressions about it. The time seemed right to do another assessment using a similar methodology and sample as the first assessment, so that comparative data could be generated and changes and progress in the regime could be assessed. Such a scientific study on the way in which the RTI Act was being used, would also help in ensuring that past, present, and future Prime Ministers have the opportunity of looking at scientifically collected data before forming their views on the RTI. Hence this study, which was initiated in October 2013, has been carried out jointly by RaaG and the Centre for Equity Studies (CES). This study has been supported by a grant from the United Nations Development Programme, India,5 and covers two years: 2011-12 and 2012-13. It was published in October 2014.