UP PCS Mains-2024

Approach Briefly introduce the Citizen Charter. Highlight the principles of the Citizen Charter. Discuss the major hurdles in realizing the principles of citizens’ charter and measures taken to deal with it. Conclude suitably.

Introduction

A Citizen Charter is a document that represents a systematic effort to focus on the commitment of the Organization towards its citizens in respect of the standard of services, information, choice and consultation, non-discrimination and accessibility, grievance redressal, courtesy, and value for money.

The concept was first articulated and implemented in the United Kingdom by the Conservative Government of John Major in 1991 as a national programme with a simple aim to continuously improve the quality of public services for the people of the country.

The Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) of the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Government of India, coordinates the efforts to formulate and operationalize Citizens’ Charters to provide more responsive and citizen-friendly governance,

Body

Major hurdles in the implementation of Citizens’ Charter:

• Devoid of Participative Mechanisms: In a majority of cases, Citizen Charter is not formulated through a consultative process with cutting-edge staff who will finally implement it.
• Poor Design and Content: There is a lack of meaningful and succinct Citizen Charter and absence of critical information that end-users need to hold agencies accountable.
• Lack of Public Awareness: Only a small percentage of end-users are aware of the commitments made in the Citizen Charter since effective efforts to communicate and educate the public about the standards of delivery promise have not been undertaken.
• Charters are Rarely Updated: Making it a one-time exercise, frozen in time.
• No Proper Consultation: Citizen Charters’s primary purpose is to make public service delivery more citizen-centric, consultation with stakeholders is must, but end-users, civil society organizations, and NGOs are not consulted when Citizen Charters are drafted.
• Measurable Standards of Delivery are Rarely Defined: Making it difficult to assess whether the desired level of service has been achieved or not.
• Lack of Interest: Little interest is shown by the organizations in adhering to their commitments made in Citizens’ Charter since there is no citizen-friendly mechanism to compensate the citizen if the organization defaults.
• Uniformity in Citizen Charter: Tendency to have a uniform Citizen Charter for all offices under the parent organization. Citizen Charters have still not been adopted by all Ministries/Departments. This overlooks local issues.

Measures to make effective Citizen Charter:

• One Size Does Not Fit All: Formulation of Citizen Charter should be a decentralized activity with the head office providing only broad guidelines.
• Wide Consultation Process: Citizen Charter be formulated after extensive consultations within the organization followed by a meaningful dialogue with civil society.
• Firm Commitments to be Made: Citizen Charter must be precise and make firm commitments of service delivery standards to the citizens/consumers in quantifiable terms wherever possible.
• Redressal Mechanism in Case of Default: Clearly lay down the relief which the organization is bound to provide if it has defaulted on the promised standards of delivery.
• Periodic Evaluation of Citizen Charter: Preferably through an external agency.
• Hold Officers Accountable for Results: Fix specific responsibility in cases where there is a default in adhering to the commitments made in Citizen Charter.
• Spread Awareness regarding the importance of the Citizen Charter: To assist in improvement in the content of the Charter, and its adherence as well as educating the citizens about the importance of this vital mechanism.

Conclusion

Thus, the Citizens’ Charter cannot be an end in itself, it is rather a means to an end, a tool to ensure that the citizen is always at the heart of any service delivery mechanism. Drawing from best practice models such as the Sevottam Model (a Service Delivery Excellence Model) can help Citizen Charter in becoming more citizen-centric.