A BRIEF STUDY ON RIGHT TO INFORMATION AS RIGHT TO KNOW IN INDIA

Abstract

The struggle for the right to knowledge in India has been as active in the minds of underprivileged as it is in the media and on the pages of scholarly publications. This is hardly unexpected considering how closely related the right to knowledge is to other necessities of life, such as food security, housing, the environment, and work. The MazdoorKisaan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) came up with a creative technique to illustrate the value of knowledge in a person's life in the early 1990s during the battle of the rural poor in Rajasthan. They did this via public hearings or Jan Sunwais. In their campaign, the MKSS called for the openness of government documents, a sociological audit of federal spending, and a system of retaliation for those who had not received their just rewards. The campaign captured the interest of a wide range of individuals, including activists, government employees, and attorneys.
A broad-based framework for action was developed by the National Campaign for People's Right to Information (NCPRI), which was founded in the late 1990s. As the movement gained traction, it became obvious that the right to information needed to be protected by the law. In addition to Rajasthan passing a legislation on the charter as a consequence of this effort, corruption was also uncovered and officials were penalised in many panchayats.