A Conference on ‘Strengthening digital governance for citizen access of service, peoples monitoring of entitlements and effective grievance redress

A state level consultation and dialogue with Government on “digital platforms for democratic governance” was organized by Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF), Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), Suchna Evum Rozgar Abhiyan, Institute of Development Studies and other partner groups on “Strengthening Access & Delivery of Government Schemes Information & Entitlements” on 16th Sep 2016.

The State Level Consultation brought together different stakeholders from the Government, Civil Society Organizations and academic institutes and independent practitioners working to strengthen people’s access to public programmes through the use of digital means. The consultation also focused on digital intervention such as Management Information Systems (MIS) with the objective of eventually building a robust and effective Janata Information System (JIS). The consultation attempted to discuss and deliberate on the issues and challenges in access and delivery of information and entitlements keeping in mind the geographical, infrastructural and connectivity challenges in Rajasthan. It also explored and discussed new and generic platforms in the State (such as Rajasthan Sampark and E-Mitra Kendras)  to discuss their potential, the current challenges, as well as the means by which they could become peoples institutions, with a high level of citizen access and empowerment. .

The officers involved in the development and maintenance of IT platforms that govern access, delivery and monitoring of the following public programmes, made presentations during the morning session of the workshop:

• NSAP, Department of Social Justice and Empowerment
• NFSA, Department of Food and Supply Development
• Department of Labour
• Bhamashah Swastha Beema Yojana and NHRM, Department of Health and Family Welfare
• SSA, Department of Education
• E-MITRA Kendras, Department of IT
• Rajasthan Sampark, Department of IT

 The presentations from Government officers of the above programmes threw light on the following issues:

• The nature and details of the data that is digitally captured, and the form in which it is currently organized.
• Nature of information that is pro-actively disclosed by the Department, and a template for evaluating departmental compliance with Section 4, RTI Act
• Nature of services which can be availed of through online registration
• Reports generated through data entry of programmes that are available in the public domain
• Reports and alerts generated through programmatic data entry that are available exclusively to the administration
• Demonstration of the operations of E-Kendra and Rajasthan Sampark MIS