Bringing RTI in school curriculum
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: July 11, 2012 -
As they say, it is better to catch them young, the recent proposal of Government of India to introduce lessons on Right to Information Act, 2005 (RTI Act in short), in school curriculum, is a right move towards generating awareness on various facets of the transparency law among the people right from an early age.
In fact, lack of awareness on the provisions of the Act, which was passed by the Parliament on June 15, 2005 'to provide for setting out the practical regime of right to information for citizens' has been one stumbling block towards ensuring successful implementation of the Act and the cause of conflict between the information seekers and the public authority which are supposed to provide the information being sought.
The RTI Act applies to all States and Union Territories of India except the State of Jammu and Kashmir, where it has its own act called Jammu & Kashmir Right to Information Act, 2009.
Under the provisions of the Act, any citizen may request information from a "public authority", a body of Government or "instrumentality of State", which is required to reply expeditiously or within thirty days.
The Act also requires every public authority to computerize their records for wide dissemination and to pro-actively publish certain categories of information so that the citizens need minimum recourse to request for information formally.
However, it is a different story when it comes to implementation of the Act with numerous cases of threats on the lives of information seekers, and RTI activists in Manipur have been no exception to such threats.
From the report doing the round, it has come to light that Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), which acts as a Central nodal agency for matters related to RTI Act, is in talks with the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) for introduction of lessons on the Act in the school curriculum and a roadmap in this regard is likely to be devised soon.
NCERT is an apex resource organization set up by the government of India to assist and advise the Central and State Governments on academic matters related to school education.
The proposal for inclusion of lessons on RTI Act may be still at a nascent stage and we have to wait for some time to see finalization of the matter.
But we should understand the fact that disclosure of information in India was hitherto restricted by the Official Secrets Act, 1923 and other specials laws until RTI Act was enacted.
But after its enactment and subsequent implementation, RTI Act has ushered in a new era of transparency in the governance and revolutionise people's access to information in the country, thus strengthening relationship between the government and the governed.
In such a situation, inclusion of lessons on RTI Act in the school curriculum would definitely help the students to learn more about how the government works and encourage them to take up further studies on the subject.
So, teaching the basics of the Act to school students can only go a long way in making the democracy all the more meaningful.
* Comments posted by users in this discussion thread and other parts of this site are opinions of the individuals posting them (whose user ID is displayed alongside) and not the views of e-pao.net. We strongly recommend that users exercise responsibility, sensitivity and caution over language while writing your opinions which will be seen and read by other users. Please read a complete Guideline on using comments on this website.