May I Help You !
Seldom heard or seen in Government Offices of Manipur

Seram Neken *

Public Relations activities are almost nil in public sector establishments of Manipur. None is there to help the citizens who visit the government offices for availing of one or the other services/ facilities. Rightful claims of the citizens are mostly unattended to by office employees right from Peons and Chowkidaars to Heads of Departments. Poor and uneducated are the worst affected. Generally, the government employees seem to devalue the public as they are reluctant to address anyone as SIR or MADAM.

In contrast, the employees are glad to listen to people addressing them as SIRs or MADAMs. The concept of participatory governance in modern democracy is rendered meaningless in the absence of proper public relations activities. The state government needs to strengthen public relation works in its various departments either by organizing in-service training of existing employees or by appointing competent Public Relations Officers.

Go to any police station, the sentry at the gate will ask bluntly "Where are you going, Whom do you want to meet, and What is the matter ? ". The mannerisms itself reflect the manner in which the police department deals with the public. An innocent citizen always feels intimidated in the unfavourable environment prevailing in police stations.

The general public, thus, construct a rude image of the security forces right from its gate. It is not only in police stations, but also in almost all government offices of Manipur that we generally feel helpless and hostile. No employee is there to ask "May I help you" with courtesy in the state government departments including hospitals and police stations.

Hospitals deal with people of all communities and classes coming from the nook and corner of the state. They need proper guidance to avail of medical services. Public relation must be a basic requirement in public hospitals in order to cater to the needs of varied peoples or clients, and also to coordinate among various aspects of health care. Absence of proper communication between people and officials, and among officials often creates misunderstandings, thereby jeopardizing the health for all objectives.

Likewise, police department is in dire need of public relation officers to listen to public complaints and also to maintain a cordial police-public relation in the society. Departments of social welfare, family welfare, agriculture & horticulture, veterinary & animal husbandry, education, power, water supply, transport and industry need smooth public relation set-ups to ensure people's welfare.

'May I help you' is the secret of participatory democracy. Whenever and wherever the citizens feel comfortable to visit the government offices and seek information on their needs, the true meaning of welfare state will certainly be realized. In democracy, the general people are the beneficiaries and the all public offices have to serve the people's needs rationally.

The Right to Information (RTI) has come to occupy an important position in contemporary India because information has become a basic necessity in addition to food, cloth and shelter. Of course, there are designated Public Information Officers (PIOs) in government departments under the RTI act. But it is only in statute that they are designated.

These PIOs do not perform public relations activities as per the needs of citizens. Existence of such PIOs is felt only when replies to RTI applications are required for office defense. In principle, they are supposed to maintain good public relations in the offices concerned. Unfortunately, the reality is different.

According to Abraham Lincoln, "Public sentiment is everything. With it everything succeeds. Without it, everything fails". Public opinion is a potent weapon in deciding success or failure of any activity. Public opinion on a particular issue needs to be constructed with sufficient information supplied to the people.

Edward Bernays described public relations as an attempt to inform, persuade and adjust to engineer public consent for an activity, cause, movement or institution. The foundation of participatory democracy can well be built up on the basis of good public relations.

Public relation is the art of creating mutual understanding between an organization and its various publics. Here, 'publics' mean those people or groups of people whose opinion matters most in the functioning of the organization. In developed western countries, public or private establishments are trying hard to win the sentiments of their publics or beneficiaries by serving them with utmost satisfaction.

"In 1991 alone, the top fifty US based public relations companies charged $1,700,000,000 in fees. More than 5400 companies and 500 trade associations have public relations departments, and over 5000 PR agencies in the US alone." (Beder,1997,p.107)

It is a modern trend that institutions are trying to gain public acceptance and support through various available media by spending huge exchequer. In private companies situated in big cities of India and abroad, we find employees with helping attitude who welcome the visitors and extend any kind of help sought by them. Employees there always try to win people's confidence by establishing cordial relations with the public.

Various media such as print materials, signboards and face-to face enquiry stalls are utilized to create a people-friendly office environment. Customers and beneficiaries certainly feel comfortable to visit such offices. But as all these elements of public relations are absent in Manipur government departments, citizens lack confidence in government offices. In fact, Manipur government departments are neglecting the public relations aspect.

Etiquette among the government employees in dealing with visitors particularly customers or beneficiaries is required to build up a good image of the office. In simple words, people-friendly government service is the need of the hour. Among the other media available, face-to-face interpersonal communication is considered the best to convince, motivate and persuade the public. Those visiting the offices have to be welcome and helped with due politeness. When our government employees can politely address any member of the public as 'SIR' or 'MADAM', the true essence of welfare state will be visible.