Civil Society Participation

7.4 Civil Society Participation

Civil society is considered as the realm of association between the
household and the state. Typically this includes professional organisations as
well as other formal and informal non-profit associations. Such associations fulfil
certain functions essential for aggregating and expressing societal interests,
including social integration, social participation in state governance, and
promoting the democratic values. Through its many functions, civil society can
create pressure for policy reform and improved governance, as well as explicitly
monitor the state’s actions for fighting corruption and abuse. In other words, the
civil society addresses the will of the state to operate in an accountable,
transparent and responsive manner.

Civil society organisations have a key role to play in combating corruption.
In fact, the task of ensuring sustained political commitment, administartive
accountability, and procedural simplification can be achieved more quickly if
vigilant and active civil society organisations take up the responsibility of
interacting with the government organisations. Civil society is, in the end, the
stakeholder and the ultimate affected party of corruption and thus must be
engaged constructively to get the support and buy-in for the necessary reforms.
Only in this way can the necessary policy and institutional changes become
viable and sustainable. Countries that are supportive and hospitable to civil
society bodies-through hearing arrangements in their regulatory and legislative
procedures, involving them in oversight institutions, etc,- have in fact enabled the
organic and internally driven evolution of policies and institutions to changes in
circumstances.
In recent years a growing number of structures, institutions and
associations-outside state apparatus and profit-making businesses-have evolved
in India for the joint pursuit of shared interests. Chambers of commerce,
professional associations, various forms of non-governmental organisations have
become players, shaping opinions, building coalitions, providing testimonies,
monitoring government and enterprises. The Report Card methodology
developed by the Public Affairs Center in Bangalore is an innovative instrument
to track down and expose corruption in public services (Guhan and Paul 1997).
Similarly, the Common Cause in Delhi has done considerable work in the area of

public interest litigation which has served the purpose of dragging corrupt officials
to the courts. The Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan in Rajasthan has done
commendable work in making public information regarding development projects
in the state. Such information has served to expose instances of bureaucratic
corruption.
A sustainable participatory process, extending far beyond the initial
awareness-raising and mobilization stages, is crucial for the implementation of
the reforms. The experience of the scorecard method mentioned above
illustrates how powerful such integration can be. The periodic application of the
scorecard evaluation of local public services by the citizenry (including reporting
on bribery and extortion), as well as the discussion and dissemination following
each survey, provides continuous support for anti-corruption efforts at the local
level.
The Government of India too has now become aware of the need to
integrate public policies with public participation. At a Conference of Chief
Ministers of Indian States in May 1997, the Department of Administrative
Reforms and Public Services evolved an “Action Plan on Effective and
Responsive Administration”, based on the responses and reactions from officials,
experts, voluntary agencies, citizen’s groups, media, etc. Among the various
steps initiated in this respect, a core group was formed for the formulation and

monitoring of Citizen’s Charter by identified Ministries with substantial public
interface (Kashyap 1997).
The development and use of an interactive web site by the Central
Vigilance Commission since January 2000 is a positive step in the direction of
keeping people informed and involved in the framing and implementation of anticorruption
strategies. Currently the Chief Vigilance Commissioner, N. Vittal, is
pursuing a proactive three-point operational strategy to fight corruption in India.
The three points are (i) simplification of rules and procedures; (ii) greater
transparency and empowerment of the public and (iii) effective punishment. In
this strategy citizen participation has a key role. The civil society could
participate in these efforts through the NGOs by bringing corrupt practices to the
notice of the powers that be and also effectively help in operations like the
trapping of corrupt persons or informing the CVC about the disproportionate
assets of the corrupt public persons against whom raids can be undertaken by
the CBI and the Income Tax Department (Vittal 2000).
Another notable instance of citizen involvement in combating corruption is
the launching of Satyagrah (non-violent protest) by S.D. Sharma, an
octogenarian freedom fighter and Vice-Chairman of the Transparency
International-India, against political corruption and for honest and efficient
governance. Established in 1997, the Transparency International-India has been
playing a significant role in fighting corruption through Gandhian methods of non-

violent mass mobilization. It has now undertaken to organise 24 hour relay fast
concurrently with the sessions of the parliament, to remind the government and
the parliament that they have failed in their duty to the country to take effective
steps for eliminating corruption from their ranks (Sharma 2000).
A participatory process involving citizens in the formulation and monitoring
of anti-corruption strategies is thus taking roots in India. As more and more civil
society organisations become involved in this process and take steps to both
formulate and implement anti-corruption strategies it can be expected that in the
coming years efforts to combat corruption should yield positive results.