This tea vendor has filed more than 800 RTI applications to help villagers in UP fight for their rights

A lot happens over tea in a tea stall owned by KM Yadav in Chaubepur village of Uttar Pradesh. The tea stall is also Yadav’s makeshift ‘office’ from where he helps hundreds of villagers access crucial government information that has helped them claim their benefits and rights. Yadav is an activist armed with the intricate workings of the Right to Information (RTI) law. His tea stall is the nerve centre of his activities.

The stall has just enough space for 10 chairs and a few tables for people to sit. But many villagers throng here to find solutions. They all look for help to Yadav, who goes through stacks of documents, makes notes and gives suggestions. A BBC report states, the RTI law or India’s “weapon of the weak”, has since 2005 enabled citizens to question government officials. It has been lauded for helping expose misdeeds and corruption in government departments.

But the law also has its limitations. “People who cannot read and write in India’s villages find it difficult to file applications, and even those who are literate often don’t know the procedures. That’s where I come into the picture. I just help them raise their voices through RTI, one application at a time,” Yadav told BBC

Local residents of Chaubepur and its neighbouring areas refer to Yadav as “the information soldier” and “a modern day Mahatma Gandhi”. But he disagrees with these labels. “I am just an activist trying to help these villagers get crucial information about their problems,” he says.

Yadav started participating in RTI awareness campaigns in 2010 after leaving his job in the nearby city of Kanpur. He soon realised that it was the people in India’s villages who needed the law more. In 2013, he rented a small room in the village and started using the tea stall as his office. He has filed more than 800 RTI applications since then. The issues faced by the people of Chaubepur could be a template for the problems encountered by any Indian village. Land disputes, loan schemes, pensions, road construction and funds for local schools figure prominently.

Yadav also files applications himself. “I have personally filed more than 200 applications about government funds for schools, money allocated for road construction and drinking water supply. In most cases I was able to put pressure on government officials to get public work done because I had the right information,” said Yadav.

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