Moving Towards Transparent India

"Transparency is not about restoring trust in institutions. Transparency is the politics of managing mistrust. Ivan Krastev

RTI (Right to Information), sounds very familiar but is just opposite in the practicality. It is an act which gives Indian Citizen a power to get information from a "public authority" which is replied efficiently or within a time duration of thirty days. It came into force on 12th October 2005. Its main objective was to make the work done by Government transparent and accountable by empowering citizens. It will make our democracy work for the people in real sense. It was a stepping stone towards making the citizens more aware and informed about the work and the decisions taken by the Government.

Democracy requires an informed citizen and transparency of information which are plays a pivotal role in the functioning and containing the corruption by making the Government accountable for its action. According to a survey by Aruna Roy of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan of Rajasthan, not even one percent of total India's population has used it. There are more than eight million RTI applications are being made, 10 years after the law was introduced. This data shows the inefficiency its power. There might be various reasons why people are not utilizing this power. Some of them are as follows:-

1. Poor Awareness of the Act.

2. People don't want to take initiative due to various reasons like it takes too long to get a reply, due to politics, not getting proper outcome etc.

3. Not knowing the procedure for filing it.

To overcome all these hurdles, RTIFeed, an initiative taken by four engineering students which include Vikas Kumar (Co-Founder), IIT Roorkee, came all the way. It is a social platform not only for sharing RTIs but to also provide bona fide information available to all people. There are various activities that can be done like sharing RTI which anyone has filed, helping out people to propose a new one in the community, taking their suggestions and helping hand. The different proposals can be shared or discussed through comments, or a user may seek help through private message on chat as well. 

RTI files are mentioned by different departments, topics, and states which make it user-friendly and a lot easier to browse information. It minimizes the redundancy in filing RTI. People will get the information which is already fetched from a department before filing a new RTI. RTIFeed presents personalized and authentic information as per reader's point of interests. It is paving a new way from the conventional system of news distribution system. RTIFeed guarantees the authenticity of the information and also empowers and inspires you to be the source of it. On this platform, Truth is delivered not the opinion. It will truly justify the motto of India i.e. Satyameva Jayate ("Truth alone triumphs").

"Power comes with its use, not just beholding it. Same is true for the RTI. People need to be aware of it and use it for the betterment of this Nation."- Phulchand Saraswati