Rural and seasonal workers across India are guaranteed (as needed) 100 days a year of manual labor at minimum wage.
Years
ago, some local officials claimed they were assigning work and paying
workers, all the while embezzling funds and keeping the records secret. Workers complained they
were getting neither work nor pay. They brought pressure under India’s
Right to Information Law and eventually were allowed to view (but not
have copies of) work and pay records.
Some
workers were able to copy the records surreptitiously. The records,
purporting to show that specific individuals had worked and been paid,
were revealed at public meetings and shown to be false.
Today,
such government ledgers are painted on village walls where workers can
determine for themselves the accuracy of the records. Officials are
fined if records are not made public on time.
In one Indian state where state officials support them, activists get local records and go through their village door to door to verify payments made, services rendered and the like.
Such social audits have uncovered instances where as much as 95 percent of funding had been embezzled from government programs.
Why couldn't a variation of this concept be applied just as successfully in more advanced countries, using the Internet?
No comments:
Post a Comment