Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) organizes public hearings in India where acts of corruption, such as the embezzlement of funds dedicated to development projects, are exposed through a comparison of official records with what is actually happening and what is reported by the attending villagers.
In India, as in many countries, corrupt officials and rural elites can manipulate development schemes to their own advantage. This prevents projects from benefiting the poor and perpetuates poverty and social inequality.
MKSS activists and residents of the area conduct investigations into allegations of corruption in a particular village or district, often at the initiative of local residents who feel they have been cheated or abused. They submit an application request, at the village council or at higher levels of government, for copies of the relevant official records. Most often, despite a legal entitlement, the process of obtaining the required information is a struggle with many hurdles. Once obtained, the accounts are cross-checked through site visits and interviews with villagers.
MKSS then holds public hearings that are attended by hundreds of villagers. Organizers invite the press, government officials and those suspected of corruption. MKSS activists, most of whom are from the area read and explain the official documents showing, for instance, that a certain health clinic was built in the village, or that laborers in a construction project were paid a certain amount. These documents are then contrasted with what really happened. Activists present the results of their research, and attending villagers provide their own testimony. The hearings last several hours, as organizers review one development project or instance of corruption after another. More recently, public hearings have also been organized around the functioning of a local hospital and the public health system, as well as on the functioning of food security schemes and the public distribution system.
While the impact on transparency and accountability issues has been dramatic, the effects on follow up official action have been mixed - a few officials have been arrested and government investigations have started to move forward. In some villages the corrupt local officials who are invited to and sometimes take part in the hearings have voluntarily agreed, when faced with the evidence, to collaborate with the investigations and even return the funds themselves. Usually, however, MKSS activists must follow the public hearings with continued agitation and pressure in order to ensure official action.
An essential prerequisite for MKSS’s work was gaining access to Government records, including the copies of records of public expenditure. MKSS used a series of other tactics to convince the state of Rajasthan to pass a right-to-information law. They mobilized villagers from several districts, staged sit-ins and generated publicity around the issue. As a result a law was passed that compels officials to provide copies of documents on any sphere of government activity, including development programs, public resources and expenditures at a nominal price when requested. This also sparked a national right-to-information movement that has succeeded in passing similar laws in several other states and a Freedom of Information Bill in the National Parliament.
Using peoples platforms where citizens can publicly challenge officials on the difference between promises and reality
