Call it a classic case of mass awakening after facing years of neglect. Having woven many success stories in urban areas, the Right to Information Act (RTI) is reaching rural areas too. And in a first, six villages in the far flung areas of Kalyan have been taught to use the RTI Act to bring about some positive change in their lives.

Public Concern for Governance Trust (PCGT), an NGO spearheading a pilot project at the six villages adopted by them last year— Ambhe, Kharad, Dhoke, Kushavali, Mangrul and Shiravali— has undertaken the daunting task of reducing corruption in these areas.

“The RTI Act has often been used in urban areas frequently but in rural areas no one is aware about it. Hence, we took this initiative to empower each and every person in the villages above 14 years to use the Act to bring about a positive change in their lives,” said former police commissioner and a member of the trust Julio Ribeiro. 

After months of awareness programmes, the Act seems to have brought some positive change. “Before the RTI Act was introduced to them, no one in the village knew that death certificates can be obtained free-of-cost,” said Swarna Bhagyawati from Ambhe gaon. Bhagyawati used the RTI Act to obtain the death certificate of her grandfather almost two years after his death. She needed the certificate to enroll her grandmother in the Widow Pension Scheme.

This was one of the first success stories in the village. “We started the project in Ambhe gaon and more and more locals became interested in it after seeing positive changes around them. Thus the awareness wave spread from here to the other five villages,” said programme manager Shabnam Siddiqui.

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