Citizen’s Charter

The Citizen’s Charter is a voluntary and written document that spells out the service provider’s efforts taken to focus on their commitment towards fulfilling the needs of the citizens/customers.

• It also includes how citizens can redress any grievances.
• It includes what the citizens can expect out of the service provider.
• The concept is that the charter preserves the trust between the service provider and the citizens/users.

The concept of a citizen’s charter was initiated by former British Prime Minister John Major in the year 1991. It was started as a national programme intended to improve the quality of public services. In 1998, in the UK, the concept was renamed ‘Services First’.

History in short:

• The concept was first articulated and implemented by British Prime Minister John Major in 1991 as a national programme with a simple aim: to continuously improve the quality of public services for the people of the country so that these services respond to the needs and wishes of the users.
• The programme was relaunched in 1998 by British Prime Minister Tony Blair which rechristened it Services First.

India’s initiative:

• Over the years India has made significant progress in the field of economic development. This along with increase in literacy rate has made Indian citizens aware of their rights.
• It was in this climate, Conference of Chief Ministers was held in 1997 under the chairmanship of Prime Minister. In this conference as ‘Action Plan for Effective and Responsive Government’ at the centre and state was adopted.
• One of the major decisions at the conference was that the central and state governments would formulate Citizens’ Charter, starting with those sectors that has large public interface.

Principles of Citizen’s Charter (As originally framed)

• Quality – Improving service quality.
• Choice – Wherever possible.
• Standards – Specifically mention what to expect and how to go about if standards are not met.
• Value – For taxpayers’ money.
• Accountability – At the level of the individual and the organization.
• Transparency – Transparency in rules/schemes/procedures/grievances.

The salient features of a Citizen’s Charter are:

1. Agreed and published standards for service delivery;
2. Openness and information about service delivery;
3. ‘Choice’ and Consultation with users;
4. Courtesy and helpfulness in service delivery; and
5. Provision of redressal of grievances.

After the adoption by the UK, several other countries adopted a citizen’s charter under different names and forms. The basic idea was the same, however, to enhance the quality of services offered to the public, and have transparency and accountability in public services.

The 6 principles as laid out by the government in the UK, were later elaborated in 1998. The Labour government, then, brought out the following nine principles of Service Delivery:

1. Set standards of service
2. Be open and provide full information
3. Consult and involve
4. Encourage access and the promotion of choice
5. Treat all fairly
6. Put things right when they go wrong
7. Use resources effectively
8. Innovate and improve
9. Work with other providers

• Standards: The Charter should lay out explicit standards of service delivery so that users understand what they can reasonably expect from service providers. These standards should be time‐bound, relevant, accurate, measurable and specific.
• Information and openness: A key attribute of good service is the availability of relevant and concise information to the users at the right time and at the right place.
• Choice and consultation: The Charter should provide choice of services to users wherever practicable. There should be regular and systematic consultation with the users of the service to fix service standards and to ascertain quality of service delivery.
• Courtesy and helpfulness: The Charter can help embed a culture of courteous and helpful service from public servants.
• Grievance redressal and complaints handling: by facilitating and responding to complaints, the causes for complaint can be reduced. Secondly, by identifying ‘trends’ in complaints, the service provider can resolve systemic and recurring problems.

Citizen’s Charter in India

In India, the concept of citizen’s charter was first adopted at a ‘Conference of Chief Ministers of various States and Union Territories’ held in May 1997 in the national capital.

• A major outcome of the conference was a decision to formulate Citizen’s Charters by the central and state governments, beginning with sectors with a large public interface such as the railways, telecom, posts, PDS, etc.
• The charters were mandated to include service standards, the time limit that the people can expect to be served, mechanisms for redressing grievances, and a provision for unbiased scrutiny by consumer/citizen groups.
• The task of coordination, formulation, and operationalization of citizen’s charters are done by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG).
• In India, in this context, citizens can mean not only citizens but also all stakeholders such as customers, clients, beneficiaries, ministries/departments/organizations, state/UT governments, etc.
• The Indian model of citizen’s charter is an adaptation from the UK model. One additional component of the charter in the Indian version is the inclusion of the point ‘expectation from clients’.
• The DARPG website lists more than 700 charters adopted by various government agencies across India.
• The Right of Citizens for Time Bound Delivery of Goods and Services and Redressal of their Grievances Bill, 2011 (Citizens Charter) was introduced in the Lok Sabha in December 2011. It was referred to a Standing Committee which submitted its report in 2012. The bill, however, lapsed due to the dissolution of the Lok Sabha in 2014.
• Citizen’s charters are not legally enforceable documents. They are just guidelines to enhance service delivery to citizens.

Objectives:

• Quality: Citizens’ charter strives to improve the quality of services offered by the departments and required by the public. Example – Information requested through RTI is provided in digital format in well readable format.
• Choice: Government should offer various choices to people, so that people can avail services according to their priorities and choices. Example: People are given choices to get the LPG connection through cylinder or piped connection.
• Standards: Citizens’ charter specifies the standards for various services which makes people aware of the services to be offered by the government. Example: Water quality standards offered by various private agencies and public agency are published, which allows people to select service standards according to their needs.
• Value: Services are offered by government from tax payers money. Government strives to strike the balance between spend the amount judiciously and improve the satisfaction of people. Example: Information provided through RTI is given in digital format, this saves the tax payers money as less money is spent on papers. This also improves satisfaction of people as the information is available on timely manner.
• Accountability: Citizens’ Charter enforces the accountability of the department as citizens are aware of the service standards and actual performance the services.
• Transparency: Citizens’ Charter follows various rules, procedures and schemes to make avail the services to the people. Any deviation from these gives the opportunity to people to seek the grievance redressal from the depart concerned. Example: Jan Soochana Portal of Rajasthan government.

Significance of Citizen’s Charters

Citizen’s charters are significant in that they empower citizens when it comes to public services.

• It boosts accountability in the delivery of public services.
• It enhances good governance. It improves the effectiveness of organizations by having measurable standards.
• It augments the quality of services delivered by incorporating an internal and external monitoring entity.
• Being citizen-centric, it creates a professional and customer-oriented environment for the delivery of services.
• It also helps boost the morale of the staff.
• It enhances transparency and openness.

However, there are some drawbacks also associated with these charters. They are mentioned in the below section.

Implementation of Citizen’s Charter in India