Hindu Business Line: Haryana: Saturday, January 13, 2018.
Mubina Begum
is anxious. Her daughter’s wedding is just a few days away and relatives will
soon arrive at her house in Kalanjar village in Nuh district, Haryana. She
needs to make payments to ensure all arrangements are in place. But Mubina
still hasn’t received any money from the State Government department in charge
of the Mukhyamantri Vivah Shagun Yojna, the scheme launched by the Haryana
Chief Minister to provide financial assistance to marginalised families for
marriages. Mubina decides to check with the Citizen Information and Support Centre
(CISC) located 15 km from her village. After all it was the CISC that informed
her about the scheme in the first place and helped her apply.
“I didn’t
know there was a scheme to help poor widows like me,” says Mubina. “I was told
that the CISC could help and so I called them after my daughter’s marriage was
fixed. They gave me the relevant information and also assisted in filling the
necessary form. I know they will ensure I get the money too. I am confident
because they have helped others who applied under the same scheme.”
The CISC was
started by the Sehgal Foundation, a Haryana-based not-for-profit working on
empowering rural communities, to help people like Mubina to know and demand
their rights. When the Foundation conducted an initial survey before beginning
their work, it found that awareness of government programmes was particularly
low in Nuh district, formerly known as Mewat. Here literacy levels were lower
than the State level 54 per cent as compared to the State level of 76.8 per
cent. Women lagged even further behind. Their literacy level was almost 50 per
cent lower than the State level only 36.6 per cent compared to 67.6 per cent.
However, it
also found that majority of the population owned a mobile phone. This led to
the set up of the CISC as an information hub centred on a toll-free helpline.
“We took advantage of the fact that most people used mobile phones,” said Dr
Vikas Jha, director, governance, Sehgal Foundation. “This allowed us to harness
technology to connect communities to government programmes meant for them.”
The
Foundation partnered with Dhwani Rural Information System to develop an
application, which allowed communities to voice their queries in their regional
language, Mewati. This proved to be a good strategy. Beginning with 1,372 calls
in the first five months of operations in 2014, the popularity of the Centre
rose rapidly. The helpline, which operates from 7 am to 7 pm six days a week,
receives about 75 calls a day. It received 16,500 calls alone in the last two
years from 431 villages in the district.
Besides
providing information on key government programmes and the procedures needed to
access entitlements, the trained facilitators use the Integrated Voice Response
System technology to disseminate awareness about how to file complaints with
government offices.
When
villagers from Jhirkha block heard about the Centre, they sought its help to
register their grievance about 300 families being denied food grains for three
and half years despite holding the ration card needed under Public Distribution
System. “When the villagers called asking what they could do to resolve their
problem, we informed them about the Right To Information (RTI) Act and helped
them filing it,” said Veena Singal, an CISC facilitator. “Once it was filed, we
helped them follow up their complaint. After they received a response from RTI
office, they were able to switch to another ration depot and are now getting
rations.”
Not just a
voice
One of the
reasons why the initiative is making an impact is that it doesn’t remain just a
voice behind a phone. Facilitators manning the helpline use their knowledge and
skills to resolve problems. Some months ago, the CISC received a call from a
desperate father from Shehjadpur village wanting to know whether his daughter,
who was facing domestic violence, could get justice since her marital home was
in Rajasthan. “We took them to the Mahila thana and helped his daughter file an
application. The girl’s in-laws and husband were summoned and reprimanded.
Since then, his daughter has not faced problems,” said Lalit Arya, another CISC
facilitator
They are also
receiving gender training and know about laws. “Although it is not part of our
job to accompany them to the police station, we do it because they are afraid
to approach the police,” she said. “All our efforts become worthwhile when we
are able to bring a smile on their faces.”
(The writer
is a journalist based in Delhi)
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