Date: 31/03/2023

Relevance: GS-2: Important Aspects of Governance, Transparency and Accountability; Role of Civil Services in a Democracy.

Key Phrases: Citizen-centric Governance, 2nd Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC), Mission Karmayogi, Capacity Building, Civil service, Decision-making, iGOT-Karmayogi.

Context:

• Recently, at the Rozgar mela, Indian Prime Minister made a paradigm-shifting statement by mentioning that citizens should be at the centre of everything that the government did and this is the mantra for governance for all public servants.

Key Highlights:

• Mission Karmayogi, the National Programme for Civil Services Capacity Building, has been strategically working to build the capacities of civil servants through various innovative interventions to sensitize and reframe the fabric of citizen participation.
  • It is an outcome-based capacity-building programme that is shifting them from thinking like a “karmachari” to acting like a “karmayogi”.

Concept of Citizen-centric Governance:

• The concept of citizen-centric governance is constantly evolving and requires clarity in the actions that civil servants perform and how citizens engage with the state.
• It is a two-way interaction between citizens and governments that give citizens a stake in decision-making to improve development outcomes.
• Traditionally, governance structures hold the power to make decisions that affect the lives of citizens.
  • But citizen-centric governance focuses on providing citizens with access to information, services and resources and on engaging them in the policy-making process.
  • This will necessarily demand a shift in the mindset of civil servants across the nation.
  • This shift in the mindset is not just wishful thinking but is now being intentionally fashioned in India through an exemplary programme such as Mission Karmayogi that looks at the complete ecosystem of capacities of our civil servants in delivering on this mandate.

Core Principles for Citizen-centric Governance:

• The 2nd Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC) has given the following core principles for making Governance citizen-centric.
  • Rule of Law – Zero Tolerance Strategy
  • Making Institutions vibrant, responsive and accountable.
  • Decentralization
  • Transparency
  • Civil Service Reforms
  • Ethics in Governance
  • Process Reforms
  • Periodic and independent evaluation of the quality of Governance.

Citizen Engagement:

• It refers to how citizens participate in the political, social and economic aspects of their community or society.
  • This can include activities such as voting, attending public meetings and town halls, volunteering, participating in government committees, communicating with elected officials and holding public servants accountable.
• The real goal of citizen engagement is to increase the involvement of citizens in the decision making processes.
• Citizen engagement is highly embedded in the nature of the political and governance context and existing power relations.
• Citizen engagement is a core component of any governance system and in democracies, it is a basic principle because it is understood that governments derive their authority and power from the people.
  • The maturation of Indian democracy is reflected in the fact that there is an intentional attempt by the state to make development citizen-centric.
• Citizen engagement is not about confrontation or merely about expressing restlessness and dissatisfaction.
  • It is more about collaborative partnerships and dialogue.
  • It is about inclusion, empowerment and is a political process.
• Citizen engagement should neither be viewed as the “citizen against the state” nor as the “state against the citizen”, but as two complementary forces working together to ensure the overall development of a community or a nation.

Way Forward:

• To Make the Administration more Citizen-Centric, the 2nd ARC has examined the following strategies:
  • Re-engineering processes to make Governance ‘citizen-centric’.
  • Adoption of Appropriate Modern Technology
  • Right to Information
  • Citizens Charters
  • Independent Evaluation of Services.
  • Grievance Redressal Mechanisms
  • Active Citizens Participation – Public-Private Partnerships
• Citizen engagement towards democratizing the process of development necessarily involves a constructive dialogue between and amongst all stakeholders.
  • Meaningful dialogue among the stakeholders — the state, citizenry, private sector, media, civil society and academia — can sustain only when there is mutual trust.
  • The relationship between these multiple stakeholders needs to be driven by mutual respect and an appreciation of interdependence and reciprocity.
    • However, this may involve redrawing boundaries of engagement and roles that stakeholders have traditionally assumed for themselves.
  • Multi-stakeholder engagement would require the adoption of the partnership approach by all parties involved.
• A development paradigm that involves multiple stakeholders is about giving equal and dignified spaces in the decision making and execution process.
• Citizenry or community is not necessarily a homogenous mass of people, so one must be conscious of elite capture that happens within citizen groups as well.
  • Furthering democracy is all about constantly finding ways to negate the elite capture and respecting the last citizen’s voice.
  • It may need new respect for the identity of the citizen herself.
  • For this, we need to stay not only engaged but enlightened too.

Conclusion:

• This PM’s call for citizen centricity should be seen as a part of the social compact that the government is now creating between the citizens and the public service delivery systems.
  • It is now for citizens to be fellow travellers in this celebration of democracy as India enters Amrit Kaal.

Source: The Indian Express

Mains Question:

Q.“Citizen-centric governance supports achieving the real goal of democracy”. Critically analyze the statement. (150 Words).