Community Oriented effort to end corruption to establish the right of the common people by James Rajasekaran.E,  May 7, 2007

Country: India
Organization: People's Association for Rural Development (PARD)
Focus of activity: Community Involvement
Year the initative began: 2000
Main barrier addressed: Cynicism & Apathy
Main insight addressed: Build Citizenship
Description of initiative: As an organisation involved with activities against corruption for the benefit of the rural poor people, PARD is involved with activities in three stages:

1. Using the present set up of the Government to trap the corrupted Officers. The Government has a Vigilance Wing with which the Government says that it has a wish to control corruption among its Officers. PARD has initiated its efforts to get the corruptive officers behind the bar. For our Farm land, for getting the title deed, when we approached for the Village Administrative Officer and the Surveyor we were demanded bribe. The Village Administrative Officer Claimed Rs. 750 and the Surveyor demanded Rs. 2000/- We approached the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti Corruption Wing of the Government and with their effort on 20th February 2005, both were caught and the Court case is going on. We can provide several examples like this.

2. Awareness Programme among the rural people to make them to understand their rights for things getting done in the Government Offices. One day Awareness meetings among the rural women conducted every month to make the rural women to be aware of their rights.

3. Getting things done in the Government Offices. Our effort to end corruption begins with the dialogue with the Government Officers to get things done. More than punishing them it is good to establish things in the mind of the rural women that they can achieve things without bribing the officer. In this way, we can quote many examples that we have achieved things done with the Government Offices without bribing. Thus we have created the mindset of the rural poor women that they can achieve their rights without bribing the Officers. If the mindset of the rural people set against corruption, they act on their own to have dialogue with the Government Officers to get their things done in the Government Offices. Our primary beneficiaries are the rural poor people especially rural women.

Innovation: In India there are plenty of organisations concentrating on development programme for the socially and economically backward people. There are two categories of development organisations in India. Developed Organisation and developing organisation. A Developed organisation is an organisation which has high resources and so it need not get any thing from the Government and so the developed organisation never bather about the corruptive situation by which the community is affected. The developing organisation is an organisation is very recently started with very limited or nil resources and so they have to adjust with the Government Officers to get Government schemes or fund from the Government.

Though PARD is in the second category of the Development Organisations, PARD never accepted to give bribe in order to get the Government Schemes or funds.

Thus PARD is functioning innovative in its activities for the development of the people.

As an organisation involved for the development of the community and as an organisation involved to empower the community to bring its bargaining power, PARD equips the community with the necessary information to fight for their own rights in the Government Offices. Thus PARD plays a major role in making the community to fight for its own rights. All the background support is provided by the organisation to make the community to fight for its own rights.

Our method is so innovative as it prepare the community to fight for its rights with the external support of PARD.

Delivery Model: The communication system that we follow is normally the one to one personal relationship. We also communicate with other means of communication like telephone, mobile, and post. Also we have a monthly newsletter in which we bring success stories and other related information for making the people equipping with necessary information to move for their own rights. The Project Director Mr.E.James Rajasekaran and the Co-ordinator Mr.G.Radhakrishnan is available for all the members of the community at any time for getting guidelines. We have our offices in the city as well as in the rural area where the people easily can come and get instructions. Regular meetings are conducted in the rural office to make the people get necessary information.

The impact is measured by the achievement that the group members got benefit with the Government Schemes.

Key Operational Partnerships: The Key partnerships that we have established to make our model possible are the people with whom we are working that is the Women Self Help Groups that we have organised in the area. We have organised more than 300 Women Self Help Groups in these areas in which an average of eighteen members in the groups. It is also part of a Government Programme and as per the Government instructions, these groups may involve in savings and credit programme alone. There are eighteen NGOs involved in this programme in Madurai District and all the other NGOs are implementing the Savings and Credit programme alone. PARD is the only organisation that can make the groups to go beyond the savings and credit activities. And thus the groups are our major partners in taking our activities into reality.

The women functioning in the group is taking the major initiative in taking our ideas into action. Of course these women are fighting for their own rights in the Government offices. But still it makes others to accept that there can be things which can be achieved in the Government Offices without bribing anybody.
The Women in the Groups in our area is the main key actors of our efforts. It is they who play the vital role to achieve our goal of activities.

Financial Model: Our services are not priced. We provide our service to the community at free of cost.

For the Below Poverty Line community, we have micro credit programme for the past six years. We are involved with micro credit programme for the past six years and our concentration mainly on the slum community. For the people who are living in the slums in Madurai, we have organised Women Self Help Groups in which they are encouraged to involve in savings programme. They are developed with the habit of Saving. The money collected as Savings is lend among themselves. Thus the credit scheme is introduced to the Groups. Apart from their own money, PARD as a member in a national network by name Mahila Milan receive loan for on lending to the group members. This money is provided for the individual members for their economic activities. We have got several success stories in which the slum community members have established micro enterprises which fetched some money for their family expenses and also for the repayment of the loan. We have a track record of 99% repayment and also we stand first in the National Level Network in proper repayment.

How is the initiative financed? Is it financially self-sustainable or profitable? How much do beneficiaries contribute? This project intends to equip the community with the power to question the authorities to get their works done. We are more careful to prepare the people to claim their rights for which they are basically and legally eligible. Under any circumstances we should not misuse our power of bargaining. With this in our plan of designing, we make the people to approach several levels of officers to get their things done. If their things are done without any bribe in their approach with the authorities, we make the people realise their power of bargaining with the authorities, if things are not done in the lower we take the matter with the higher officers so that the things done without bribing. This makes the mindset of the people that we can get out things done in the Government Offices without bribing.

As we are basically involved in making the mindset of the people to have a strong will not to give any bribe to anybody. It would be sustainable in the minds of the community and thus even after the organisation leave the area the community will take necessary steps and thus this project will be self sustainable and the profit will be enjoyed by the community.

The operational cost of PARD for the salary, travel and other expenses for its staff members is spent from the local resources of PARD by the contribution of friends and well wishers of the organisation. The programme can find a wider impact if it is expanded with external support.

We still believe that this support to the organisation to a limited period to make the community equip with the skills needed for their power of bargaining with the Government Offices to get their things done without bribing.

Effectiveness: The Concrete impact of our project is the preparation of mentality of the community that we can achieve things in the Government Offices without bribing. We can quote one instance for this. Our office Telephone had to shift from our farm house to our Co-ordinator's house. We made necessary application with the Telecom Department and waited for their action. The neighbours of our Co-ordinator just making jokes with us that unless we pay Rs. 400/- the telephone will not get connected also they said this money is shared among all the staff working in the Telecom Department. We waited for one week and finally called the Junior Engineer in the Telecom Department and told him what the neighbours said and asked him 'Whether we have to pay any money for getting our phone to connect?' The Junior Engineer replied that we need not give any money and assured us to get our phone connected. Our telephone was connected within one hour. This was watched by our neighbours and made them to believe that they can also achieve their things in the Government Offices without bribing.

In total with our programme there are more than six hundred families have benefited with our policy of anti corruption activities.

The community have now developed a deep understanding against corruption of the Government Offices and now several Government Officers are questioned by the local rural women to get their things done in the Government Offices without bribing and the rural community have now realised that they have a chance to go to the higher level officers if the lower level officers are demanding bribe for getting their things done.

Which element of the program proved itself most effective? The entire activities of the programme are in several steps. When we hear the problem from the rural people, we just advise them to go and approach the officers concerned directly. We do not play the role of middle men. The rural people are advised to meet the officers directly for their obligations. If their things are done automatically, it is good that the community realises that the direct approach is good for their things to be done in the proper manner without bribing. If the work is not finished we advise the people to approach the higher officials and when they could not see that the work is completed we have a dialogue with the higher level officers and place a question before the higher level officers 'Is it necessary to bribe the officer to get the work done?' This direct question work out with the Higher Officer and make the officer to instruct his juniors to complete the work. Again this part in which we have a dialogue with the higher officer, brings confidence with the rural people that we can achieve our work, if legally eligible by claiming our rights with the Higher level Officers.

We hope the most effective part of this programme is to make the mindset of the rural people to bring confidence that they can also play a role in ending corruption with the Government Officers, that they can achieve their rights without bribing. This sort of confidence among the people spreads among the community so that the entire community receives the message against corruption and to prepare them to fight against corruption. It would be the responsibility of the Community on the whole to fight against corruption and the organisation can play the role of background supporters and provide moral support alone to the community.

Number of clients in the last year? Last year we have achieved to get income certificate for 80 families which was benefited by nearly 400 members of the family. In a village by name Katrampatty the community people approached the Village Administrative Officer to issue income certificate for which the normal market rate is fixed as Rs. 400/- per certificate and so for 80 families it had to be paid Rs. 32,000/- With this in view the Village Administrative Officer refused to give certificate for the rural people. Then we make the people to meet the Thasildar who is the higher officer for the village administrative Officer. All the 80 members got their income certificate without paying anything.

In another village more than 200 goats were purchased by sixty families with the Bank loan which insisted to insure the goat for which it needs the Government Vertinary Doctor's Certificate. When approached the Government Officer, he claimed Rs.l 200 for each goat and thus Rs. 40,000 on the whole for giving certificate but we had a dialogue with the Vertinary Doctor to issue the certificate and finally the certificate was issued without bribing. With the sixty families, its members around 300 benefited out of this programme.

These are the two programmes in which massive number of people benefited with our programme. There are also many individuals who got benefited with our programme against corruption.

In total there may be around seven hundred clients benefited out of our programme.

What is the potential demand? With our limited resources, we could reach only a part of the section of the community with which we are working. There is a heavy demand for such activities as other NGOs working in these areas are not concentrating in this line. The other NGOs are just playing the role of middle men as they claim the money from the people, pay something to the officers and the rest for the organisation. PARD is the only organisation that play against corruption in this area. Hence there is a heavy demand for such activities and in this regard PARD has no competitor in the area and PARD has potential demand in this area.

No NGO in this area is prepared to involve in such activities since it is a struggle against the Government and other Officers. There is also a threat to NGOs that they will not receive any Government Programmes, if the Government Officers are not 'satisfied' with the activity of a particular NGO. PARD also has the same sort of threat and it has already prepared to loose these Government Programmes for the sake of its moral responsibility towards the community.

Scaling up Strategy: Once the community is trained to initiate its own activities against corruption, PARD can draw a strategy to scaling up and leave the entire responsibility to the community. We can plan the scaling up strategy for the next three years so that we can plan accordingly to train the people, input with necessary information and knowledge and equip the community to face different situation. Then we can leave the activity to lead by the community on itself to carryout the activities.

As we run the programme so far, with our available limited resources, we could not plan the training part of the programme and so we cannot make input among the community with intensive trainings and campaigns. We can plan several campaigns in the withdrawal phase of the programme to make the community involve in various activities so that they get the knowledge and experience in the struggle to face them on their own when the organisation leave the responsibility with the community.

Stage of the initiative: Scaling up
Expansion plan: PARD is now working with a very limited group of people. If we have effectively completed our programme in this area it has to expanded to the nearest area to have a wider impact among the other nearer communities so that the programme can get a wider impact. Unless it has a wider impact it cannot be lost long and so once the community is trained to face its problem on its own, we will expand our programme to the neighbouring communities to create the sustainable impact in the society.

The recent Supreme Court Judgement points out that Corruption is the reason for all the irregularities in the society. To dream a just full society, we have to expand our programme to the other parts of the state.

Origin of the Initiative: It was because of the experience that we had when we tried to get the Old Age Pension for a few deserving candidates in our adopted area. While a few almost orphaned old people approached us for support, we explained them regarding the Government Scheme that is to support such elderly person for their livelihood. In practical we found many unqualified people are getting these stipends bribing the Government Officers at various levels. We found that person who should be supported with this scheme cannot get any support but person who need not be supported got this support by bribing. This made us to involve against corruption to make the Government Offices to distribute its schemes to the deserving candidates. Hence we decided to have a dialogue with the Government Offices to get the schemes for the legally qualified candidates and if not we can fight for establishing their rights.

Contact Information:
James Rajasekaran.E
Project Director
People's Association for Rural Development (PARD)
P.B.No.87,Madurai 625 020, Tamil Nadu, India
India
Tel: + 91-452-2533493
Fax: + 91-452-2533493