[HumJanenge] A US-India Partnership on Open Government

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/11/07/a-us-india-partnership-open-government

Today in Mumbai, President Obama attended what is likely the first
ever Expo on Democracy and Open Government. India's dynamism in the
technology sector is well known, as is Gandhi's legacy in India of
civic action and bottom-up change, but today's expo highlighted
something very fresh: Indian civil society's harnessing of innovation
and technology to strengthen India's democracy -- by fighting
corruption, holding government officials accountable, and empowering
citizens to be the change they seek.

Just before taking the stage at the town hall at St. Xavier's College,
President Obama spent about half an hour wandering through ten booths
showcasing different approaches to promoting open government and
strengthening open society. He visited with the Association for
Democratic Reform (ADR), a network that successfully pressed for a
reform in election rules that now require candidates to disclose their
financial assets, educational backgrounds, and any legal action taken
against them. ADR has developed an SMS service, which allows Indians
to type in their zip code, and obtain a text message providing
once-unavailable background information on their candidates. In a
country of 700 million cell phones, this has the power to make voting
choices far more meaningful. The President stopped at a booth run by
Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), a grassroots group that uses
puppet shows and folk theater to popularize India's landmark Right to
Information law. He heard how Indians have filed more than two million
requests for information since the law was passed in 2005. In the
United States it is mainly journalists, historians, and NGOs who
generally use the Freedom of Information Act, while in India the RTI
is used by ordinary citizens -- many in very remote areas -- who seek
to use the law to ascertain why they have not received pensions,
rations, or other basic services. One of the most remarkable features
of the law is that Indian officials found to have withheld information
from citizens, themselves have to pay fines.

Part of what Indian civil society groups have discovered is the
importance of using personal stories and publicizing factual data in
order to mobilize democratic demand. President Obama spoke with
Janagraaha, a group that created the website Ipaidabribe.com where
Indians upload videos of their experiences in paying a bribe, in
refusing to pay a bribe, and in "not having to pay a bribe" -- where
Indian public servants provide services that citizens wish to
celebrate. The website has received 120,000 hits in two and a half
months. He also met with Arghyam, which holds public gatherings in
rural India to test local drinking water. By ensuring that citizens
are present to witness the water tests (the tests turns yellow for
dirty water, purple for clean), the group is able to build bottom-up
and intense pressure for clean water and hold local officials
accountable if the water quality does not improve. A growing portion
of this demand comes from women -- women's civil society groups, and
women village leaders. The 73rd amendment to the Indian Constitution
in 1993 mandated that one-third of Indian seats in government would go
to women. More than one million women have been elected since this law
was passed, and President Obama heard from the Hunger Project, which
has trained more than 90,000 women local leaders. The President met a
woman leader from a rural Panchayat who -- once elected -- overcame
the opposition of the village leaders and mobilized her community to
build the village's first-ever school for girls.

India is at the vanguard of figuring out how to exploit technology and
innovation on behalf of democratic accountability. U.S.-based groups,
as well as those throughout the developed and developing world, could
learn an enormous amount from these efforts. And India may well become
a kind of "city on the hill" that other countries look to for lessons
on not only how to pull millions of people out of poverty, but also on
how to strengthen democratic accountability. In his address in
September before the UN General Assembly, President Obama hailed open
society and open government, and he called on countries to bring to
the UN next September their "specific commitments" to transparency,
citizen empowerment, and democratic accountability. He also said that
"part of the price of our own freedom is standing up for the freedom
of others." If Indian civil society groups should choose to share
their experiences with citizens and NGOs in countries that have only
recently embarked on their democratic journeys, the dividend will be
profound.

Capitalizing on the creativity and innovation that Americans and
Indians are bringing to these issues, President Obama and Prime
Minister Singh are launching a US-India Partnership on Open
Government, to drive forward our respective domestic efforts and to
offer our support to the efforts of reformers and activists in other
interested countries.

In support of this effort, we announced at today's expo an initial
commitment of approximately $1m to support the work of Indian civil
society in sharing their best practices abroad, with a matching
commitment of in-kind assistance by Sam Pitroda that will harness
India's technical expertise to assist governments in harnessing
technology, improving services, and enhancing democratic
accountability. This is precisely the kind of "partnership built on
shared values" that President Obama has hailed during his visit to
India.

Samantha Power is Senior Director and Special Assistant for
Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights