Citizen Charter

According to the 2nd ARC, the Citizen Charter is a public statement by a government organisation that defines the entitlements of citizens to a specific service, the standards of the service, the conditions to be met by users, and the remedies available to the latter in case of non-compliance of standards.

A Citizens’ Charter represents the commitment of an Organisation towards high-quality public service delivery. It also provides a description of the specific time frame of service delivery, grievance redress mechanism, and eligibility of beneficiary.

Origin

The concept of citizen charter was first implemented in the United Kingdom by the Conservative Government headed by John Major in 1991 as a national Programme. In 1998, the concept was renamed as ‘Services First’ in the U.K. It aimed to empower citizens and improve relationships between people and public services providers. Countries like Australia, Canada, and India followed suit and launched similar programs.

Principles of Citizen’s Charter

In 1991, when the concept was first adopted by the U.K., it embodied the following six principles:

1. Quality – Improving service quality.
2. Choice – Wherever possible, provide citizens/customers with choices.
3. Standards – Specifically mention what to expect (service quality standards) and how to go about if standards are not met.
4. Value – For taxpayers’ money.
5. Accountability – At the level of the individual and the organization.
6. Transparency – Transparency in rules/schemes/procedures/grievances.

The above six principles were later elaborated in 1998 by the Labour government. It brought out the following nine principles of Public Service Delivery:

1. Set standards of service
2. Be open and provide full information
3. Consult and involve all stakeholders
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

Features of Citizen’s Charters

• The Citizen’s Charter is a voluntary and written document that is unique to each department/organisation. 
• It includes the vision and mission statements of the organization, stating the desired outcomes and the broad strategy to achieve these goals and outcomes.
• It also includes the redressal of citizen grievances and delineates measures that citizens can adopt for the same.
• It clearly states what citizens can expect from a service provider.
• The concept is that the charter preserves the trust between the service provider and the citizens/users.
• It is written in simple language so that people/target groups can easily understand it.
• There is a periodic review of the citizen charter.
• Citizen’s charters in India are not legally enforceable and, therefore, are non-justiciable.
• Commitments enshrined in the charters are, in nature, promises to be fulfilled by oneself and the users. They have the moral force to help enhance the quality of service delivery rendered to citizens.
• In the Indian model of citizen’s charter, one additional component is the inclusion of the ‘expectations from clients.
• It perceives citizens as customers so that public services are able to meet the actual needs of people. This helps make governance truly responsive to the needs of citizens.

Citizen’s Charter in India

Citizen’s charter was first adopted in India at the ‘Conference of Chief Ministers’ held in 1997 in New Delhi. In this conference, it was first decided to formulate Citizen’s Charters by all the central and state governments’ offices, beginning with sectors with a large public interface, E.g. Railways, Telecom, Posts, PDS, etc.

Elements of Citizen’s Charter

In India, significant progress has been made in the field of economic development, along with a substantial increase in the literacy rate. This has made Indian citizens increasingly aware of their rights. Citizens now expect the administration not merely to respond to their demands but also to anticipate them.

In India, the Charters are expected to incorporate the following elements:

• Vision and Mission Statement of the Organisation
• Details of business transacted by the organization
• Detail timelines for service delivery
• Details of clients (eligibility to avail the services)
• Details of services provided to each client group
• Details of grievance redressal mechanism and how to access it
• Expectations from the clients

Guidelines for Formulating the Charters

Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG), in the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, in its efforts to provide more responsive and citizen-friendly governance, coordinates the efforts to formulate and operationalise Citizens’ Charters. 

These, along with a list of do’s and don’ts, were formulated and communicated to various government departments/organisations by DARPG to enable them to bring out effective charters.

DARPG Guidelines

The DARPG set out detailed guidelines to enable the service delivery organisations to formulate effective and meaningful Charters. These are as follows: 

• Clarity and Precision in Standards and Commitments – Charter content should be defined in more specific and measurable terms.
• Organisational Presence of the Charter – The Charter should be integrated into the day-to-day activities of the organisation to serve as a guide for employees and as a standard for assessing the performance of the employees.
• Instituting Charter Mechanisms – It is important to institute mechanisms for ensuring their effective delivery, such as the Information Facilitation Counters, sound information management system, and Public Grievance Cells, with adequate authority for quick redress of grievances and mechanisms to receive suggestions.
• Participatory Structures– The Charter must be framed not only by senior experts but by interaction with the cutting-edge staff who will finally implement it and with the users. 
• Visibility and Communication -Charter visibility to the public is crucial to its effectiveness as it enables the citizens to shape expectations as well as provide suggestions in terms of the Charter framework.
• Generating responsive climate – create conditions through training and sensitization to generate a responsive climate. 
• Awareness generation: Procedures/costs/charges should be made available online, such as display boards/booklets/inquiry counters, etc. 
• Separate Charters: Charters should be framed de-novo for distinct services/ organizations/ agencies/attached or subordinate to a Ministry/Department

Measures taken by Different stakeholders to implement Citizen Charter

Various Central Government Ministries/ Departments/ Organisations have brought out their Citizens’ Charters.

• To ensure effective implementation of the Citizens’ Charter, Nodal Officers have been appointed in the concerned Central Government Ministries/ Departments/ Organisations.
• The DARPG website now lists more than seven hundred citizen charters that have been adopted by various central/state government agencies across India.

Legislative measures

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 2011. However, the bill could not be passed and lapsed due to the dissolution of the Lok Sabha in 2014.

Challenges of Citizen Charters in India

• Lack of Universal adoption: There are only around seven hundred charters adopted in the country. Moreover, it is seen that service providers are not familiar with the philosophy, goals and main features of the Charter.
• Top-Down approach: There is a lack of involvement from the personnel and citizens, and the whole exercise is carried out because it was a command from the top.
• The paucity of funds: No funds have been specifically earmarked for awareness generation of the Citizens’ Charter or for orientation of staff on various components of the Charter.
• Unrealistic charters: In certain cases, unrealistic charters are drafted. This can lead to expectations not being met.
• Lack of Legal force: The citizen’s charters are not legally enforceable which makes them ineffective.
• Lack of Tailor-made charters: Charters should be custom-made to the goal and functioning of the particular office/agency. However, there is a tendency to copy-paste, which leads to uniform citizen charters for all agencies, departments, etc. 
• The gap in Infrastructure: There are several gaps in the essential infrastructure required for effective implementation. E.g. limited funding and lack of adequate and trained staff.
• Lack of regular updating: The charters are not periodically revised and become outdated.
• Lack of inclusive approach: often, the special needs of the disabled and senior citizens are not taken into account.
• Gaps in performance evaluation: The defined service standards are generally not specific and measurable, making performance evaluation ineffective.

Improving Citizen Charters in India

2nd ARC Recommendations

Major recommendations of the 2nd ARC to make Citizen’s charters are as follows:

Charter must be realistic

• Charters should have a limited number of promises that can be kept rather than have a long, unfulfilled list.
• Before making a charter, the organization should equip itself to implement the charter properly. It should restructure its set-up and processes.
• All stakeholders must be consulted while drafting the charters.

Charter at local level

• The charter should be local and customized. There should not be a uniform charter across organizations. 
• The Citizens’ Charter of each independent institution would be a more condensed version of the larger Organizations’ Charter. 
• The citizen’s charters should be reviewed and revised regularly.
• They should specify the remedies/compensation in the case of any default in meeting the standards.

Recommendations of the Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA):

• Consultative process: citizens and staff should be consulted at every stage of the formulation of charters.
• Orientation of staff: Proper training about the salient features and goals/ objectives of the Charter and how to implement it properly.
• A Database: There is a need for the creation of a database on consumer grievances and redressal.
• Awareness: Need for wider publicity of the Charter
• Budget: Earmarking of specific budgets for awareness generation

Sevottam Model

The Sevottam model was suggested by the 2nd ARC in its 12th report titled Citizen-centric Administration. It is a combination of two words: Seva (service) and Uttam (excellence). It provides a framework for organizations to assess and improve the quality of services provided by citizens. The model has three modules: Citizen Charter Public Grievance Redress mechanism Service Delivery Capability Further, the model prescribes seven steps: Define services and identify clients. Set standards and norms for each service. Develop the capability to meet the set standards. Perform to achieve the standards. Monitor performance against the set standards. Evaluate impact through an independent mechanism. Continuous improvement based on monitoring and evaluation. Implementation of Sevottam framework:  In government departments, its implementation started in 2009. Later, it was launched as a certification scheme that awards the Sevottam symbol of excellence to public service organizations that show compliance with a set of management system requirements that have been specified in a standard document. This standard, IS 15700:2005, was developed by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) based on the Sevottam model.

Significance of Citizen’s Charters

• The main objective of the citizen’s charters is to empower citizens through a right-based approach to public services.
• It makes public organisations accountable and helps improve the quality of public services.
• Ensuring transparency and the right to information, it enhances good governance.
• It improves the effectiveness of organizations by having measurable standards.
• It creates a professional and customer-oriented environment for the delivery of services.
• It also helps boost the morale and motivation of the staff.

Way Forward

A Citizens’ Charter is a tool to ensure that the citizen is always at the heart of public service delivery. However, addressing challenges, overcoming weaknesses in implementation, universal implementation and drawing from best practices such as the Sevottam Model can help Citizen’s Charter become a more effective tool for Service Delivery Excellence.

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