Social Entrepreneurship Submitted by:

Jenish Kamdar- 1711022

Assignment 1: Reflection note on Guest lecture by Mr. Nikhil Dey

Social activist Nikhil Dey is one of the founders of NGO Mazdoor Kishan Shakti Sangthan
(MKSS), which strives for justice for the poor. In this capacity, he has been involved in
struggles for the poor in the matter of payment of minimum wages and also for grass root
struggles for land. He is also known for his movements related to RTI (Right to information
act) and NREGA (National Rural Employee Guarantee Act). MKSS played a crucial role in the
legislation of RTI, which was used to know the reason behind the denial of their wages that
they were entitled to. Nikhil Dey worked for over 30 years with the NGO mostly in the rural
areas of Rajasthan. The most important aspect of the NGO is that it does not depend on any
financial assistance or funds from the government, corporates or from any foreign funding
agency. It is funded by the common people. This is because they believe that theirs is a
democratic political group and for democracy to function properly, people should be actively
involved in every aspect of it.

Right to Information act (RTI):

RTI came into picture as poor people were facing severe problems as no proper information
was available to them and they were denied many basic rights because of mis-information or
information asymmetry. In the short clip shown in the class (“The National Campaign for
People’s right to Information”), it is shown how people work continuously for months for a
developmental project named as ‘Lake Canal Work Lassani’, but they were denied payments
and the reason cited for this was that they didn’t work or the records of them working is not
in the books. It also shows how corrupt practices are followed even for procurement of raw
materials for the infrastructure development. The corruption shown in the movie is of three
types. In the first two types, the corruption does not come into light unless people specifically
demand information. However, in the third type of corruption, the infrastructure constructed
such as buildings, flyovers, bridges, will collapse and this will reveal that corruption has taken
place. Due to this corruption, valuable human life is lost and a lot of money will have to be re-
spend to revive the collapsed infrastructure. In many rural areas, benefits like free housing,
sanitation, essential medicines, ration is not received by the actual beneficiaries due to the
corruption by BDO and the Sarpanchs. The voice of poor people is supressed by the powerful
people in power and the corruption doesn’t open up and this continues on and on, eventually
piling up the corrupt practises and spreading it all along. Everyone today wants to live a life
of dignity and no one wants to be called as beggars. But if the basic rights of the people is
taken away, then they are forced to live such a life. If they are denied the wages for the work
they did and earning opportunities are not adequately provided to them, then we are
indirectly putting their lives in danger and ultimately it is equivalent to killing them and this
poses a serious question on our ethics and moral values. Every citizen has every right to
question the government where and how the public money is being spent. RTI provides this
opportunity to know the information about the government spending on various
developmental projects, This forces all the government officials to maintain a proper record
of the spending and reduces the chances of unaccounted money.
Thus the RTI came into existence with the slogan “Hamara Paisa Hamara Hisab” or “Our
Money Our Accounts”. RTI became a possibility because people are empowered due to the
provision provided in the constitution of India.
But this is not the story with all happy endings. RTI has severe implementation issues. Now,
after the legislation of RTI, right information is at the disposal of common man, but one
doesn’t know whom to approach and who should be accountable for this. Also, RTI makes it
mandatory for the government to disclose information in a proactive manner, even before
people demand it, which is not followed seriously. Also, the issue of disclosing the funding of
political parties, it was denied blatantly by parties, even after information Commission has
asked for it. So, even after bringing about this very important legislation, it is not being
followed strictly, making it ineffective.
The below are the five principles people of Bhilwara demands, as shown in the clip, and is of
absolute necessity in India:
1. People want actionable information: The information that people demand should be
such that they can be worked upon or be passed on the relevant authorities so that
necessary actions can be performed against those found guilty.
2. People want hearing: People want to know that if an action is performed, by when it
will be completed and in written form such as receipts so that they have future
evidence.
3. People need guaranteed action: People want confirmation from authorities that the
action will indeed be completed and not dragged on for years.
4. People want participation: Whenever any action is performed such as by the police,
they want to participate and provide information so that they are not fooled and get
right justice.
5. People need protection: Whenever people unearth any information, or protest, they
require protection to their lives from more powerful individuals.

AADHAR:
The reason behind starting off this world’s largest biometric ID system was to have a single,
unique identification number that would have all the details (both demographic and
biometric) of every citizen of India. As of now, there are a plethora of ID cards in India like
passports, PAN, driving license and ration cards. Aadhar card will not be replacing all these
but it will be used as a sole identification proof when applying for any government schemes.
Even though Aadhar was launched to promote inclusion, it excluded many sections of people
after it was deemed mandatory in to avail many government services. 10 lakh old age
pensioners were struck of from the list and over 30 lakh families in Rajasthan were not able
to procure food rations. Aadhar only serves as a biometric authentication system and has
many limitations in terms of serving the true purpose of a universal identification system as
its data can be forged. People are not getting the services even if they have an Aadhar card,
either due to poor internet connectivity or due to corrupt practices followed in ration shops,
which ultimately are shown as savings by the central government. Also, Aadhar is not a
decentralized system and can lead us to question the government’s objectives whether, it just
a tool by the government to track our every movement. This raises few questions on Aadhar:
 Why was a world standard data protection law and mechanism not set in place before
making Aadhaar mandatory?
 If UIDAI’s data security measures have been analysed with respect to perceived threat
levels and potential privacy breaches, why has this information not been made public
to allay the fears of citizens regarding issues of privacy?
 What redressal measures will be taken if data has been breached?