“Grama Sarkara” – A bold anti-corruption initiative of a ‘Gram Panchayat’!

This is the story of a village Sarpanch who once took an undaunted approach to fight corruption by empowering people with information to build a corruption-free Gram Panchayat – a seemingly impossible challenge a reality during his tenure. With a belief that a citizen well-aware of one’s rights with a conviction ingrained in one’s mind that “I will not pay bribe” as the best weapon to fight this evil, Mr Na Li Krishna from a village called Nagarakere decided to confront the unattainable by bringing in transparency & honesty within the system.

Nagarakere is a beautiful village located in Mandya, Karnataka. Na Li Krishna, as a child, was deeply influenced by his parents and their values. His visits to local panchayats with his parents made a significant impact on his mind. With time, he realized that the lack of knowledge in the general public about the government schemes and privileges, absence of an understanding about its relevance, applicability in their life & lack of awareness about the procedural details to avail these facilities and ignorance of one’s own rights as a citizen was a serious issue and a major reason for the prevalence of corruption. His efforts that started with educating the village people about the government schemes through folk songs, dramas and street-plays, took a serious turn when he became the head of Village Panchayat of Nagarakere.

Mr. Na Li Krishna, the man behind "Grama Sarkara"

The panchayat required financial resources for all the developmental activities, including taxes collected from the people. Realizing that taxes were not being collected effectively, he went around the village asking people to pay their taxes as applicable. He was taken to surprise when he realized that even the educated ones in the village had no idea about tax-paying as a part of their responsibility. The villagers questioned him – ‘What is tax?’ ‘Why should we pay tax?’ How much tax am I supposed to pay?’ ‘How would this money be used?’ Although pamphlets were an option to create awareness about tax-paying, he decided that awareness is a continuous process and a one-time effort was not sufficient. With a lot of information to be conveyed about various rights and responsibilities of a citizen and to gradually fuel the thoughts of the public against corruption, he came up with “Grama Sarkara” – a monthly wall paper journal in the year 2006. As Mr. Krishna was also into writing and journalism, he counted on his experience to turn Grama Sarkara, a reality.

Although it was a new and unfamiliar initiative that people had no idea about, this idea was accepted by the other members in the Panchayat. Soon, the wall-paper appeared at all the public spaces in Nagarakere – bus stands, tea stalls, and at places where people could have informal discussions. But it was not all that easy. With many people ready to discourage something good, Mr. Krishna has his set of difficulties to keep himself motivated. He says, ‘People still compare me with others who started their career along with me in the field of governance. They have bikes, cars and own houses and lands. They might have their own means. But I still do not have these luxuries in life. When I say a person is corrupt, people check and suspect if I have a clean background. But I motivate myself looking at the lives of people who have raised high being honest and sincere.” A few other neighbouring Gram Panchayats also followed the footsteps of Nagarakere and came up with their own wall journals. This Gram Panchayat was selected and awarded Rs. 5 Lakhs from Google.Org, the philanthrophic arm of Google for it’s innovative approach in governance.

A glimpse of "Grama Sarkara", a wall journal that proudly says "We are a corruption-free Gram Panchayat"

For innocent people who were deprived of “Information”, Grama Sarkara was now a weapon, an unexpected boon. The budget, sources of income and expenses details of the Panchayat were released and openly discussed in the wall paper every now and then.

The budget details of the Gram Panchayat shared with the public

Pregnant village women spent money out of their own pockets to pay the auto fares to reach the hospitals in the nearby towns. This was a time when “108 ambulance services” were not available in the villages. After an article in the Grama Sarkara that spoke about the privilege under NRHM (The National Rural Health Mission) wherein these women can claim their travel expenses, women started demanding what was meant for them. An article in the wall journal spoke about a privilege given to people below poverty line that in case of death of a person, the family can avail Rs.1000 to perform the last rites. The funds reserved for this purpose that was hardly used as people were not aware about this and hence not claimed until then, now was being utilized effectively. While under the Bhagya Jyothi Scheme of Karnataka, certain households could get free electricity connections, people used to pay close to Rs.500 for the same. But relevant details in the wall paper, highlighting that these people are not supposed to pay any money for this service, stopped many illegal practices. With every article in the paper making so much of a difference, five long years did make a significant impact in the lives of these villagers. A closer look at these wall papers and there is so much to learn for each of us from this knowledge bank.

A message in the "Grama Sarkara" urging the villagers not to pay bribe for the electrical connections meant to be free.

“Grama Sarkara” – is not just a wall-journal. It represents a bold initiative and a sincere approach of a Gram Panchayat to bring in a judicious change and is one of the most enterprising, change oriented and most importantly a bottom-up approach to tackle corruption I have come across. Unfortunately such a powerful approach is facing a fall with the new Panchayat team in place and due to lack of financial resources.

Mr. Krishna is currently working on the ‘Bharat Nirman’, an initiative of the Government of India to build a strong rural infrastructure and Bharat Nirman Public Information Campaign that is inline with his own vision. This campaign is media outreach strategy to disseminate information to the targeted beneficiaries focusing on the flagship programs of the Govt. of India.*

Our government schemes, planning and privileges with regard to education, health, sanitation and employment are excellent. But what’s the point in having great concepts when they are not reaching public, the very people they are meant for? That too for a simple reason of lack of effective communication! Inspite of efforts of government to bring an awareness of a few of the schemes and privileges through boards, hoardings and television ads, this experience shows that these efforts are limited and is not making much of an impact in reaching out to people. Sometimes out of irresponsibility and sometimes deliberately. Better, innovative and effective means of communication that can convey the applicability and relevance of these facilities is the need of the hour. And it could be as simple as a wall paper or could be complex technology based solutions. And Bharat Nirman is a wonderful initiative in this regard. But equal responsibility lies with ‘us’, the ‘democratic citizens’ to do our part of responsibilities – to be an ‘active citizen’, to vote and to vote for a right representative, to educate oneself about what facilities are provided to us by the government, to be aware of one’s rights and to raise a voice when there is a discrepancy  Also we in our own potential can support the government in reaching out to and communicating these privileges to the common man.

While paying bribe has turned a default process in public offices and systems, with the culprits finding smarter and smarter ways of dealing with corruption and legal systems, empowering ourselves with ‘information’ and ‘right attitude’ is the basic step bottom-up approach to tackle this. And it begins with ‘me’ and ‘you’!

*As stated in the Press Information Bureau, Government Of India