Improving transparency and accountability
Media – only when all else fails
Samarthan has facilitated social audits
The social audit process has generated
Early on Samarthan decided that its main
in over 800 panchayats.
self-confidence
villagers,
strategies were going to be mobilization
leaders and youth volunteers have been
and has proved that the community can
and collaboration, not confrontation. In
identified as facilitators. Samarthan has
influence and monitor delivery of their
the course of its work the organization has
developed district-level master trainers
rights and entitlements.
heard countless stories of people wanting
Community
to support them, to ensure an effective
social audit process. When officials have
not wanted to provide NREGS records
to the facilitators, online data has been
downloaded by Samarthan and provided
to them. Facilitators have verified these
records directly with NREGS workers and
communities.
The social audits have uncovered numer
ous cases of fake entries of payments,
delayed payments to workers, and
incomplete investments. These findings
have resulted in proactive decisions in
gram sabhas, in addition of being shared
with NREGS officials and policy makers.
among
the
Sub-national, as well as national,
governments are obligated to use
the maximum of available resources
to realize ESC rights.
In this case,
all levels of government responsible
for implementing NREGS must use
the maximum resources available to
ensure that people’s right to work is
guaranteed. A national government
has the added obligation of monitoring
ESC rights-related programs at the
sub-national level to ensure that those
governments have the resources and
capacity to implement the programs in
an effective and efficient manner, and
are doing so.
to apply for work but being rejected, of
altered muster rolls, job cards held back,
corruption at project sites, etc. However,
Samarthan has only handed stories about
these situations to the media when they
were failing to get the attention of the
government in other ways.