The chimera of a citizen-centric bureaucracy

The Indian bureaucracy is burdened with processes, rules, regulations. Government officials are busy following these. Where is the space and time to put citizens at the centre of their functioning? And are citizens themselves willing to take responsibility for the functioning of a system they view with distrust? S. Geetha Krishna, Programme Officer at PRIA, sees both sides of the coin in her work of trying to bring officials and citizens to work together to create more responsive governance.   "Mooduvandala kilometerla dooram ninchi vachamandi officer ni kalavdaniki, moodu gantalu ayyindi inka eppatiki kalustaamo” (I have travelled over 300 kms to meet this officer. I have been waiting 3 hours, but have still not been called in) "Ayina wait cheyyakapote panulu jaragavu ga” (Well, waiting is mandatory to get things done in the government) I overheard this conversation between two men when I too was waiting to meet the concerned government official (as part of the project I am working on). There were a lot of other people waiting like us. Most of them seemed to be there to put forward their requests, hoping officials at the state capital would finally be able to "give the order” and solve their problems. In the course of my work I have had the privilege of hearing both sides and have often wondered: how can a burdened bureaucracy work to meet the expectations of every individual citizen? First, being an ordinary citizen like the others I was sharing the waiting room with, I realised that many people had not only travelled long distances, but had been waiting for hours (sometimes days?) to meet these officials, who could at best give them only a few minutes of their time to listen to citizens’ problems. And, after travelling and waiting, they may not get a solution. What caught my attention was how common and "normal” it is to wait. Citizens think it is fine if they do not get to meet the officer on time...there’s nothing to be disappointed about...this is all part of the process. Why don’t they demand time-bound redressal? Is this because citizens seem to view the system as an independent external entity and not something that exists because of them and for them? What about the babu (bureaucrat)? Like many others I used to think that it is just more convenient for him to push the file to some other part of "the system”.  But after interacting with many officials in the course of the project, I realise he is just following laid down rules and regulations which don’t allow him to put the citizen first. The very fact that citizens have had to come all the way to a higher authority for better (and one hopes immediate) action reveals that there are loopholes in the delegation of power and functions to lower levels of the bureaucracy.No matter what their place is in the hierarchy, officials are bound by stringent rules and strenuous processes. One has to go through the system even to implement a minor change within it. (Lethargy amongst government officials is a completely different issue.) Those official within the system who do try to work to deliver their functions by keeping the citizen at the forefront often end up as outsiders within their own system. This is the irony: lack of "official power” to work for citizens in a system that only exists in the first place to address citizen needs. In such a situation, it is important that we ask ourselves if the system allows for any interactions to occur at all. Has the system become an independent entity of its own that it can no longer accommodate its own citizens? Are citizens no longer recognising themselves as part of the system? Is bureaucracy in its current form more of a burden in the functioning of government? How do we build a better system, which not only addresses the issues of its citizens successfully but also makes it easier for officials to carry out their functions? Who takes the lead? Is the citizen responsible to "fix the system” or does the system need to repair itself? My work teaches me the answers are not easy...

You may be interested to read