Page 1 of 14

Journal for Studies in Management and Planning

Available at http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/index.php/JSMaP

e-ISSN: 2395-0463

Volume 01 Issue 06

July 2015

Available online: http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/ P a g e | 357

Citizen’s Charter: A Way Forward to Good Governance

Shakti Goyal

Phd Scholar, Jamia Milia Islamia, New Delhi-110025

Mail: shaktigoyal1981@gmail.com

ABSTRACT:

A Citizen’s Charter represents the

commitment of the organization towards

standard, quality and time frame of service

delivery, grievance redressal mechanism,

transparency and accountability.

Department of Administrative Reforms and

Public Grievances, in the Ministry of

Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions,

Government of India in its efforts to provide

more responsive and citizen friendly

governance, co-ordinates the efforts to

formulate and operationalise Citizen’s

Charter. Various Central government

Ministries/ Departments/ Organisations

have brought out their Citizen’s charter to

let people know how one can get in touch

with its officials, what to expect by way of

services and how to seek a remedy if

something goes wrong. For effective

implementation of Citizen’s charter Nodal

Officers have been appointed in the

concerned Central Government Ministries/

Departments/ Organisations. The Citizen’s

Charter doesnot by itself create new legal

rights, but it helps in enforcing existing

rights.

KEY WORDS: Charter Mark, Nodal

Officers, Information and Facilitation

Counters, standards, publicity and review of

Citizen’s Charter, complaints handling and

grievance redressal mechanism. Monitoring

and evaluation of Citizen’s Charter.

INTRODUCTION: Citizen’s charter

initiative is a response to the quest for

solving the problems which a citizen

encounters, day in and day out while

dealing with public organizations by

building trust between service providers

and its users. The concept was first

implemented in United Kingdom,by the

Conservative Government of John Major in

1991 as a National Programme. It was re- launched in 1998 by the Labour

Government of Tony Blair which

rechristened it “ Service First”. The six

principles of Citizen’s Charter movement as

originally framed were Quality, Choice,

Standards, value for taxpayer’s money,

Accountability and Transparency. These

were elaborated in 1998 by the Labour

Government as nine principles of Service

Delivery such as set standards of service, be

open and provide full information, consult

and involve, encourage access and

promotion of choice, treat all fairly, put

things right when they go wrong, use

Page 2 of 14

Journal for Studies in Management and Planning

Available at http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/index.php/JSMaP

e-ISSN: 2395-0463

Volume 01 Issue 06

July 2015

Available online: http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/ P a g e | 358

resources effectively, innovate and improve

and work with other providers.

INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCES:

The UK’s Citizen’s Charter initiative aroused

considerable interest around the world and

several countries implemented several

programmes for e.g. Australia (Service

Charter, 1997), Belgium (Public Service

Users Charter 1992), Canada (Service

Standards Initiative, 1995), France (Service

Charter ,1992), India (Citizen’s

Charter,1997), Jamaica ( Citizen’s Charter

,1994), Malaysia (Client Charter,1992),

Portugal (The Quality Charter in Public

Services, 1993), and Spain (The Quality

observatory, 1992), (OECD, 1996). Some of

these initiatives are very similar to the UK

model, while others learn from the service

quality paradigm of Total Quality

Management (TQM) movement. Other

initiatives are pitched somewhere in

between. The quality tools adopted for

improving public services include the

Business Excellence Model, Investors in

People, Charter Mark, ISO 9000 and Best

Value (Government of UK,1999).

The Government of Malaysia issued

Guidelines on the Client’s Charter in 1993 to

assist government agencies to prepare and

implement Client’s Charter. A Best Client’s

Charter Award was instituted in 1993. The

Malaysian system of Client’s Charter closely

follows the UK Model. The Commonwealth

Government of Australia launched its

Service Charter initiative in 1997 as a tool

for fostering change and to focus on

services delivered, measurement and

improvement of performance. The Charter

acts as a surrogate for competition.

Centrelink is a one-stop shop that provides

access to Australian Government Services

for over six million one-to-one customers,

treating them with respect and consistency

and takes the complexity out of dealing

with government. The Treasury Board of

Canada Secretariat started a Service

Standard initiative in 1995 taking its cue

from Citizen’s Charter of UK to provide

friendly, courteous and respectful

services,to reduce deficit and provide value

for money through more efficient use of

resources. Both Citizen’s Charter and Total

Quality Management begin by focusing on

meeting customer/citizen requirements

with common elements of conformance to

standards, stakeholder involvement and

continuous improvement.

THE INDIAN SCENARIO:

Over the years, in india there is a

substantial increase in literacy rate from

51.63% to 65.38% in the last decade which

has made Indian citizens increasingly aware

of their rights and expect the administration

to respond to and anticipate their demands.

In a Conference of Chief Ministers of

various States and Union Territories held on

27 May 1997, in New Delhi presided over by

the Prime Minister of India, an “Action Plan

for Effective and Responsive Government”

at the Centre and State Levels was adopted.

At that Conference decision was taken that

Page 3 of 14

Journal for Studies in Management and Planning

Available at http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/index.php/JSMaP

e-ISSN: 2395-0463

Volume 01 Issue 06

July 2015

Available online: http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/ P a g e | 359

Central and State Governments would

formulate Citizen’s Charter starting with

those sectors that have a large public

interface (e.g. Railways, Telecom, Posts,

Public Distribution Sysyems). These

Charters would include standards,

timelimits, avenues of grievance redressal

and independent scrutiny with involvement

of citizen and consumer groups.

Department of Administrative Reforms and

Public Grievances in Government of India

(DARPG) initiated the task of coordinating,

formulating and operationalising Citizen’s

Charters. Obligations of the users is an

additional component of Indian Citizen

Charter. Regular monitoring, review and

evaluation of the Charters both internally

and through external agencies are enjoined.

It involves a change in the mindset of public

officials from someone with power over the

public to someone with care in spending

public money collected through taxes. A

comprehensive website of Citizen’s

Charters issued by various Central

Government

Ministries/Departments/Organisations in

Government of India

www.qoicharters.nic.in was launched by

the Department of Administrative Reforms

and Public Grievances on 31 May,2002 to

provide useful information, data and links.

FORMULATION OF CITIZEN’S

CHARTER:

For formulation of Charters, the

government agencies at Centre and State

levels were advised to constitute a Task

Force with representation from users,

senior management and the cutting edge

staff to identify the Stakeholders and major

services provided by the organization and

finally prepare a Draft Charter. The Draft

Charter is circulated for comments and

modified to include suggestions. The

Charter is then sent for consideration by

Core Group and approved by the Minister- incharge after incorporating changes of the

Core Group. A copy of the Charter is then

submitted to the Department of

Administrative Reforms and Public

Grievances, people,s representatives and all

stakeholders and finally put on website.

Nodal Officers are appointed to ensure

effective implementation. The Charters

would include Vision and Mission

statement, Details of business transacted by

the organization, Details of clients, Details

of services provided to each client group,

details of grievance redressal mechanism

and how to access it, and expectations from

the clients. A good Charter should have

focus on customer requirements and have

features of simple language, service

standards, effective remedies, training,

delegation, feedback mechanism, close

monitoring and periodic review. The

citizen’s also expect from Government

departments or service providers

reliability,responsiveness, credibility,

empathy, courtesy and care.

IMPLEMENTATION OF CITIZEN’S

CHARTER: