Citizen Awareness and Utilization of the RTI Act, 2005: A Sociological Perspective

Abstract

Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005 offers an extremely important service by opening the democratic governance system of India and ensuring transparency and accountability in it. With this access of information held by the government granted to citizens, the RTI Act is supposed to empower the people, bring transparency and fight against corruption. This paper discusses the implications on RTI Act and looks at how the citizens have used the act especially in their awareness, accessibility, and difficulty. The paper uses an extensive analytical approach of addressing the role of RTI Act on promoting citizen participation in governance, and strengthening democratic empowerment and good governance. The research paper has also pointed out the obstacles to efficient use such as bureaucracy, legal inconveniences and persecution of RTI activists. This paper, through consideration of different case studies, outlines successful, restrictive and sociological consequences of the RTI Act upon the Indian society and the marginalized communities in particular. It ends up quitting some of the improvements that can be made to make the Act and government more effective and boost citizens involvement in the government as well as make the government more transparent.