20 Years of RTI

Mrinal Chatterjee

Window Seat

The year 2025 marks two decades of the Right to Information (RTI) Act—one of the most transformative pieces of legislation in the country’s democratic journey. Enacted in October 2005, the RTI Act gave ordinary citizens the legally enforceable right to seek information from public authorities, thereby promoting transparency, accountability, and participatory governance.

The Act was a result of a growing demand for transparency, and grassroots activism from the early 1990s. Key moments include former PM V.P. Singh's emphasis on the importance of RTI in 1990, the 1994-founded Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) grassroots campaign in Rajasthan, and the formation of the National Campaign for People's Right to Information (NCPRI) in 1996. Tamil Nadu was the first state to pass its own RTI law in 1997, before the central government passed the landmark RTI Act in 2005.
Singh's emphasis on the importance of RTI in 1990, the 1994-founded Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) grassroots campaign in Rajasthan, and the formation of the National Campaign for People's Right to Information (NCPRI) in 1996. Tamil Nadu was the first state to pass its own RTI law in 1997, before the central government passed the landmark RTI Act in 2005.

RTI became a powerful tool for citizens, journalists, activists, and civil society groups. It was instrumental in uncovering irregularities in welfare schemes, public distribution systems, infrastructure projects, and government recruitment. By making government records accessible, the Act shifted power dynamics, ensuring that information—once confined to bureaucratic files—became a public resource. The decentralised structure of Public Information Officers (PIOs) and Information Commissions facilitated widespread use, with lakhs of applications filed annually.

However, over the years, delays in providing information, growing backlogs in Central and State Information Commissions, and vacancies in the posts of Information Commissioners have weakened the Act’s implementation. The 2019 amendment, which altered the tenure and salaries of Commissioners, raised concerns about institutional independence. Moreover, attacks and threats against RTI activists remain a serious issue, highlighting the need for stronger whistle-blower protection.

As India enters the next decade of the RTI era, strengthening information commissions, adopting digital transparency tools, proactively disclosing more government data, and ensuring the safety of information-seekers will be critical.

Choice

A core value of Western liberal democracy is freedom, and we tend to assume that the more choices we have, the freer we are.

But that’s a dangerous illusion, argues American psychologist Barry Schwartz (born 1946), who has written a widely acclaimed book ‘A Paradox of Choice’.

According to him ‘there quickly comes a point when too much choice—over what we eat, what jobs we do, who we date—leads to paralysis, anxiety and misery’. This phenomenon occurs because having too many choices requires more cognitive effort, leading to what he calls ‘decision fatigue’ and increased regret over our choices.

Yet we measure economic progress by how many new choices the market churns out.

The million-dollar question, Schwartz urges, is whether we can reintroduce healthy limits into our lives without undermining liberal-democratic ideology itself.

Mask and Dance

A week ago I wrote about ‘mask dances’- dances in which the dancers wear masks, like Purulia Chau.

There is another thought for such mask dances. Masks can be thought of as having been created by our ancestors to form a bridge between the outer phenomenal world and the inner person. Though the modern world belittles masks as being tools for cosmetic disguise and are often attached with a negative connotation, the ancient world treated masks as instruments of revelations - a pathway to the world of gods and other invisible powers - by giving form to the formless. This endeavor of our ancestors to know the unknown is given shape by the mask - be it of deities or cult icons or even exorcism and ritual healing.

Masks thus became an object of reverence in all ancient cultures and are considered so, even now by aboriginal people around the world.

World Toilet Day

November 19 is observed as World Toilet Day.

According to UNICEF and the World Health Organisation, “3.5 billion people still live without safely managed sanitation, including 419 million who practice open defecation.”

The theme of World Toilet Day 2025 is 'Sanitation in a changing world,' which highlights the urgent need to invest in sanitation systems and services that are 'future-ready.

The history of toilets in India dates back to the Indus Valley civilization around 2500 BCE, which developed early water-borne sanitation systems with private toilets and a network of drains.

However four and half thousand years later we are still struggling with the issues of sanitation. Though Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM), launched in 2014 has successfully increased toilet access and reduced open defecation, leading to major health benefits like fewer diarrheal deaths- challenges remain, particularly in urban areas regarding wastewater treatment and sustaining open defecation-free (ODF) behaviours.