What is RTI?

The concept of a citizen's Right To Information begins with the acknowledgment that citizens ought to be the true masters of a democracy. In India, since the government is of, for, and by the people, and is funded almost entirely by the taxes paid by the citizens, it is easy to see how the citizens are the root of the system of governance.

However, these supposed "masters" of the country often had little or no access to essential information about the governance of their own country! It was to remedy this fundamental problem that the Right To Information Act was passed by the parliament.

The Right To Information is a fundamental right in every sense of the word because it is absolutely essential to the healthy functioning of a modern democracy since an uninformed citizen cannot possibly be expected to be a good citizen. Moreover, though, the Right To Information Act opens the doors to exposing all sorts of government inefficiency, malaise, corruption, and inadequacy. While the average citizen often complains about the present state of affairs of the country, he/she also usually lacks the understanding to make things right. That is how the Right To Information Act serves to empower even the weakest citizen to participate in their own governance.