Instilling citizen-centric approach in civil service: Prospects and challenges

Citizen's Charter was pioneered in the UK under New Public Management umbrella, has been adopted by the Government of India as a tool to induce client focus in the bureaucracy by accomplishing greater accountability and transparency in service delivery. This paper examines the extent of Citizen's Charter implementation in India. The charter programme initiatives in essence propose to make public service provision less bureaucratic-dominated and more citizen-led. The performance of charter programme, however, is far away from its rhetoric. In Panchkula Municipal Council case, the charter programme is merely a compilation of earlier programmes. The empirical evidence suggests that even after one decade of its existence, the charter has not made any substantial dent on old bureaucratic service delivery mechanism. To reap the benefits of the citizen's charter on sustained basis, the government should involve citizens as well as the officials of public organizations. The street level bureaucracy needs both sensitization as well as orientation towards citizen's charter. Political backing, commitment of the bureaucracy, citizens’ participation and media are others important factors that play crucial role to make the charter initiative more effective.