A study of perception of general public towards the impact of RTI on corruption in India

The present study is an attempt to highlight the perception of general public towards RTI Act in India and its impact on governance. The study is purely based on primary data which were collected through questionnaires from 100 respondents belonging to district Rohtak of Haryana, comprising 43 male and 57 female respondents. The responses were analyzed with the help of crosstab technique and Kruskal-Wallis test through SPSS. A very significant number of respondents (42 per cent) expressed that the RTI Act is a hurdle in the smooth functioning at various levels in various organizations; a lot of time and money is wasted due to insufficient information under the Act; the whistle-blowers bear a lot of risk on their lives due to exposure of scandals and misdeeds (75 per cent respondents); whistle-blowers generally blackmail the guilty person (34 per cent); and the Act slows down the decision-making process in various public and private organizations (37 per cent) and almost all the respondents affirmed that the Act needs improvement for better functioning. It was established through the study that there is no significant difference among the perception of respondents of various age groups, from rural and urban areas; and male and female towards different parameters of RTI in India.