Earlier this month, Nityanand Rai, the MoS (Home), in response to a question by an opposition MP in Lok Sabha, said: “The exodus of a large number of migrant workers was triggered by fake news.” Information deficiency, admittedly, led to the brutal death of many migrants on their way back home. How many of them died is still unknown. Don’t ask for the numbers—it isn’t available with the government. At least, that’s what they say!
Meanwhile, amidst the pandemic, UNESCO has announced ‘Access to information in times of crisis’ as the theme for this year’s International Day for Universal Access to Information on September 28. The right to seek, receive and impart information is an International Human Rights Principle that has been recognised by the Supreme Court in PUCL v. UoI (2004).
However, with Covid-19 at its peak, reliable, accurate, and unbiased information dissemination is under an all-new threat and facing a big challenge that could change the way we communicate, deliberate and access information forever. Our autonomy in making informed choices is under threat. The pandemic and the government’s handling of it normalises discrimination, loss of accountability and erosion of democratic norms. It reasserts rigid societal mindsets and feeds into existing vulnerabilities.
The digital divide: Devika, a Class 9 Dalit student from Kerala, committed suicide by setting herself on fire for not being able to attend online classes. She did not have a smartphone. Devika had won the Ayyankali Scholarship for her outstanding academic performance last year. This year was traumatic for her entire family. Her father has had no employment since the lockdown was imposed.
The International Telecommunication Union (ITA), a specialised agency of the UN, reported last year that only 51.71% of people use the internet in India. This digital divide is aggravated by intersectional issues of caste-based and gender-based discrimination against students like Devika. This has led to a lack of access to academic information and is therefore a violation of their Right to Equality under the Constitution. The government’s attempt at using one universal policy framework for differently placed students has made their worst nightmares come true.
With no alternative framework for making relevant and reliable information accessible to such communities, they remain in the dark. While they lose their lives, the country seems to exult in glory for the supposed success of Digital India. Ensuring financial accountability: An informed citizenry acts as the most effective oversight body to keep account of the government’s spending of public money. Such an oversight body has never been more important than now, when thousands of crores of public money are being utilised by governments across states in the name of a public health emergency.
However, it is evident that a lack of transparency in government spending has become the new normal. The Centre’s stand on not releasing the details of the PM-CARES fund is one recent example.The disruption in the economy has led to governments diverting public money from funds that were initially made for different purposes. This is happening without any information to the people for whom the funds were constituted. Unless they are informed and taken into confidence, actual consensus cannot be said to have been achieved. MPLADS funds have been diverted for Covid-related expenditures.
District Mineral Foundation Funds that were set up for the interest and benefit of persons and areas affected by mining-related operations have also been diverted. The list is long. This doesn’t just normalise the state’s inability to grant money to cater for basic healthcare amenities that it is duty-bound to provide during such a crisis, it also shows a failure in good ‘information governance’, where consensus is achieved after unequivocal and dispassionate information is presented to the people on time.
A deliberative democracy: The passing of three farm Bills in the Rajya Sabha without any deliberation, overriding parliamentary procedures of ‘Debate, Discourse and Deliberate’, especially when the Bill was stated to be “a watershed moment in Indian Agriculture History” by the PM himself, shows how the institutions of the state are reticent in disseminating information that unsettles them. People deserve to be informed what every stakeholder thinks about the legislation and then make an informed political choice. The task of constructive criticism in a democracy is done by the opposition. However, if debates are curtailed, free flow of information doesn’t take place.
On the other hand, ‘selective reporting’ of critical information by public officials, especially in matters of health and national security, leads to over- or under-estimation of effects. Despite this, the government has been utterly ambiguous on the LAC Indo-China standoff. Meanwhile, state governments have been allegedly forging Covid numbers. Limiting criticism by curbing information dissemination leads to a trust deficit in the government and reflects a void in leadership. It is for governments to counter such a situation by providing surplus information during a crisis.
So, has Covid-19 given unimaginable power to the state to control what information reaches us and what doesn’t? Are there political and structural barriers to access information because of the lack of information literacy, political accountability and intersectional issues of inequality within our society?
There isn’t a direct answer to these questions. However, one thing is clear: Access to information shouldn’t be a privilege, but the norm. Governments need to identify this as their obligation. NDA should not stand for ‘No Data Available’ anymore. This year, on the International Day for Universal Access to Information, let’s promise to build a nation where there is relevant, accessible and accurate information for everyone.
Anurag Tiwary
Student of National Law University, Visakhapatnam
Abhinav Narayan Jha
Student of Law, Amity University
(anuragtiwary66@gmail.com, narayanabhinav14@gmail.com)