An Empirical Study on the Awareness and Usage of RTI Act 2005 by Indian Students in Northern India

By : Ronit Markan

Page No: 175-185

Abstract
The Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005 has been recognized as a fundamental human right, which upholds the inherent dignity of all human beings. The right to information plays a crucial role in the Indian democracy as it tries to ensure accountability and good governance. Greater the access of the citizen to information, greater the responsiveness of government to community needs. In the education sector, students are facing various problems with regards to their academics such as fee details, admission process, result delays, result evaluation, original data for research work, education loan from banks, performance of institutions, infrastructure details, to name a few. At the ground level, colleges and universities have designated Public Information Officers to address the problems of students. As the Universities Grant Commission (UGC) is functioning under the central government; hence all the colleges and universities come under the RTI Act, 2005. The study was conducted to understand the awareness level and usage of RTI Act, 2005. The study also attempts to find the problems encountered by the students in retrieving information. It also enlightens the resources from where the information is obtained and whether timely information is supplied to them by the public information officers.

Author :
Ronit Markan : Associate Professor, SBBSU, Khaila, Jalandhar