Subject: Accountability and Ethical Governance

A social audit is a democratic process where citizens directly review, evaluate, and verify the official records, expenditures, and actual field performance of public service institutions.

Importance to Improve Performance of Public Service

Optimizes Resource Utilization: Eg: social audits under MGNREGA reduced leakages and improved rural asset quality in Andhra Pradesh

Enhances Service Delivery Timelines: Pressure from community monitoring forces officials to complete projects without bureaucratic delays.

Improves Project Target Accuracy: Eg: Verification drives under the National Food Security Act removed thousands of fake ration cards.

Boosts Quality Standards: Eg: Public scrutiny of rural school buildings and mid-day meals improves safety.

Bridges Local Governance Gaps: Community audits identify specific, missing civic amenities that top-down government planning often misses.

Improves Judicial Case Management: Citizen reviews of court functioning encourage registries to clear administrative delays and bottlenecks.

Importance to Improve Accountability of Public Service

Dismantles Bureaucratic Financial Opacity: Eg: Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) pioneered public hearings to expose hidden corruption.

Enforces Strict Consequence Mechanisms: Clear evidence gathered during community audits forces authorities to penalize errant, corrupt officers.

Checks Judicial Pendency Patterns: Reviewing administrative timelines makes institutional court registries strictly accountable for systemic listing delays.

Restricts Executive Fund Diversions: Eg: Strict auditing of specialized Scheduled Caste Sub-Plan funds prevent diversion to general projects.

Empowers Marginalized Civic Groups: Social audits give institutional platforms to poor citizens to question powerful government decision-makers.

Validates Right to Information: Social audits turn passive information requests into an active, collective tool for community justice.

Reduces Public Service Grievance Backlogs: Institutionalizing community verification forces departments to quickly resolve long-pending public utility complaints.

Importance to Improve Ethical Conduct

Institutionalizes Public Service Integrity: Regular public scrutiny conditions state officials to perform duties with high honesty and fairness.

Discourages Conflict of Interest: Public disclosure of project details prevents officials from giving lucrative contracts to relatives.

Maintains High Judicial Ethics: Reviewing court administration standards encourages judges to strictly follow codes of ethical conduct.

Protects Citizen Dignity Rights: Equal opportunity during public hearings prevents officials from displaying discriminatory caste or gender biases.

Promotes Empathy in Administration: Direct interactions with poor citizens during audits sensitive bureaucrats toward urgent field realities.

Fosters Values of Truthfulness: Eg: Stopping fraudulent documentation of ghost beneficiaries.

Implementing independent social audits across all public spheres, including the judiciary, is vital to achieving absolute transparency, institutional integrity, and democratic governance.

Conscience

“In the happiness of his people lies the king’s happiness, in their welfare his welfare”. -Kautilya

Good governance is an administrative approach defined by transparency, accountability, responsiveness, equity, and inclusiveness.

Core Principles of Good Governance (UNDP)

Participation: Direct/indirect citizen involvement in decision-making. Eg: Gram Sabhas.

Rule of Law: Fair legal frameworks enforced impartially. Eg: Independent judiciary.

Transparency: Free flow of accessible information. Eg: Mandatory disclosures under the RTI.

Responsiveness: Institutions serving stakeholders within timeframes. Eg: Citizens’ Charters and CPGRAMS grievance portal.

Consensus Orientation: Eg: Federal consensus in GST Council meetings.

Equity/Inclusiveness: Ensuring all members feel valued. Eg: PM Jan Dhan Yojana’s universal financial inclusion.

Effectiveness/Efficiency: Optimizing resources for societal needs. Eg: Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) reducing subsidy leakages.

Accountability: Answerability of officials to the public. Eg: Mandatory CAG audits of government spending.

Success of Recent E-Governance Initiatives

Eliminating Welfare Leakages-

Paperless Document Access- Eg- DigiLocker crossing 67.63 crore registered users, hosting over 950 crore verified digital documents.

Telemedicine Reaching Remote Areas- Eg- The eSanjeevani platform providing digital medical services to over 45.42 crore remote patients.

Real-Time Payment and Financial Inclusion- Eg- Unified Payments Interface (UPI)

Democratization of Digital Commerce: Eg: The Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) supporting over 1.16 lakh retail sellers across 630 cities.

Unified Public Grievance Redressal: Eg: The UMANG App offering citizens smooth, singular access to over 1,700 diverse public utility services.

Scientific Grassroots Nutrition Monitoring: Eg: The POSHAN Tracker continuously monitoring nutrition metrics for 8.9 crore children in 14.03 lakh Anganwadi centers.

Major limitations

Aadhaar-Linked Service Failures- Eg: Santoshi Kumari (11) starvation death in Simdega, Jharkhand (2017)

The Persistence of Digital Divide: Only 38% of rural households have high-speed broadband vs. 85% in urban clusters.

Digital Illiteracy: only 38% rural population digitally literate. Eg: Dependence on “CSC Middlemen” for simple tasks like PM-Kisan registration due to UI/UX complexity.

Linguistic Barriers: Eg: Despite “Bhashini,” real-time voice-to-text accuracy in tribal dialects (like Santhali or Gondi) remains below 60%.

Digital gender gap: Only 37% of Indian women have adopted mobile internet and only 26% use it regularly. (UNDP).

Aadhaar exclusion: A 2017 starvation death in Jharkhand’s Simdega due to Aadhaar-linked ration card failure exposed authentication risks.

Bureaucratic Resistance: Lower-level officials often view e-governance as a threat to their discretionary power.

Manpower & Skill Gaps: Eg: Dependence on private consultants for maintaining critical state data centers (SDCs).

Cybersecurity Threats: CERT-In reported 2.94 million cyber incidents in 2025, specifically targeting state-owned utility grids.

Way Forward

Enact a National e-Governance Act to make digital service delivery a mandatory right rather than an administrative choice.

Accelerate BharatNet completion: Connect remaining 55,000 GPs and 3.8 lakh non-GP villages by 2026 under Amended BharatNet Programme

Strengthen Common Service Centres as “Digital Post Offices.” Eg- Rajasthan’s e-Mitra model

Adopt X-Road interoperability layer (Estonia): handles 2.7 billion data queries with “once-only” principle – citizen submits info only once. 99% services online.

Implement 2nd ARC’s 11th Report fully:

Adopt national “enterprise architecture” framework

Mandatory Business Process Re-engineering before digitisation;

Build SMART (Simple, Moral, Accountable, Responsive, Transparent) governance.

The state must tackle the digital divide to ensure technology remains an inclusive tool for good governance.

Social capital refers to the networks, norms, values and trust that enable individuals and groups to cooperate for mutual benefit and collective action.

“Social capital is the lubricant that makes the wheels of democracy turn.”

According to political scientist Robert Putnam, social capital consists of two main types-

Bonding Social Capital- Links between people of similar backgrounds (family, class).

Role of Social Capital in Enhancing Good Governance

Enhanced Accountability- High social capital empowers citizens to monitor the government. Eg- high public participation in local government in kerala

Reduction in Transaction Costs- When trust is high, the government spends less on policing and litigation.

Facilitating “Co-Production” of Services- Eg- The Bhagidari Scheme in Delhi involved RWAs in managing local water and electricity issues.

Effective Grievance Redressal- Strong social networks amplify the voice of the marginalized. Eg- Kudumbashree network in Kerala.

Promoting “Bottom-Up” Planning- Social capital makes the Gram Sabha a vibrant decision-making body. Eg- people’s plan campaign in kerala

Reducing Conflict and Promoting Peace- Eg- Peace Committees use inter-community trust to de-escalate tensions before they turn into riots.

Behavioral Change (Nudge Theory)- Social capital is the engine of “Jan Andolan” (People’s Movements). Eg- success of Pulse Polio immunization.

Improving Public Policy Compliance- Eg- Higher tax compliance rates in countries where citizens perceive the “social contract” to be strong and fair.

Inclusive Resource Management- It prevents the “Tragedy of the Commons.”

Humanizing the Bureaucracy- It bridges the gap between the “Ruler” and the “Ruled.” Eg- “Compassionate Kozhikode” initiative by IAS Prasant Nair

Ways to Build social capital

Strengthening Grassroots Decentralization with 4F’s

Education for “Civic Virtue”

Institutionalizing Community Policing

Strengthening civil society as a “bridge”

Implementing “Social Audits” as a Norm

For India to move toward “Minimum Government, Maximum Governance,” the state must act as a facilitator of social capital, transforming passive subjects into active, trusting, and responsible citizens.

Procedure vs Substance

While the colonial IPC was designed by the British to “rule and punish”, the BNS is based on Indian ethos of Dharma and Nyaya to “serve and provide justice” to citizens.

Soul of BNS

Justice (Nyaya)

Victim Centrality- For the first time, the victim has a say in the withdrawal of cases.

Justice for vulnerable groups. Eg- Stringent punishment for rape and child abuse

Mandatory timelines for filing charge sheets and delivering judgments to prevent “justice delayed is justice denied.”

Equality (Samata)

Providing equal protection of law. Eg- Section 103(2) penalizes Mob Lynching

Gender Inclusivity- expands the definition of “gender” to include transgender individuals

Gender equality. Eg- Uniform Age of Consent

Impartiality (Nishpakshta)

Digitization of Evidence- Eg-Mandating videography of search and seizure operations

Zero FIR- Allows a citizen to file a complaint at any police station regardless of jurisdiction

Scientific Investigation- Shifts the focus from “police testimony” to “forensic truth.”

Accountability of Public Servants- Eg- “deemed sanction” if the government fails to respond to a request within 120 days.

Shift from Doctrine of Punishment to Justice

From Ruler’s Law to Citizen’s Law- IPC was for the British to rule India, BNS is for Indians to govern themselves.

Restorative Punishment- Section 4(f) introduces Community Service for the first time.

In the BNS structure, “Offenses against the Human Body” are moved to the beginning of the code, signaling that human life is more valuable than property rights.

Focus on liberty and privacy – Eg- Deletion of Adultery (Section 497 IPC) and Section 377

Proportionality – Punishment calibrated to gravity of offence. Eg- Reduced punishment scales for minor offences

Victim-centric justice – Eg- Expanded victim compensation framework under section 396

Removing colonial laws. Eg- Repeal of Sedition

Procedural fairness – Emphasis on due process and natural justice.

Simplification- Reducing 511 sections to 358.

Protection of dignity – Eg- Redefinition of sexual offences in gender-neutral and victim-protective language.

Moral Healing (Prayaschit)- upholds Indian ethos of atonement rather than eternal stigmatization of the offender.

Balance between deterrence and justice – Eg- Death penalty retained only for rarest of rare offences

This reorientation strengthens the ethical legitimacy and effectiveness of India’s criminal justice system.