I investigate to what extent India’s Right to Information Act is useful for poor households. Drawing on empirical data from central Uttar Pradesh, I study two categories of poor households—urban and rural—possessing Below Poverty Line cards. These cards entitle their holders to several subsidies, but they are poorly targeted: certain communities receive more cards, while most of the deserving poor do not receive them. The Act is meant to create space for democratization, enabling the poor to challenge local power holders; but there are obstacles to their taking advantage of it. They are scarcely educated, and unaware of the Act, and they get no support from government agencies responsible for implementing it. This has encouraged the use of manipulative tactics by local representatives and government bureaucrats seeking power, control, and domination. But the poor do find ways to receive their entitlements.
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March/April 2022
Research Article|
March 11 2022
Do the Poor Benefit from the Right to Information Act?: Evidence from the North Indian State of Uttar Pradesh
Sujoy Dutta
Sujoy Dutta
Sujoy Dutta teaches at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences and is a Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Study, Central European University, Budapest. Email: <[email protected]>.
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Asian Survey (2022) 62 (2): 361–384.
Citation
Sujoy Dutta; Do the Poor Benefit from the Right to Information Act?: Evidence from the North Indian State of Uttar Pradesh. Asian Survey 1 April 2022; 62 (2): 361–384. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/as.2022.1534279
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