Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan

Polity & Governance glossary

Also called: MKSS · Topic: Transparency, Accountability and e-Governance · NCERT: Beyond NCERT

Meaning

The Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) is a union of workers and farmers. Aruna Roy, Nikhil Dey and Shankar Singh founded it on 1 May 1990 at Devdungri, in Rajsamand district of Rajasthan.

It matters because its village public hearings turned a fight over unpaid wages into a demand to see government records. That demand grew into the national right-to-information movement. The movement passed through state RTI laws and ended in the Right to Information Act, 2005.

Explanation

How a wage fight became an information fight

  • The problem: unpaid minimum wages.
  • Workers on government relief works were not paid the minimum wage (the lowest pay the law allows).

  • Officials said the government records showed the workers had been paid properly.

  • The demand: show us the records.

  • The MKSS asked to see the muster rolls. These are the attendance and wage registers of a work site.

  • It also asked for the bills and vouchers for materials and spending on the works.

  • The lesson: the poor could not prove they were cheated without official papers. So access to information became a basic need for getting justice.

Jan sunwai: the public hearing method (from 1994)

  • A jan sunwai (public hearing) is a village meeting held in central Rajasthan.
  • How it works:
  • Official records of public works and wages are read aloud in front of the village.
  • Residents compare each entry with what really happened. Did this person work? Was this wall built? Was this much cement bought?

  • Any mismatch is made public on the spot.

  • What the hearings exposed:

  • Ghost workers: names on the muster rolls of people who never worked, or who did not exist.

  • Inflated or fake bills for works and materials.

  • Slogan: "hamara paisa, hamara hisaab" (our money, our accounts). Public money belongs to the people, so the people have a right to check how it is spent.

From local protest to national campaign

  • 1996, Beawar dharna: a sit-in protest at Beawar in Rajasthan that demanded a right-to-information law.
  • 1996, NCPRI: the National Campaign for People's Right to Information was formed in the same year. It took the demand to the national level.
  • Limits of the method:
  • A jan sunwai had no legal force on its own. It depended on officials agreeing to hand over records.
  • That gap is why the movement pressed for a law that would make information a legal right.

In the Constitution and practice

  • Constitutional base: Article 19(1)(a).
  • Before the MKSS began, the Supreme Court had already read a right to know into the freedom of speech and expression.
  • State of U.P. v. Raj Narain (1975): people have a right to know every public act of public officials.
  • S.P. Gupta v. Union of India (1981): disclosure is the rule, and secrecy is the exception.

  • The MKSS turned this right on paper into a working practice in villages.

  • What it was up against: the culture of secrecy.

  • The Official Secrets Act, 1923 is a colonial law that is still in force. Its s.5 punishes wrongful communication of official information, which means sharing it without permission.
  • Conduct rules for government employees barred them from sharing official documents.

  • Under the Third Schedule, ministers take an oath of secrecy.

  • The path to law that the movement fed into:

  • State RTI laws: Tamil Nadu and Goa (1997), Rajasthan and Karnataka (2000), Delhi (2001), Maharashtra (2002-03).
  • Freedom of Information Act, 2002: Parliament passed it, but it was never notified, so it never came into force.
  • National Advisory Council (NAC): this body advised the UPA government on social policy. It sent its RTI recommendations in 2004.

  • RTI Act, 2005 (Act No. 22 of 2005) [1]: received the President's assent on 15 June 2005 and came fully into force on 12 October 2005.

  • How the RTI Act deals with the OSA:

  • s.22 gives the RTI Act overriding effect. It applies even where the OSA, or any other law, says something different [1].

  • s.8(2) lets a public authority disclose information covered by the OSA or by an s.8(1) exemption if the public interest in disclosure outweighs the harm to the protected interests [1]. This is a power to disclose, not a duty [1].

  • Role of Parliament (NCERT Class 9):

  • Legislators shaped the final law.
  • They added safeguards for national security and administrative efficiency.

  • This shows how a social movement's demand becomes law through Parliament.

  • Lasting effect:

  • The jan sunwai method later shaped the social audits of rural job schemes. A social audit is a check of a scheme's records by the people it is meant to serve.

Don't confuse with

  • NCPRI (1996): a national campaign that pushed for an RTI law across India. The MKSS (1990) is a grassroots union of workers and farmers in Rajasthan. The NCPRI grew out of the MKSS's struggle. It is not the same body.
  • Parivartan: a citizens' group in Delhi that used the Delhi RTI law to expose leaks in the Public Distribution System (PDS), the network of ration shops. The MKSS worked in rural Rajasthan and used jan sunwais.
  • Jan sunwai vs RTI application: a jan sunwai is a public village hearing where records are read aloud. It is a social method with no legal force on its own. An RTI application is a legal right under the RTI Act, 2005.
  • Freedom of Information Act, 2002 vs RTI Act, 2005: the 2002 Act was passed but never notified. The RTI Act is the law actually in force (since 12 October 2005).

Prelims Hooks

  • MKSS: founded 1 May 1990 at Devdungri (Rajsamand, Rajasthan) by Aruna Roy, Nikhil Dey and Shankar Singh.
  • Jan sunwai began in 1994. The Beawar dharna took place and the NCPRI was formed in 1996.
  • Slogan: "hamara paisa, hamara hisaab". Records demanded: muster rolls and bills and vouchers.
  • Trap: the MKSS was based in Rajasthan, but Tamil Nadu and Goa (1997) passed the first state RTI laws. Rajasthan's law came in 2000.
  • RTI Act, 2005: Act No. 22 of 2005 [1]. Assent 15 June 2005. Fully in force 12 October 2005. s.22 overrides the OSA 1923 [1].
  • Right to know comes from Art. 19(1)(a) (Raj Narain, 1975). This was recognised by the court before the MKSS movement began.

Mains Points

  • A right needs a movement to become real.
  • Raj Narain (1975) and S.P. Gupta (1981) said there is a right to know, but it stayed on paper.
  • The MKSS jan sunwais showed how ordinary villagers could use information to claim wages and expose corruption.

  • The path ran from grassroots protest to state laws to the RTI Act, 2005. It is a strong GS-II example of civil society shaping law through Parliament.

  • Social audit as direct accountability.

  • "Hamara paisa, hamara hisaab" lets citizens check spending themselves. This adds to accountability through questions in Parliament and official audits.

  • The method later shaped social audits of rural job schemes. It helps catch ghost workers and fake bills.

  • Transparency vs secrecy and security.

  • The OSA 1923 is still in force. RTI s.22 and s.8(2) reduce its reach [1], but s.8(2) is only a power to disclose, not a duty [1].
  • The 2nd ARC's 1st Report (9 June 2006) recommended repealing the OSA [2][3]. The government refused [3].
  • Legislators also added exemptions for security and efficiency. A good answer weighs the MKSS idea of "transparency by default" against these real limits.

Related concepts

Read more

Sources

  1. 1The Right to Information Act, 2005 (Act No. 22 of 2005)indiacode.nic.in · tier 1
  2. 2DARPG: About ARCdarpg.gov.in · tier 1
  3. 3PIB: Scrapping of Official Secrets Act, 1923pib.gov.in · tier 1