India’s Christians urged to use info law to help poor

(April 16, 2010) India’s chief information commissioner has urged Church workers to make the best use of the information law to help the poor. The Right to Information Act passed in 2005 is a tool for citizens to participate in the democratic process, Wajahat Habibullah told a seminar in Ahmedabad, the commercial capital of Gujarat state in western India. About 300 Church workers from all over the state attended the April 13 seminar on the theme, “Right to Information: Challenges in Making it More Effective.” Habibullah pointed out that even after five years, many Indians are unaware of the scope of the law that enables them to seek information on government schemes and projects. The chief information officer urged seminar participants to make the law more broad-based by educating people about it, especially the young. By doing this, they could help people participate in governance, “which had unfortunately not happened so far,” he said. Only 30 percent of urban and 10 percent of rural people know about the law, Habibullah said. Among youths, the awareness level is even lower at only 2.5 percent in villages and 2 percent in cities, he added.