Use of the right to information act to improve access to better services in two urban slums

Introduction In the context of inflationary trends and the incapacity of the poor to access services in open markets, the Indian government initiated various programmes to provide basic facilities either free or at nominal cost. However, these services are not reaching the most vulnerable people due to a lack of awareness, barriers in accessibility and rampant corruption in the system. The failure in basic service delivery has impacted the health and economy of the poor, especially in urban areas such as Bangalore. The urban poor are unable to access food grains in the open market, which prevents them from attaining the minimum required nutrition, and makes them vulnerable to health problems. A similar situation exists in health services. It is necessary to build pressure to improve accessibility for public services especially public distribution system, primary health centres and Anganwadis (supplementary nutrition centres) to improve health in urban areas. In Bangalore, though there are various service points to provide services on health, the quality of the service delivery at the service points are not assessed. Most of the time, these service points don’t work as per norms such as working hours, availability of allocated supplies to that service point, and appropriate service delivery methods, leading to a failure of the realisation of the whole entitlement reserved for the needy.