Youth Task Force!
‘Youth Task Force’ aims to create awareness about the Right To Information Act, 2005 among the students by conducting seminars and workshops in various colleges of Mumbai.
We were introduced to RTI through newspapers since 2006 but we haven’t realized the greater importance and simplicity in using the RTI ourself until we used it personally the 1st RTI we filed on 4th December 2006 with great help from Mrs. Vinita Singh from ‘Satark Nagrik Sanghatan’ (SNS) (where we are members now)
Raj had filed the first RTI at Mantralaya then at Municipal Education office at Hindu Colony, Matunga. Then another RTI was filed by our member of SNS Mr. Parind Shah wherein finally we were able to get much of the details we were looking for, through past RTI’s (These 3 RTI’s were filed to get the minutes of an official meeting chaired by DMC of education Mumbai with primary teachers across Mumbai). Then another RTI was filed by Jui. Gangan, 20, SYBA, Ruia College, for seeking some basic statistics of BMC schools, meanwhile with all the members of SNS Mumbai we did the survey on the implementation of section 4 of the RTI Act known as ‘Suo Motto’ wherein we went on collecting its implementation across couple of ward offices in Mumbai and meanwhile I filed another RTI for knowing the developmental interventions for the tribes in Mumbai and Thane.
The point we want to make here is that after having the RTI experience for over 10 months we (students who know RTI) felt the need to explain it to all the youngsters we can and thus we are running a program called “Youth Task Force - Mumbai” wherein we are conducting the interactive workshops on RTI in different colleges the intention is to spread the awareness and create a sense of social responsibility amongst the students through the use of Right To Information.
Meanwhile the experience gained after attending couple of RTI workshops from Mr. Shailesh Gandhi -Convener NCPRI, (the RTI pamphlets from NCPRI were distributed in our first RTI workshop at Ruia College) is of immense help. We were also participating in the RTI helpdesk for citizens held every Friday by the Women’s Graduate Union, Colaba, after an interview process along with Mr. Jadhav who presently is the person running the helpdesk. We also got the support of Mr. Narayan Verma trusty of ‘BCAS’ foundation and Mr. Bhaskar Prabhu the Convener of ‘Mahiti Adhikar Munch’ in distributing the RTI pamphlets at our recent workshop we took at M.D College near Gandhi Hospital. As for now we conduct seminars as and when we are called by any organisations for doing so.
Appeal to all:
1. Please don’t waste your time blaming the system do spend you 10 minutes in reforming it. Imagine our India where through RTI at least a million people demanding the Transparent and Accountable government for which our forefathers coined the word ‘Swaraj’, will surely be a reality if all of us start knowing our system and take part and let ourselves build India of our dreams.....
2. Read newspaper articles on success and importance of RTI uses.
3. Spread the awareness of Right To Information
