Introduction 

Good Governance is the key to a Nation’s progress and an important step towards it is the simplification of procedures and processes in the Government so as to make the entire system transparent and faster. Further, the ever-expanding provision of Citizen-Centric Online Services is one of the most important aspects of an efficient and effective public administration system as it leads to transparency and accountability in governance and also fosters equitable growth. At the same time, besides the change in procedures and processes and use of the empowering nature of technology, it is important to note that public grievances redressal is equally a very important component of a responsive administration. The grievance redressal mechanism of an organisation is its instrument to measure efficiency and effectiveness as it provides important feedback on the working of that organisation.

Government of India, State Governments as well as various organizations under them have set up grievance redressal mechanisms to look into the complaints of citizens. Besides, there are other institutional mechanisms like the CVC, and the Lokayuktas which have the mandate to look into the complaints of corruption and abuse of office by public servants. Many organizations, for example, the Reserve Bank of India, have set up Ombudsman to look into grievances. Institutions such the National and State Human Rights Commissions, National and State Women’s Commissions, the National Commission for Scheduled Castes, and the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes also look into the complaints from the public in their prescribed areas. _ us, the grievance redressal mechanism is an integral part of any governance system. Today, with increased awareness levels, the aspirations of citizens have gone up as also the demand for prompt and effective resolution of their grievances.

Public grievances: Meaning 

‘Grievance’ has been defined as indignation or resentment arising out of a feeling of being wronged. IS 15700: 2005 defines ‘grievance’ as an expression of dissatisfaction made to an organization related to its products, services, and/or process(es), where a response or resolution is explicitly or implicitly expected. A grievance is thus any sort of dissatisfaction, which needs to be redressed. It can be real or imaginary, legitimate or ridiculous, rated or unvoiced, written or oral; it must however, find expression in some form or the other. According to Chambers dictionary, grievance means a 'ground of complaint, a condition felt to be oppressive or wrongful'. In a democracy people should have the opportunities to ventilate their grievances and a system of redressal.

The basic principle of a grievance redressal system is that if the promised level of service delivery is not achieved or if a right of a citizen is not honoured then the citizen should be able to take recourse to a mechanism to have the grievance redressed. This mechanism should be well publicised, easy to use, prompt and, above all, citizens must have faith that they will get justice from it.

Some of the common grievances against administration may be listed as under:

1. Corruption: Demand and acceptance of bribery for doing or not doing things.

2. Favouritism: Doing or not doing things for obliging people in power or people who matter.

3. Nepotism: Helping the people of one's own kith or kin.

4. Discourtesy: Use of abusive language or other types of misbehavior.

5. Neglect of Duty: Not doing things that the law requires.

6. Discrimination: Ignoring poor and uninfluential citizens' genuine complaints.

7. Delay: Not doing things at the appropriate time.

8. Maladministration: Inefficiency in achieving the targets.

9. Inadequate Redressal Machinery: Failure to attend to public complaints against administration.

In addition to the above-mentioned common grievances there may be specific grievances relating to particular administrative departments agencies. For example, people have many grievances against the police resorting to third degree methods like beating, torturing, wrongful confinement or harassment of suspects and witnesses. Fabrication of evidences, nexus between the police and the underworld are some other areas of public grievances against police administration. The grievances against agricultural administration may be mainly related to the quality and quantity of inputs and services provided to farmers. Though there may be many specific grievances against individual administrative agencies, corruption is the most common among them all. 

Public grievance redressal system ensuring citizen-centric administration: Need & Significance

It is vital to acknowledge the need to gauge the complexity of public grievances before one attempts to assess the possibilities of redress and prevention. Grievances exist in as many areas as governance institutions and processes, spanning various ministries, departments and organisations at the central, state and local government levels. And as the responsibilities for service delivery shift away from the state towards service providers in the private sector and civil society institutions in many sectors, grievances related to these have grown too. The stakeholders caught in varied grievance situations include law makers, administrators, managers, employers, regulators, service providers, service users and citizens as bearers of rights granted to them by the Constitution and the legal system. Many grievances relate to appointment, work conditions, wages, allowances, service conditions, termination of service or other work related issues. Several of these pertain to schemes for development, their implementation, targeting issues, timely benefit transfer; or these may relate to non-delivery of services or entitlements related to health, education or other services like banks, communications, etc. In each sector, some grievance issues are of similar nature, but there are many grievances specific to the nature of particular responsibilities entrusted with administrators and entitlements of citizens in the sector.

Grievances related to education, for instance, relate to fee refund, transfer certificates, degrees, exams, results, scholarships, research funds, teacher availability or other conditions of education and the role of regulatory institutions; and these involve many stakeholders- the students, admission seekers, teachers, administrators, regulators or institutions providing education, etc., sometimes having conflicting stakes too.

Public grievances emerge around varied situations- dispute over benefits or entitlements, interpretation of rules, complaints against misuse of power, wrong decisions, favouritism, discrimination, corruption or specific acts of omission and commission. These may be individual centred or may involve groups or a category of people, bundled together for reasons of identity or circumstances. 

Grievances around discrimination based on gender, caste or tribal identity or violation of specific rights or entitlements of involving women, SCs and STs have grown over the years. Grievances of groups formed by association based on shared circumstances are often quite diverse, such as, in case of displaced people, forest dwellers, disabled, job-seekers, students, teachers, government employees, handloom weavers, hawkers, manual scavengers, tax payers, etc. Group grievances are also visible around scheme beneficiaries or specific target groups, like poor, unemployed, widows, etc.; or service users or consumers like mobile users, insurance users, water users, power users, etc. Such groups also articulate individual grievances, which are sometimes location or time specific. However, these often offer the possibility of collective redressal or prevention by attempting correctives at policy or administration level. 

While public grievances reflect the problem areas and challenges that confront the institutions involved in service delivery and administration, these also offer the opportunity to address these problems before they explode in the form of public discontent. The awareness of grievances is the first condition for effectively addressing them. Expression rather than repression of voice, therefore, should be encouraged if the objective is to win public trust or improve the state of governance. Timely capture and appropriate analysis of public grievances offers an opportunity to public institutions to address performance appropriately. It is important to realise that a patriarchal approach to grievance redressal may sometimes prove to be less effective than a participatory approach, where suggestions to improve the functioning of institutions or policy, or to prevent the grievances are invited from the public and considered with an open mind. Undertaking systematic analysis of grievances and suggestions, or even queries, received from the stakeholders can provide insights into the possible ways of improvement. Since all grievances are not registered through formal grievance redressal mechanisms, and since barriers to communication come from issues of access as well as power structures, it is important to also take note of grievances received through informal channels of communications which can also help arrive at a better state of governance.

Policies or initiatives for effective public grievances redressal

The Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances is the nodal agency in respect of policy initiatives on public grievance redressal mechanisms and citizen centric initiatives. There exist several digital portals in Government of India for effective redressal of public grievances – CPGRAMS, Rail Madad and e-Nivaran. All Ministries/ Departments have designated nodal Grievance Redressal Officers for effective redressal of grievances. The Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances has collaborated closely with States in several initiatives for effective redressal of public grievances. The areas of collaboration included: 

i. Institution of an award category for Improving Service Delivery and Redressal of Public Grievances under the Scheme for Prime Minister’s Awards for Excellence in Public Administration 2020. 

ii. National Workshop on Technology Platforms in Public Grievance Redressal on 18 February 2021 and the National Workshop on Sevottam in November 2022 and May 2023. 

iii. One Nation – One Portal initiative by integration of CPGRAMS with State Grievance Portals and reverse integration. 

iv. Sevottam Capacity Building Programs for Grievance Redressal Officers. 

v. Publication of Monthly Reports from 2022. 

vi. Collaboration with Government of Jammu & Kashmir for revamping the Awaaz e-Awam portal and relaunch as JKIGRAMS. 

CPGRAMS 

The Government of India has established an internet based Centralised Public Grievances Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) to facilitate all citizens to lodge grievances for redressal. CPGRAMS is a platform based web technology which aims to enable submission of grievances by the citizens from anywhere, anytime to the Ministries/ Departments/ Organisations. Tracking grievances is also facilitated on this portal through a system generated unique registration number. Further, grievances received manually are also digitised and uploaded on the system. The system also enables Ministries/ Departments to take appropriate action and upload the Action Taken Report (ATR) on it. This can be viewed by the citizens online with the help of the unique registration number. The Public Grievance Mechanism of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), the President's Secretariat, the Directorate of Public Grievances (Cabinet Secretariat), Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances (DARPG) as well as the Pensioners’ portal have been integrated through the CPGRAMS. This enables grievances lodged at any of these entities to be transferred to the Central Ministries/Departments and State Governments online through CPGRAMS. 

The implementation of CPGRAMS 10-Step reforms, launched in 2022, has resulted in a linear increase in the number of public grievances being redressed every month to over 1 lac cases and reduction in timelines for disposal to 16 days in central ministries/ departments. Today the CPGRAMS portal has mapped 0.80 lac Grievance Redressal Officers, and 16 lac citizens have registered themselves to file nearly 20 lac grievances/ year. Considerable success was achieved in effective redressal of public grievances during the COVID-19 pandemic with launch of the COVID-19 Grievance Redressal Dashboard and portal on the CPGRAMS portal. This was a period in which 1.25 lac COVID-19 public grievances were redressed with an average disposal period of 1.45 days.

Sevottam and CPGRAMS

The Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances (DARPG) is the chief policy making, monitoring and coordinating department for public grievances arising from the work of Ministries/departments of the Government of India. The DARPG has developed a framework called ‘Sevottam’, which essentially means Excellence in Public Service. Under this scheme, every Government Department must have a Citizens’ Charter outlining the main services with service standards and timelines, a Public Grievance Redress Mechanism, and a system with assessment and improvement of public service delivery standards. Emphasis is also on service delivery enablers comprising customer feedback, employee motivation and infrastructure. 

Further, a person can lodge a grievance on the PG portal through the Common Service Centre located in his area by paying a nominal fee. A toll free facility for receiving reminders regarding pending grievances is also being introduced. A Mobile App which allows lodging and tracking of public grievances on android based mobiles was launched in October 2015 and it can be downloaded from the PG portal. 

Besides, a new Mobile App with some added features has been developed which is more user-friendly. This has been integrated with Unified Mobile Application for New-age Governance (UMANG). For effective public grievance redressal, an important tool is regular analysis of public grievances received in order to help identify of the problem areas in which modification of policies and procedures could be undertaken. The aim, as always, is to make the delivery of services easier and more expeditious. Keeping the above in view, a Grievance Analysis Study was conducted through Quality Council of India for identifying grievance prone areas, undertake root cause analysis and to recommend systemic reforms in respect of top 20 grievance receiving Ministries/Departments/ Organizations listed on the CPGRAMS portal. The study identified 81 reforms to be implemented for more effective grievance redressal, and the reports were duly circulated to the concerned ministries/departments/organisations. A Project Management Unit (PMU) has been put in place for monitoring the reforms. Out of the 81 reforms recommended, 35 have been implemented by the concerned Ministries/Departments. Some of the notable reforms introduced are: automatic refunds on cancellation of Railway Tickets, Single Window Pension through disbursing Banks, intensive mechanized cleaning of coaches, e-verification of Income Tax Returns, expeditious Income Tax Returns upto Rs. 50,000/- etc.

In addition, a Public Grievance Call Centre has been made operational with effect from February 2016 for reminding concerned officials of the top 40 Ministries/Departments/ Organisations receiving bulk of the grievances, for expeditious disposal of grievances pending for more than two months. This Call Centre makes about 20,000 to 22,000 calls per month.

Citizen’s Charter

The Citizen’s/Client’s Charter, is another tool for good governance. This is a written declaration by a Government department that highlights the standards of service delivery that it subscribes to, the availability of choice for consumers, avenues for grievance redressal and other related information. It is a set of commitments made regarding the standards of service which it delivers. Though it is not enforceable in a Court of Law, the Citizen’s/Client’s Charter is intended to empower citizens and clients so that they can demand committed standards of service and avail remedies in case of non-compliance by service provider organisations. The basic thrust of the Citizen’s/Client’s Charter is to render public services citizen centric by making them demand driven rather than supply driven. There is a portal http://goicharter.nic. in on which the Citizens Charter of Ministries/ Departments/ Organisations of the Central Government and State Governments have been uploaded. 

It is heartening to note that several State Governments have used online platforms for citizens to register complaints. A few such initiatives include the Lokvani project in Uttar Pradesh, which helps citizens make their grievances related to government services in an easy manner and also get their redress within 15 days of filling complaint through kiosk centers. Also initiated is the Jansunwai or e-Samvad Portal fully dedicated for grievance redress through e-Governance. Now all Lokvani complaints are available on this portal.

The Andhra Pradesh online portal ‘aponline.com’ is one of the most comprehensive State Government set ups for an e-interface between the Government and citizens with an integrated grievance redress channel as part of its real-time governance initiative. The channel is called People First or ‘www.meekosam.ap.gov.in’ and a People First mobile app was launched in September 2017. Also e-Pariharan has been launched in Kerala to facilitate online lodging of complaints. Complaints can also be received through SMS, WhatsApp, email, etc. 

Impact and Challenges

Ultimately, the aim of these initiatives is to build trust with the citizen through effective and speedy redressal of the grievances in order to pave the way for good governance. The effort to usher in an era of Sushasan has begun on a very promising note. However, it is also important to understand that governance is an area where the citizen too has a specific role.

The 10-Step CPGRAMS reforms process adoption has resulted in a remarkable decrease in the average time of disposals of Public Grievances. In 2023, 1.25 lac PG cases in January, 1.22 lac PG cases in February and 1.19 lakh PG cases in March, till 25th March 2023, were disposed by Ministries/Departments. March 2023 was the 8th time in a row, since inception of CPGRAMS that PG case redressal has crossed 1 lac cases/ month. The disposal in State PG cases on CPGRAMS portal has crossed 50,000 cases/ month since September 2022.

The Group of Secretaries in its report on Good Governance had observed that there is a need for capacity building of service delivery officers, knowledge updation, streamlining processes, proper monitoring and attitudinal shift amongst Government staff towards more transparent and accountable governance. Awareness is also required among the public about their rights under the Right to Services Act. The system and processes for filing of a request and appeals under the Act also need to be simplified and innovative processes designed for providing alternative means of filing through e-Governance. Besides, institutional mechanisms need to be set up to engage with civil society and media for seeking constructive cooperation in increasing awareness and providing support to the public in hassle-free filing through systems reengineering. These issues need to be addressed on priority by the Central as well as the State Governments.

A review of the grievance redressal mechanisms in government of India Ministries, Departments and Organisations undertaken in 2008, however, found that these remained largely ineffective in the absence of adequate authority, human resource support or poor commitment of officers, some of whom were found ignorant of their own citizen’s charter. Public grievance mechanism also faced the pressure of staff grievances more than public grievances. CPGRAMS was set up with very high expectations of making administration responsive. The mechanism, however, remained underutilised for lack of awareness, lack of access to technology and low level of public trust. Despite investments in technology and training for capacity building, there was not much progress evident till that time. Public grievance redressal remained a difficult challenge despite all efforts Public discontent, however, simmers in the vortex of grievances. As grievances breed, discontent grows too. Public grievances, therefore, present the most domineering challenge before any government. But this challenge is complex and its resolution requires multi-dimensional focus and multilayered interventions necessitating (a) timely capture of grievances by creating spaces for their expression; (b) effective redressal of existing grievances by creating robust redress mechanisms; and (c) accomplishing grievance  free governance by addressing the root cause and working on alternate policies or institutional reforms, where necessary.

The centralised online mechanism can address this challenge and reduce the plight of the citizen to run back and forth between different authorities, while facilitating transparency and enabling the monitoring. Its effectiveness, however, is still conditioned on (a) how the issues of access to technology and ability to read and write are addressed; (b) how accountability mechanisms can be built in to ensure that disposal of public grievance is not simply presumed to imply redressal. 

There is need, therefore, to simultaneously utilise other mechanisms like lok adalats, jan sunwais, social audit, mobile apps etc. to ensure inclusion of those who may not have access to CPGRAMS.

According to second administrative reforms commission report on Citizen-centric Administration: the heart of governance, the Department Related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice, in their Twenty Fifth Report observed: “The Committee is of the view that generally, people are not aware that a system of redressal exists in many of the Government departments and its subordinate offices where they are required to visit. The Committee, therefore, recommends that wide publicity through national, regional and local media as well as through electronic media to create awareness regarding the redressal mechanism among people is the need of the day particularly for the weaker sections of the society, women and those challenged with handicaps and also the people living in remote areas. The Committee also recommends that grievance-handling system should be accessible, simple, quick, fair, responsive and effective. It is not uncommon to hear from people complaining against harassment, waste of time and money, repeated visits to offices etc. The Committee, therefore, recommends that every Ministry/Department in the Union/State Government/UTs should have a dynamic public grievance redressal mechanism in place with special focus on the information delivery system. The Committee further feels that the language and the content of various application/complaint forms should be user-friendly, and should be widely available in various outlets, like post offices, on websites for downloading etc.” 

A case study of public grievance redressal under PDS (in Handia and Asawai areas of Prayagraj district): Analysis and Findings

• Beneficiary Households Aware of Grievance Redressal Mechanism and Citizens’ Charter.

• The beneficiaries’ awareness of their rights and privileges is very crucial in making the implementation of the scheme successful. It makes the related functionaries more accountable to the public. The field observation regarding awareness of the grievance redressal system and Citizens’ Charter among the beneficiaries is presented here.

• In the analysis, it is revealed that the level of awareness regarding the grievance redressal system and citizen charter among the beneficiaries is very poor. Only 19 per cent of households in Handia and 8 per cent of households in Asarwai are partially aware of the grievance redressal process, while the remaining 81 per cent of households in Handia and 92 per cent of households in Asarwai are not aware of the grievance redressal system. Out of a total of 200 households, 87 per cent of households are unaware of the grievance redressal system, while the remaining 13 per cent only know that the complaint can be lodged online also but they do not know how it can be done or they can lodge complaints at the food and civil supplies office. In the focus group discussion, it is found that the proportion of aware beneficiaries mainly constitutes the young generation. The complaints mainly include issues related to ration cards. In another analysis, it has been found that none of the sample beneficiary households in Handia and Asarwai are aware of the Citizens’ Charter. Thus, the level of awareness of grievance redressal mechanism and Citizens’ Charter among the total households of 200 is very poor.

• Figure: Percentage of households aware and percentage of households do not aware regarding grievance redressal mechanism and citizens’ charter

• A strong grievance redressal system is the most important thing in the effectiveness of any public policy. It highlights whether the system is transparent and accountable. The proper functioning of the grievance redressal mechanism and Citizens’ Charter is the tool for establishing a strong monitoring system. Due to illiteracy, people, especially females, do not know how to lodge a complaint online. The majority of the households are unaware of the grievance redressal system. For instance, a toll-free number is given on the ration card but, very few beneficiaries in both the studied areas used this facility. During focus group discussions with the households, some respondents who have literate children have used the facility of online grievance redressal. Many times, especially women beneficiaries, asked the dealer or other person to lodge their complaint as they do not know how to do it. The ration shops in Handia and Asarwai do not keep complaint registers. The beneficiaries too never asked for it. The official who comes for supervision does not make it compulsory for the dealers to keep the complaint register. There is also no poster or advertisement or detailed information of designated authority displayed outside the ration shops to spread awareness of the grievance redressal system. Most beneficiaries reported that it takes a very long time to get their problems solved, sometimes 7-8 months. The grievances of the beneficiaries mostly include the following issues:

 Applied for the ration card, but not getting it.

 Modification in the ration card due to deleting a name of a member of a household.

 Beneficiary’s name is not mentioned in the eligible household list.

 Food grains are under weighed by the ration shop dealers.

Besides this, the households are also not aware of the Citizens’ Charter. They do not know what the Citizens’ Charter is and how it can empower them to get their entitlements. No publicity regarding the Citizens’ Charter is seen in Handia and Asarwai. This shows the ignorant attitude of the state functionaries. However, the Citizens’ Charter is detailed on the State web portal but, it does not make any sense here, as a majority of the beneficiaries are illiterate and have no access to the internet. The administrative functionaries seem to be failed here in creating awareness among the citizens about their rights and privileges. The below figure outlines the main findings on this issue.

Figure: Beneficiaries’ Awareness of Grievance Redressal Mechanism and Citizens’ Charter

Conclusion

The grievance redressal system should be made citizen-friendly so that ordinary men will know the official they can contact in case of any problem and the time required to get the grievance redressed. The grievance system should be made stronger because this is the most important feature in a democratic society as the voice of the people, especially the vulnerable population, should be heard. If the problems of the people will be resolved within a stipulated time, then it establishes satisfaction with the services and trust in the administration. A heavy penalty should be imposed on the concerned officer who delays the redressal of the grievance without a genuine reason. An independent body of officials should be constituted in the state food departments that will meet beneficiaries in rural areas and urban wards to listen to their grievances and resolve their concerns at regular intervals. A belief should be developed among the public officials that grievances provide the opportunities to better the services, so these should not be ignored, but welcomed.

No system is perfect. There are likely to be shortcomings always. However, if these shortcomings start impacting the basic interest of the public, they have legitimate claims for the redressal of their grievances. A complaining customer can be a good opportunity to show how good you are. That is why public grievance redressal is said to be the cornerstone of any well-governed democracy. The central theme of democracy is that the government is accountable to the citizens for all policies and activities. And only an effective and efficient public grievance redressal mechanism can build trust with the citizens and assure them that it is a government 'of the people and for the people'.