Citizen’s Charter is a document which represents a systematic effort to focus on the commitment of the Organisation towards its Citizens in respects of Standard of Services, Information, Choice and Consultation, Non-discrimination and Accessibility, Grievance Redress, Courtesy and Value for Money.
The main objective of the exercise to issue the Citizen’s Charter of an organisation is to improve the quality of public services. This is done by letting people know the mandate of the concerned Ministry/ Department/ Organisation, how one can get in touch with its officials, what to expect by way of services and how to seek a remedy if something goes wrong. The Citizen’s Charter does not by itself create new legal rights, but it surely helps in enforcing existing rights. This website provides the details of Citizen’s Charter of various Ministries/ Departments/ Organistions of the Government of India.
The basic objective of the Citizen’s Charter is to empower the citizen in relation to public service delivery. The six principles of the Citizen’s Charter movement as originally framed were:
(i) Quality: Improving the quality of services;
(ii) Choice: Wherever possible;
(iii) Standards: Specifying what to expect and how to act if standards are not met;
(iv) Value : For the taxpayers’ money;
(v) Accountability: Individuals and Organisations; and
(vi) Transparency: Rules/Procedures/Schemes/Grievances.
These were later elaborated by the Labour Government as the nine principles of Service Delivery (1998), which are as follows:-
- Set standards of service
- Be Open and provide full information
- Consult and involve
- Encourage access and the promotion of choice
- Treat all fairly
- Put things right when they go wrong
- Use resources effectively
- Innovate and improve
- Work with other providers