Many

Right to Information Act The Right to Information (RTI) is an act of the Parliament of India which sets out the rules and procedures regarding citizens' right to information. It replaced the former Freedom of Information Act, 2002. Under the provisions of RTI Act, an ...

(RTI) activists, including policemen, have been harassed and even murdered for seeking information to "promote transparency and accountability in the working of every public authority" in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. Many face assaults on a regular basis. People seeking information from their

gram panchayat Gram Panchayat () is a basic village-governing institute in Indian villages. It is a democratic structure at the grass-roots level in India. It is a political institute, acting as cabinet of the village. The Gram Sabha work as the general bod ...

and the local administration also face social ostracism. A few activists who sought information under RTI related to MNREGA scams, were killed. Many threats and attacks (including murder) go unreported by the media. Media reports of more than 300 instances of attacks on or harassment of citizens and at least 51 murders and 5 suicides can be linked to information sought under The Right to Information Act.

Maharashtra Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a states and union territories of India, state in the western India, western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the List of states and union te ...

followed by

Gujarat Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...

tops the list for states with the most attacks on RTI users.

Overview

RTI activists are vulnerable

human rights defender A human rights defender or human rights activist is a person who, individually or with others, acts to promote or protect human rights. They can be journalists, environmentalists, whistleblowers, trade unionists, lawyers, teachers, housing campai ...

s (HRDs) in India. Unlike other HRDs, a majority of the RTI activists are not part of an organisation; they often act alone, moved by anger at corruption and other illegal activities. RTI activists are vulnerable because they live in the same areas as public authorities and political leaders who do not want information about their activities to be disclosed. For the most part, human rights defenders receive media attention only when killed or seriously injured. When complaints are made by RTI activists, law enforcement personnel (who often work with corrupt officials) do not take appropriate actio

The Right to Information Act, 2005 provides inadequate protection to whistleblower

The

Central Information Commission The Central Information Commission is a statutory body, set up under the Right to Information Act in 2005 under the Government of India to act upon complaints from those individuals who have not been able to submit information requests to a Cent ...

and the State Information Commissions are not mandated to deal with such threats or attacks or to provide protection when needed. Attacks on RTI users have not ceased despite directions from several information commissions and state governments to protect them from harm.

List of attacks

There are two sources of crowd sourced lists maintained of the attacks on people using RTI to seek transparency and accountability, primarily based on media reports. The first is via the National Campaign for People's Right to Information availabl
here
The most recent update has 211 people harassed, 163 people physically harmed and an unfortunate 95 people murdered. The second maintained by CHRI is
Hall of Shame

Overview

List of attacks

Killed/Murdered

Abducted/Kidnapped and Tortured

Assault

Harassment

Suicide

See also

References