RAS question
Right to Information Act in Rajasthan was pioneered by:
Correct answer: (B) MKSS (Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan).
The Right to Information movement in Rajasthan was pioneered by MKSS, the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, associated with Aruna Roy and the Devdungari region.
Explanation
MKSS is the right answer because the Rajasthan RTI campaign grew from its grassroots work on wages, public records and accountability in rural Rajasthan. The World Bank case study records that MKSS was founded in 1990 in Devdungari, Rajasthan, and that it used jan sunwais to let villagers compare official expenditure records with their own experience. These public hearings made access to government information a practical democratic demand, not an abstract slogan. The first jan sunwai in December 1994 marked the beginning of the real struggle for the Right to Information in Rajasthan, spearheaded by MKSS. After sustained pressure, the Rajasthan State Right to Information Act was enacted in May 2000, before the national RTI Act of 2005.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) Government alone is wrong because the movement began through MKSS-led public pressure and jan sunwais, even though the state later enacted and implemented the law.
- (C) The corporate sector is wrong because the campaign centred on rural workers, farmers, panchayat records and public accountability, not company-led reform.
- (D) The military is wrong because the RTI struggle was a civil society movement for transparency in local administration.
Concept
This tests Rajasthan's civil society movements and administrative accountability. It recurs in RAS because RTI links grassroots mobilisation, panchayati governance and transparency reforms in the state.