Social Audit of Social Sector Schemes

In News

Recently, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has formulated a scheme, namely Information-Monitoring, Evaluation and Social Audit (I-MESA) in FY 2021-22.

About

• Under this scheme, Social Audits are to be conducted for all the schemes of the Department starting FY 2021-22. 
• These social audits are done through Social Audit Units (SAU) of the States and the National Institute for Rural Development and Panchayati Raj.

Major Schemes of Ministry of Social Justice

• Schemes for Economic Development
  • Credit Enhancement Guarantee Scheme for the Scheduled Castes (SCs).
  • National Safai Karamcharis Finance and Development Corporation (NSKFDC).
  • National Scheduled Castes Finance & Development Corporation (NSFDC).
  • Self-Employment Scheme for Rehabilitation of Manual Scavengers (SRMS).
• Schemes for Social Empowerment
  • Centrally Sponsored Scheme for implementation of the Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955 and the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
  • Pradhan Mantri Adarsh Gram Yojana.
• Schemes for Self Employment
  • Scheme for Rehabilitation of Manual Scavengers (SRMS).
  • Venture Capital Fund For Scheduled Castes.

Social Audit

• It refers to a legally mandated process where potential and existing beneficiaries evaluate the implementation of a programme by comparing official records with ground realities.
  • The beneficiaries, implementing agency and the oversight mechanism come together and discuss at length about the implementation and progress of a particular programme.
• Social audits are supervised by autonomous bodies consisting of government and non-government representatives along with the local beneficiaries.

• Importance
  • In the course of a social audit, individuals and communities get empowered and politicised in a way that they experience the practical potential of participatory democracy.
  • Social audit increases citizens participation in the planning, implementation and monitoring of the programme.
  • Social audits can be used as platforms for:
    • Sharing information about schemes and enhancing awareness amongst people about their entitlements.
    • Detecting beneficiaries who were eligible, but had been left out.
    • Recording people’s testimonies.
    • Identifying priorities for inputs for planning.
    • Registering of grievances.
    • Pinpointing systemic shortcomings.
  • Where social audits have been able to take place effectively, they have served as an important tool to detect corruption and influence redress.
  • It involves scrutiny of both financial and non-financial use by public agencies for development initiatives.

Social Audit in India

• The 73^rd amendment of the Indian Constitution empowers the Gram Sabhas to conduct Social Audits in addition to its other functions.
• Social audits were made statutory for the first time in Mahatma Gandhi National National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), 2005.
• Most states have set up an independent Social Audit Unit (SAU) and some have even begun to facilitate Social Audit in other programmes.
• Meghalaya became the first state in India to implement the Meghalaya (Community Participation and Public Services) Social Audit Act, 2017 as the law that makes social audit of government schemes and programmes as part of governance.

Challenges for Social Audit in India

• People on the margins hardly participate in social audits. When the citizens fail to demand improved public services, politicians lose the incentive to take the issue seriously.
• The institutionalisation of social audits on the ground has been inadequate and has faced great resistance from the establishment.
• The lack of adequate administrative and political will in institutionalising social audits to deter corruption has meant that social audits in many parts of the country are not independent of the influence of implementing agencies.
• Social audit units, including village social audit facilitators, continue to face resistance and intimidation and find it difficult to even access primary records for verification.

Way Forward

• In an age where phrases such as open data and open government are used in any conversation around governance, social audits should serve as a critical point of reference.
• An open and transparent system involves the presence of real platforms for people to be informed by official statements and records, with an opportunity to compare that with ground realities.
• To ensure effective bottom-up involvement, beneficiary participation must be induced and strengthened through a combination of top-down and grassroots approaches.
• Social audit is much more than just a tool of “good governance”. Civil society needs to shape the social audit campaign, be a watchdog, and staunchly protect the independence of the process. Social audits must become part of the demand for effective legislation for the whole country.

Source: PIB