“Relevance of Citizen Empowerment for better Public Service Delivery: An Empirical study conducted in selected Grama Panchayats in Kerala

In today's democratic world, the word inclusivity is the cornerstone for the success of any organisation. Grama Panchayats as the third tier of government is closely related to the everyday life of people. So its activities heavily rely on the active involvement of the people for its better performance. This paper is based on a study conducted in three selected Grama Panchayats in Kerala viz., Parassala, Chenkal and Venganoor, to analyse the factors required for effective service delivery, by taking the perceptions of the elected representatives, employees and stakeholders (people who come to avail various services and beneficiaries of various schemes implemented through Gram Panchayats) through structured questionnaires. The data were analysed and summarised using frequency tables to draw meaningful inferences. From the perceptions of the stakeholders involved, the level of public service delivery offered by the Grama Panchayats is found to be not sufficient enough to reach the level of citizen expectation. Awareness of public is found to be one of the major factor that influence the quality service delivery. The study points out to the fact that with the effective application of proper empowerment tools like Right to Service Act, Grievance redressal mechanisms etc.,, more awareness could be created about the quality and quantity of service to be received, rights to access services within the prescribed time and the possibility of using available redressal mechanisms when services are delayed/ denied thus empowering the citizens. With the process of empowerment, the authorities become more accountable and responsive to the people thereby facilitating better service delivery.

Citizen Empowerment , Public Service Delivery, Right to Service, Grievance redressal handling

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