Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Mission Karmayogi

Mains level: Citizen-Centric Governance, initiatives and Citizen participation

Central idea

Citizen-centric governance is an evolving concept, and to put it into action requires clarity in the actions that civil servants perform and how citizens engage with the state. Citizen engagement is about collaborative partnerships and dialogue and must involve all stakeholders to ensure the overall development of a community or a nation.

Citizen-Centric Governance

Paradigm shift in traditional governance: Citizen-centric governance refers to a paradigm shift in the traditional governance structures where the focus is shifted from the power holders to the citizens.
Access to information and services to citizens: Traditionally, governance structures hold the power to make decisions that affect the lives of citizens. But citizen-centric governance focuses on providing citizens with access to information, services, and resources and on engaging them in the policy-making process.
Increased citizen participation: The objective of citizen-centric governance is to increase citizen participation in decision-making processes

Capacity building of civil servants: Mission Karmayogi, the National Programme for Civil Services Capacity Building has been strategically working to build the capacities of civil servants through various innovative interventions to sensitise and reframe the fabric of citizen participation.
karmachari to karmayogi: Today, thousands of railway employees, Gramin Dak Sevaks, police personnel in the UTs and employees of BSNL are all going through an outcome-based capacity-building programme that is shifting them from thinking like a karmachari to acting like a karmayogi.

Citizen engagement refers to how citizens participate in the political, social and economic aspects of their community or society.
Citizen engagement is highly embedded in the nature of the political and governance context and existing power relations.
It needs to be understood as a core component of any governance system, and in democracies, citizen engagement is a basic principle because it is understood that governments derive their authority and power from the people.

Constructive dialogue: Development by the people and for the people is indeed possible. Citizen engagement towards democratising the process of development necessarily involves a constructive dialogue between and amongst all stakeholders.
Mutual trust and respect: Meaningful dialogue among the stakeholders the state, citizenry, private sector, media, civil society and academia can sustain only when there is mutual trust. The relationship between these multiple stakeholders needs to be driven by mutual respect and an appreciation of interdependence and reciprocity.
Redrawing boundaries of engagement: However, this may involve redrawing boundaries of engagement and roles that stakeholders have traditionally assumed for themselves.
Partnership approach: The multi-stakeholder engagement would require the adoption of the partnership approach by all parties involved.

Citizen-centric governance and citizen engagement are important aspects of development in any democracy. By adopting a partnership approach and mutual respect for each other’s roles, stakeholders can work together to ensure the overall development of a community and nation at large. The Indian government’s program, Mission Karmayogi, is a right step towards building the capacities of civil servants and sensitizing them to citizen participation.

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