United Nations Public Service Awards Case Studies

Lokvani initiative was started in Sitapur District of Uttar Pradesh (UP) state in India in December 2004. After its overwhelming success and people’s support in Sitapur, UP Govt. issued a Government Order (G.O.) on 16th June 2005 to replicate it in the whole state. Currently it is spread to about 35 districts of UP. In a nutshell, Lokvani is an Internet kiosk based G2C interface for providing various information to citizen and their grievance redressal in a transparent, accountable and time-bound manner by forging effective Public-Private Partnership (PPP). It had started with 13 kiosks and presently there are about 110 kiosks spread throughout the district. About 150,000 people have been directly benefited by using this system in the last 3 years. (The site can be viewed at http://sitapur.nic.in/lokvani using “guest” as user id as well as password)
Before Lokvani, there was no formal system of providing information to citizen about any government work related to him. Being a backward district with only 38% literacy, extremely poor and unaware citizens, the Government Officers acted as rulers rather than public servants. Citizens had no option other than personally visiting the District headquarter/ Tehsil for government related work/information and/or getting their grievances addressed.
In Sitapur, the citizens had only two hours for interacting with the District Magistrate (administrative head). This caused a great strain on the system because of which very few grievances could be addressed satisfactorily. Moreover, once a person had met the DM and given him his grievance in writing, he was not provided any receipt or number through which he could know about the action on his grievance. Also, absence of easy method of checking performance of officer encouraged a lackadaisical approach and dereliction in solving problems of the people.
Both the officers and citizens were used to a way of functioning – repeated physical visits, long queues to meet officers, paper applications and affidavits, files, and babus (clerks). The entire backend functioning of the system was shrouded in secrecy, and lacked transparency. The system was, generally, not accessible to a common citizen, who typically had to take support of either a local political leader, or influential people to represent his case/ grievance. In this system, there was an opportunity for exploitation of illiterate and uninitiated (to the government’s way of functioning) citizens by touts at various stages. This was no doubt a source of corruption. Officers were also over-burdened by excessive paperwork without proper filing systems (including file tracking systems) and red-tape (bureaucratic hassles).
Generally district administration officials in India have a very large population base under their purview. But the infrastructure was abysmally inadequate due to a negligible number of computer systems and non existential computer networks. There was not even basic awareness amongst officers about basic usage of computers and internet. Even the letters in the DMs office were getting typed on manual typewriter. This was the situation not only in Sitapur, but in most of the districts of UP.

What is the initiative about? (the solution)
The citizens are the key beneficiaries from the solution as is evident from the number of petitions filed per day and the efficiency with which they are now being resolved. The system has registered more than 100,000 complaints and disposed off over 90% complaints successfully. The ordinary citizens had to earlier forego wages to stand in a queue to merely file in a petition. They would then have to follow it up with countless visits to various government offices to find out the status and outcome of the petition that was filed. Clearly, with the Lokvani system, the citizen is able to put his or her time to a more productive use which definitely adds up to the local GDP. Citizens can easily obtain Land Record, information about Government schemes and beneficiary from the kiosks that are conveniently located in every block and in a few villages as well. Online tender services have significantly reduced the preexisting monopoly of some influential contractors by abating illegal negotiations after the allocation of tender. The biggest success of Lokvani system lies in ensuring accountability of government officers towards people by displaying their performance on website on a real time basis. This has helped in putting public pressure on non-performing officers. This is quite revolutionary and coming from the government it is like “a cat belling herself voluntarily”. Obviously, it has created employment in rural areas and has ushered in a new era of enthusiastic kiosk operators. Their incomes are rising steadily. Unexpected fallout of the system has also been a perceptible shift towards gender equality. This has occurred as women are more computer literate and some of the most efficient kiosks are being run by women. It was the first example in India of pure PPP in establishing the internet kiosks in rural areas. In all other initiatives, the kiosks were provided subsidy/loan/revenue support for setting up/running. While in Lokvani, it was a reverse subsidy (they had to pay a registration and training charge of Rs. 500. Now this is Rs.2000 annually and Rs.2 per grievance). This is the strongest reason behind the sustainability of this initiative. Most important is the economic status of an average user of Lokvani. If one randomly goes through a few of about 100,000 grievances, just by looking at the names of complainant and nature of complaint, he can find out they are the poorest of the poor people. Lokvani is an example of ICT being used at such large scale for the masses instead of classes. In India, after Bhoomi in Karnataka (land records computerization), perhaps it is the biggest example of ICT use for rural poor. Lastly, if it can succeed in such a backward district of North India, it can succeed anywhere in the world. Its demonstration of success in extremely adverse circumstances makes it easily replicable in areas which are better developed (or as developed) than Sitapur. Its sustainability and very easy replicability are also the key benefits.

Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
Mr Amod Kumar, DM, Sitapur, in September 2004 intended to initiate a system to overcome the above problems and ensure transparency in administration. In order to overcome the resistance of the employees, while designing the Lokvani system, he worked closely with his team of officers. The software designing was done by a team of 3 officers from NIC(National Informatics Center), namely Mr.A.P.Singh, Mr. AjaiGopal and Mr.Rajeev Lakhera. A society by the name of Lokvani was constituted under the chairmanship of DM Sitapur to implement the project autonomously to reduce some of the bureaucratic pressures. This society meets its recurring expenses from the money received from the registration of kiosks, revenue sharing per grievance, short term and lifetime membership fees. Officers and eminent citizens were its members to guide the implementation. The Lokvani model has been formulated keeping in mind the three key stakeholders – the government and the IT entrepreneurs/Kiosk operators and in the heart of the system ‘citizen’. 1. Government: The systems success depends upon the response of the officers to people’s grievances and the proactive ness with which they provide important people related information of their department on Lokvani website. All the government employees are major stakeholders in this system. 2. IT entrepreneurs / Kiosk owners: The key achievement of the solution is its self-sustainability and long-term financial viability. The conversion of existing cyber cafes/computer training institutes into Lokvani Centers was a key factor driving the financial success. This step ensured that extraneous capital was not a vital requirement for the solution. The kiosks are run by IT entrepreneurs. A typical kiosk has an internet enabled PC, printer, webcam and power backup device (UPS/inverter/generator). Kiosks earn profits through the income generated from various services of Lokvani provided to the citizens. In addition, the kiosks can also generate some extra revenue by providing disparate facilities like computer education, computer typing, digital photography, internet access resulting in cross sales. 3. Citizens: The citizens are the reason as well the force behind the solution. They save tremendous amount of opportunity cost and effort in getting government services. In an economy riddled with poverty, it is an enormous burden on the citizens to forego daily wages to obtain government services. Therefore, with the Lokvani system, the citizens are the key beneficiaries. Apart from above, volunteers of Asha (an NGO led by Mr.Sandeep Pandey, a Magsaysay awardee) provided civil society’s pressure on the government to keep it on track. Media played an important role not only in publicizing the initiative (so that people can use it effectively), but also criticizing the non performing officers by bringing out newspaper reports and stories on news channel by picking up their performance directly from the website.

Describe how and when the initiative was implemented by answering these questions
a. What were the strategies used to implement the initiative? In no more than 500 words, provide a summary of the main objectives and strategies of the initiative, how they were established and by whom.
Objective is to eliminate digital divide and connect people to strategy makers in a seamless manner. This objective is driven by a broader vision of an e-Governed India. In which, the ultimate goal is to completely eliminate any physical interaction between a citizen and a government servant throughout his life (lifecycle approach from birth to death). Also to empower a common man to such an extent using latest ICT tools so that he can monitor public servants’ performance vis-à-vis his grievances. To achieve that objective, a study of existing similar e-Governance projects was done by a team of Sub Divisional Magistrate, District Informatics Officer and Block Development officer constituted by District Magistrate. The idea about kiosks, services offered through them and financial issues came from Dhar (Madhya Pradesh) & Jhalawar (Rajasthan). After completion of study, a number of brain storming sessions were organized for taking it from paper to public, and making it suitable for Sitapur. Self-sustainability and change management were the key strategies for successful implementation and execution of Lokvani Project. The self-sustainability of Lokvani is derived from the innovative operational model wherein existing cyber cafes are being leveraged to act as franchisees of the system. Such a strategy avoids upfront investments from the government to set up such kiosks as well as avoids any operational support from the government. This is possible as the system generates its own funds from the citizens and contributes to the earnings of the kiosk operators. Another dimension of sustainability is provided by the transparency created by the system which has allowed the press to take up issues related to administrative efficacy. This has created tremendous citizen pressure which will ensure that the system continues to exist even when the champions of the system move out. Change Management was done using a 3 pronged approach. Firstly, 4-5 officers were identified based on their interest in IT and commitment to people’s issues. They formed a core group which looked after day to day functioning. Secondly, no decision of Lokvani was taken by the leader himself. It was strictly ensured that all the decisions are taken openly in meetings which may be chaired by the DM or any member of the core group. This ensured the participation, interest and enthusiasm of most of the government officers in the project. Thirdly, an awards and punishment policy was used for monitoring the performance of all the officers (about 300 in number) on weekly basis regularly. The awards and punishments were both publicized extensively to get the desired results. Lokvani system was widely promoted through press conferences. The kiosk owners were also encouraged to organize awareness camps and to take local level measures to publicize the initiative. The prime target was to gain faith of people to system by giving excellent solutions to initial problems.

b. What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
When Mr. Amod Kumar took over as the District Magistrate (DM), Sitapur in July 2004, he intended to initiate a system that would ensure transparency in administration. He had heard of two “Government to Citizen” (G2C) initiatives, Gyandoot (http://gyandoot.nic.in/) at Dhar District of Madhya Pradesh, and Janmitra (http://jhalawar.nic.in/janmitra.htm) at the Jhalawar District of Rajasthan. A team of 3 people, including the Sub-Divisional Magistrate, Sitapur (from the revenue department), the District Information Officer (from the technical department), and the Block Development Officer (from the development stream) was sent to study these 2 initiatives in September 2004. Revenue and development functions represented the two most critical Government-Citizen (G2C) interfaces at the district level. In order to implement the project autonomously and reduce the bureaucratic hassles, a society by the name Lokvani was constituted and registered. The National Informatics Centre (NIC) created new software that improvised upon Gyandoot and Janmitra initiatives. Due to the inadequate electricity supply in the district (leading to frequent and long power cuts), it was decided to host the site at the NIC’s Delhi server, rather than at the district headquarters. Therefore, it was decided that Lokvani would be based on the Internet rather than the Intranet (like Gyandoot and Janmitra) to enable 24*7 access and 100% transparency. The site design was customized to the local needs. The entire site was in Hindi, the official language (which also happens to be the local language). They conceptualized a user-friendly site with large jumbo-sized lists, rather than small bullet points. The site therefore contained no graphics, large Hindi fonts, and is easy to navigate. The text was written in the language of the commoners (like the link for viewing complaint status was titled as “status of your complaints”, rather than “complaint status”) A deadline of 15th November 2004 was set for the test launch of the site. Pilot testing began with public grievances on 9th November 2004, and the site was fully operational by 10th December 2004. Initially, there were only 13 Lokvani kiosks(with roughly 2 in each tehsil). In the first 20 days since the site was activated, they got complaints in single digits (number of complaints received per day); by the first month, they began receiving complaints in double digits (per day); and by the end of three months, they started getting triple-digit number of complaints. As on 15th January 2008, Lokvani had received 109,086 grievances, of which 104,519 had been resolved (http://sitapur.nic.in/lokvani/stp/exsmry1.asp). After the suggestion from some employees, regular weekly meeting for monitoring purpose started getting held from January 2005. A local call center was set up in June 2005 to answer to the queries of citizens and officers related to Lokvani. An IVRS (Interactive Voice Response System) was also introduced at about the same time. IVRS was not very successful, but the call center was very successful and functioning excellently presently. Later on with time other information/ services were added/are being added on demand of the citizen/kiosk owners.

c. What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
Introducing G2C services was not easy. The officers were not well versed with computer; rather they were used to files and paperwork. Electricity supply was erratic, and the tehsils were not connected to the internet. The infrastructure was not adequate. To overcome this drawback the public-private partnership (PPP) model of kiosk was introduced. To reach the rural illiterate and poor people through internet, kiosks model was copied from Gyandoot project of MP. An intensive publicity campaign was launched to break the initial barrier of fear of computers. Radio publicity using FM channels was used to reach the illiterate people who can’t read. The aim was to bring a few initial users to kiosks. Once their problems were solved effectively using Lokvani, word of mouth publicity was enough to keep it moving. Change management was identified as the toughest task for this project. Attitudes of officers towards learning new technology were not up to the desired levels. Therefore, it was necessary to have a programmatic approach to change management in order to ensure an effective implementation of the system. The officer is assigned a fixed period of 15 days within which he has to redress the issue. This strict schedule has dramatically increased the efficiency and accountability of officers. Moreover the District Magistrate and the citizens can access the progress report of the work by any officer. Transparency brought about by the easy availability of information on land records has reduced the possibility of land scams. Change Management was done using a 3 pronged approach. Firstly, 4-5 officers were identified based on their interest in IT and commitment to people’s issues. They formed a core group which looked after day to day functioning. Secondly, no decision of Lokvani was taken by the leader himself. It was strictly ensured that all the decisions are taken openly in meetings which may be chaired by the DM or any member of the core group. This ensured the participation, interest and enthusiasm of most of the government officers in the project. Thirdly, an awards and punishment policy was used for monitoring the performance of all the officers (about 300 in number) on weekly basis regularly. The awards and punishments were both publicized extensively to get the desired results. Lokvani system was widely promoted through press conferences. The kiosk owners were also encouraged to organize awareness camps and to take local level measures to publicize the initiative. The prime target was to gain faith of people to system by giving excellent solutions to initial problems.

d. What resources were used for the initiative and what were its key benefits? In no more than 500 words, specify what were the financial, technical and human resources’ costs associated with this initiative. Describe how resources were mobilized
The Lokvani Society was built with the existing Government Servants. District Magistrate as chairman heads the society. The society has district level officers and eminent citizens as its members. The Software was made by National Informatics Centre (NIC) as part of its duty to technically assist District Magistrate. NIC has provided necessary infrastructure for hosting the Lokvani application at remote server. Conversion of existing cyber cafes/computer training institutes into Lokvani Centers was a key factor driving the financial success. This step ensured that extraneous capital was not a vital requirement for the solution. The society signed contracts with existing kiosk owners for the purpose of registering them as Lokvani franchisees with only a nominal fee of INR 1,000 paid annually by Kiosk owner. The kiosks are run by Private IT entrepreneurs. A typical kiosk has an internet enabled PC, printer, webcam and power backup device (UPS/inverter/generator). Kiosks earn profits through the income generated from various services of Lokvani provided to the citizens. In addition, the kiosks can also generate some extra revenue by providing disparate facilities like computer education, computer typing, digital photography, internet access resulting in cross sales. Some of the kiosks are earning as high as Rs.20,000 per month. Directly no cost is involved in this project from government. Development and implementation is done by using government machinery, which is part of their regular duty.

Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
The self-sustainability of Lokvani is derived from the innovative operational model wherein existing cyber cafes are being leveraged to act as franchisees of the system. Such a strategy avoids upfront investments from the government to set up such kiosks as well as avoids any operational support from the government. This is possible as the system generates its own funds from the citizens and contributes to the earnings of the kiosk operators. Another dimension of sustainability is provided by the transparency created by the system which has allowed the press to take up issues related to administrative efficacy. This has created tremendous citizen pressure which will ensure that the system continues to exist even when the champions of the system move out. The project Lokvani can be completely replicated with ease. UP Government had passed Government Order to implement this project in all districts of state. This project is already replicated in about 35 districts in UP. A translated Telugu version of Lokvani is being used in AP. Wide network of NIC, coordination between employees and standardized central data structure has made transferability of project exceptionally smooth and fast. It takes only few hours to install system in new district but strategically it takes time to implement. This system can be made operational by conducting the Lokvani meeting once in a week under chairmanship of District Magistrate.

What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
The Lokvani project has successfully showcased a paradigm that can be incorporated by other administrative organizations. It has also proved that a low literacy rate, financial constraints, and power shortage are not a barrier for implementing a successful e-Governance project. Sitapur has a 38.6% literacy and negligible computer literacy rate. However this did not prove to be a deterrent to the project as the existing kiosks were used as an interface between the systems and the citizens. A key learning from this solution is that word of mouth is the most effective and efficient mechanism for generating awareness among rural and semi-urban citizens that have low literacy rates. Rural people have lost trust in advertisement due to false promises made to them. Hence, trust can be built only by offering services that satisfy their need over a period. Lokvani Society charges the kiosk operator annually as fee for hosting Government services instead of subsidizing kiosks for sustainability, Lokvani has proved that e-Governance projects can be source of the revenue for Government. This fact has been established in the district where 88% population is rural and average income of citizen is very low. The project has succeeded despite several odds such as extremely poor literacy, only 6-7 hours availability of power in rural areas, minimal computer literacy, poor connectivity and inert socio-political atmosphere. It has demonstrated that e-Governance/ICT can succeed without electricity also in rural areas, provided a good business model is built around it. Kiosks are managed using generators/invertors/solar devices. This shows that profit motive and competition can overcome many infrastructural inadequacies. The large success of the project has created an e-Governance friendly atmosphere in the state. Lokvani ensured that all the officers in the district were under public scrutiny, with a subtle threat of being exposed. Since the contents of the complaints in Lokvani are available to the public at large, there is always the threat of media highlighting any malpractices/ inefficiencies. Change management was identified as the toughest task for this project. Attitudes of officers towards learning new technology have not been up to the desired levels. Therefore, it is necessary to have a programmatic approach to change management in order to ensure an effective implementation of the system. Lokvani has brought about, a well appreciated transparency to the workings of the administration. Lokvani has excelled in transparency by displaying performance of officers on web (http://sitapur.nic.in/lokvani/stp/officerwise_detail.asp). This kind of openness has been not seen in any of the Government Organization in the country yet. People were unaware of their rights as well the possible support provided by the government under various schemes. Widespread awareness as well as a stronger formulated public opinion can go a long way in the fight against corruption.


Institution Name:		District Lokvani Society Sitapur
Institution Type:		Government Agency
Contact Person:		Amod Kumar
Title:		Special Secretary I.T., Govt. of UP
Telephone/ Fax:		+91-522-2209353
Institution's / Project's Website:		+91-522-2236261
E-mail:		amodkumar71@gmail.com
Address:		H. No. 8, Type IV, Butler Palace
Postal Code:		226001
City:		Lucknow
State/Province:		Uttar Pradesh
Country:		India

The Problem

Solution and Key Benefits

Actors and Stakeholders

(a) Strategies

(b) Implementation

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

(d) Use of Resources

Sustainability and Transferability

Lessons Learned

Contact Information