PUBLIC RELATIONS, PUBLIC GRIEVANCES, ACCOUNTABILITY, PARTICIPATORY LEARNING AND THE ROLE OF NGOs IN DEVELOPMENT
Simply stated, Public Relations is the art and science of creating and maintaining purposeful relations with the public. Such relations must necessarily yield good results. Public Relations, therefore, involves an understanding of people - individuals from various walks of life in relation to the organization with which PR personnel are concerned.
Public Relations means different things to different people. Theoreticians consider it a philosophical and moral concept. PR practitioners see it as nothing more than the “art of getting things done”. However, the basic purpose of PR and PR techniques is more or less the same in all sectors i.e. Government, Public and Private Institutions. Nevertheless, there are certain aspects of PR that are specifically applicable to a given class of institutions.
In other words, PR is a way of decision-making. It is a key ingredient in the democratic process. It is effective motivation and two-way communication. For some, PR is a process of doing good work and taking credit for it. PR also involves image building. Some view PR as a mirror, which gives the organization’s clientele a clear perspective of their relationship with the organization.
A nicer way to think of Public Relations is to imagine a bee pollinating in its area of operation: it flits here, there, then back again, never stopping, relentless in its duties.
PR activity is more often an invisible input; but all the same, it is essential for the better working and understanding of an organization. Unless people know what your organization is doing and what its objectives are, they seldom can appreciate your efforts.
Meaning of PR
a) Promotion of rapport and goodwill between a firm or institution and other persons, a special public, or the community at large through the distribution or interpretation of material, the development of neighbourly interchange and the assessment of public reaction;
b) The degree of understanding and goodwill achieved between an individual, organization, or institution and the public, and the application of techniques for achieving this relationship;
c) The art or science of developing reciprocal understanding and goodwill and the professional staff entrusted with this task.
Definitions
- Robert Heilib: Practice covering a lot of acreage, blurring out into advertising and sloping over into selling, dipping into publicity and touching, or at least aspiring to, the making of public opinion itself.
- Prof. Byron Christian: PR is a conscious effort to motivate or influence people, primarily through communication, to think well of an organization, to respect it, to support it, and to stick with it through trial and trouble.
- Cutlip and Centre: PR is the management function which evaluates public attitudes, identifies policies and procedures of an individual or an organization with public interest, and executes a program of action to earn public understanding and acceptance.
- W.T. Parry: PR means the development of cordial, amicable, and therefore profitable relations between a business, industry, organization, and the public it serves.
- Rex Mardaw: PR means the processes whereby an organization analyses the needs and desires of all interested parties in order to conduct itself more responsively towards them.
- British Institute of Public Relations: PR is a deliberate, planned, and sustained effort to establish and maintain mutual understanding between an organization and its public.
Nature and Scope
In a democratic society, all institutions are invested with public responsibilities. In a democracy, the importance attached to public opinion is great because “vox populi, vox dei” (the voice of the people is the voice of God). The rulers and organisations must accept accountability for all their actions that affect others. Today’s public opinion, though it may appear as light as air, may become tomorrow’s legislation, for better or for worse. The success of public relations is tied to public opinion. But public opinion is like an atmosphere; it is a fickle beast.
Therefore, a wise institution or organization makes public relations a function of management so that every decision is considered from the standpoint of its public impact. It should not be forgotten that responsible performance on the part of a corporation, government agency, profit or non-profit organization is the foundation of sound public relationships.
A stage has been reached where every official shall have to practice public relations. If it is not feasible to practice PR, it shall at least be possible to have a PR attitude towards the public they deal with.
Public Grievance
The synonyms of grief are: agony, anguish, gloom, heartache, misery, pain, sorrow, suffering, unhappiness, woe, despair, discontent, despondency, dissatisfaction, displeasure, etc.
i) Individual Grievance: It shall be defined as any problem arising out of the interpretation, application, operation, administration or alleged violation of the collective agreement, including any dispute.
ii) Group Grievance: It shall be defined as any problem arising out of the interpretation, application, operation, administration or alleged violation of the collective agreement, including any dispute as to whether the difference is arbitrable, concerning two or more people.
iii) Policy Grievance: It shall be defined as any problem arising out of the interpretation, application, operation, administration or any contravention or alleged contravention of this agreement, affecting either party and/or more than one individual in more than one department.
Efforts of Government
Citizen charters; “May I Help You” booths; information counters; guidance bureaus; public assistance cells; public information centres; public facilitation centres; “Dial Your CM”; “Meet the Minister”; awareness camps; Prajala Vaddaku Palana; event weeks; safety weeks; public interest advertisements; institutional advertisements; Soukaryam; e-Seva; Mee Kosam; open houses; exhibitions; etc.
Redressal of Public Grievances
The poor record of most public agencies in the area of prompt and effective redressal of public grievances is a major cause of public dissatisfaction and a subject of criticism by elected representatives. Public grievances primarily arise out of the inaccessibility of officials, failure to even acknowledge applications, non-enforcement of any kind of time limits, and the unsympathetic attitude of officials at various levels. A note highlighting the areas of action is given below to enable Central and State Governments to review their existing system of redressal of public grievances, and to institute measures not only for streamlining these, but also to monitor the steps taken to improve their efficacy.
Effective and Speedy Public Grievance Redressal System
The poor record of most public agencies in the areas of prompt and effective redressal of public grievances is a major cause of public dissatisfaction and the subject of criticism by elected representatives. It is noticed that many of the government departments and their subordinate offices, which have substantial public interface and where large numbers of the public are required to go daily, do not display the required orientation to the needs and circumstances of the public, especially the weaker sections of society, women and the handicapped.
It is also found that adequate facilities are often not available in public offices for the reception of the public seeking various types of information or with various queries and demands for services. Arrangements for seating and waiting of the public, water supply and sanitation and protection from rain and sun, etc., are insufficient or non-existent in police stations and other public offices which citizens are required to visit. There are often no display boards relating to information generally desired by the public on the location of offices and facilities, various procedures involved, fees, submission of forms and time taken for disposal. The names of grievance redressal officers are not often widely published, and these officers are also not as accessible as stipulated to meet the public.
Apart from lack of facilities and friendly reception, public grievances primarily arise out of inaccessibility of officials, failure to even acknowledge applications, unwarranted delays and non-enforcement of time limits, lack of information, harassment and activities of middlemen, demand for speed money, ignorance of procedures and forms and the unsympathetic attitudes of officials at all levels. In big cities, citizens are often required to travel long distances to visit different offices due to lack of decentralized locations at the ward level for providing information and dealing with complaints. The methods for payment of various taxes and service charges are often inconvenient and not suited to the working hours of such members of the public who do not have access to servants. As regards villagers in dispersed villages throughout the district, they face great problems in approaching the tehsil and district offices for getting copies of records, licenses, payments and applications under various government schemes.
State Governments have instituted systems of time-bound redressal of citizens’ grievances, which are often monitored through computers and programmes like “Administration to the People” in Andhra Pradesh. The district officials are required, in many states like Tripura, to visit villages and blocks together periodically in order to listen to the grievances of the people and redress them on the spot. Ministers also convene Janata Darbar. In Rajasthan, it is Jan Sunvai, etc.
The Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances is monitoring the progress in respect of disposal of public grievances in the Central Government. The Directorate of Public Grievances in the Cabinet Secretariat deals with cases of individual grievances for central agencies with a large public interface and has the power to call officials and the concerned files, and to give Lok Adalats to deal with complaints in the presence of the consumers. There are social audit panels of eminent citizens, which look into the quality of services of the Postal and Telecommunications Department. There is an Ombudsman for commercial banks. The Central Manual of Office Procedure provides for the fixation of time limits for dealing with public grievances, while the code of conduct rules provides for disciplinary action in case of discourteous behaviour or negligence in grievance redressal.
Similar arrangements can be considered at the state level, apart from cells located in the office of Chief Ministers, as in fact is being done in states like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Haryana. This will help in high-level attention to systematic causes of grievances through delegation, decentralization, flexible norms, simplified procedures, review of forms, etc. The performance review of officials could incorporate attention to grievance redressal and public perception of the services of the agency.
The number and periodicity of contacts for the people with government officers would be minimized and the officers should allow for the flexible needs of the working population. Every department should choose a few priority areas from the citizen’s viewpoint for computerization and allow free access of the citizens to this information on computer. Finally, every public body should have a well-defined mission statement spelling out standards of service provided to the public, such as garbage removal, water supply and power supply. The officials responsible for good work should be given recognition and reward and innovative practices should be widely disseminated.
The real issue, however, is the need to bring about a total change in the attitude of public servants towards redressal of public grievances at all levels and to pinpoint responsibility for action on grievances of the people. This is dependent internally on measures to improve their levels of motivation and morale through rewards for good work and punishment for deliberate negligence and through awards for suggestions. The senior officers should constantly supervise the staff at the cutting-edge level in police stations, sub-divisions, etc. Every official in public offices should wear a name badge.
Public Facilitation Centre
- Provide information regarding services, schemes and procedures through brochures, booklets, reports, etc.
- Provide information regarding the position of waiting lists and applications through computer screens updated every day and through computerized query to departmental databases.
- Provide information regarding matters such as bill payment, registration, land/house allotment, payments or phone, personally to the public.
- Forms which are to be utilized for various procedures should be available at the facilitation centre, even if the processing is to be done elsewhere.
- Receive complaints, issue acknowledgement slips indicating the section dealing with the complaints.
- A sufficiently senior officer is to man the facilitation centres, with appropriate orientation, capable of speaking English and the local language for handling customers, and with knowledge of the use of computers.
- Time limits and other details be notified through display boards at the facilitation centres for completion of various procedures and for disposal of cases.
- Ensure easy accessibility to facilitation centres for the customer and average citizen, and publicity regarding the location and hours of access.
- Utilize interactive voice systems where feasible for enquiry response.
- Provide benches and fans for the waiting public, especially the old and the handicapped.
Citizen Charter
The Spirit: "A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us; we are dependent on him. He is not an interruption on our work; he is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider on our business; he is part of it. We are not doing him a favour by serving him; he is doing us a favour by giving us an opportunity to do so." - Mahatma Gandhi
- Transparency + Accountability + Citizen Friendliness = Citizens Charter
- Good Governance is the technology; Citizens Charter is the tool.
The Citizen’s Charter is a document prepared by the service provider in a clear and precise manner about the quality and method of delivery of services to the users of the service.
The purpose of the Citizen’s Charter is to:
Before anyone can make a complaint, they need to have certain information. This includes rights and responsibilities. People should be told not only what their rights are as receivers of public service, but also what their responsibilities are. This can be done best in a clear statement given in the Citizen’s Charter.
Reviewing Complainants
Complainants should have the opportunity to have their complaint reviewed if they are dissatisfied with the response. Each department should determine the best arrangement to suit its position.
People will only complain if they feel that the organization listens to their complaints and acts on them. They will not do so if they think that it will not bring any result. These organizations must make it clear to the public that complaints are welcomed and that information will be used to improve services.
Removing Fear
People may not complain if they fear that the service will somehow single them out for harassment and punish them for complaining. This is particularly true if the relationship between the user and the service puts the user in a potentially vulnerable position. Example: electricity, water, telephones, etc., departments.
Handling Complaints Within the Organization
Each department should have procedures for dealing with complaints, which are clearly understood and followed by the staff. The procedures should be simple and enable speedy solutions to the complaints received.
Redress for a complaint can be the following:
- An apology
- An explanation
- An assurance that the same thing will not happen again
- Action taken to put things right
- Financial compensation
An NGO is a non-profit-making company. It is like any other company registered with the Registrar of Companies. The only important difference is that it is not supposed to make profits. In other words, it does not exist for commercial gain. A non-profit company has been designed for voluntary work only. It provides all the advantages of a corporate form to a development organisation.
Today, India is looking wide-eyed at the world. Indian NGOs are testing international waters. In such a situation, the non-profit company may be the logical choice for voluntary work in the third millennium. An existing society is convertible into a company.
Though the Registrar of Companies does not have clear statistics on NGOs, by the turn of the century, a total of 5,10,954 companies had been registered. However, we know that at least 17,942 companies of these are classified under “Community, Social Services”.
Conclusion
The Public Relations profession has many tools. They are communication, publicity, advertisement, etc. But the profession of Public Relations itself is an effective tool to handle public grievances. Stripped to its fundamentals, Public Relations is nothing but the daily application of common sense, common knowledge, common decency and etiquette. Where better and sustained relations are maintained, there is no scope for grievances.
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