RTI- Random Telegrams with Information

We are taught about our fundamental rights from a very young age. As far as I remember we were taught about it for the first time in 6th grade. Fundamental rights are the liberty given to us by the constitution. Without them we would have nothing to protect us. We are taught about it so that we can be aware of our rights and so that no one can exploit us. One of the recent ones that was added to the constitution was the right to information. The basic object of the Right to Information Act is to empower the citizens, promote transparency and accountability in the working of the Government, contain corruption, and make our democracy work for the people in real sense. It goes without saying that an informed citizen is better equipped to keep necessary vigil on the instruments of governance and make the government more accountable to the governed. The Act is a big step towards making the citizens informed about the activities of the Government. We have been learning about it in our textbooks for quite some time however putting it to use is a different experience all together. Right now I am expressing my right to freedom of expression. I can say or write freely as long as I don’t cross the reasonable restrictions on this right.
One of my optional subjects is Political Science and for one of my term projects I had to exercise my right to information by asking questions to the government relating to any topic of my choice. Right to information has been one of the rights that I have been very curious about and this project was an absolutely amazing opportunity to experience it. Since COVID-19 is going on, I had been wanting to know about the arrangements for covid-19 in government hospitals and how they were helping the economically weaker section of our society. That is what I asked them about. I asked 3 questions addressing to Indian Council of Medical Research-

1. What is the total number of beds available in government hospitals for covid 19 patients from 1st april to 30th June?

2. What is the total number of ventilators available in Government hospitals as of 30th June,2020?

3. What is the total number of reimbursements to hospitals on account of COVID-19 treatment for BPL patients? How many such claims were below 18 years of age.

I thought the first 2 questions would be extremely easy to answer, I was intrigued to see the answer of the third. I thought I would get an email and patiently waited for one. Not patiently exactly but by checking and refreshing my G-mail repeatedly. I got one finally ! However it said that the questions are being passed on to another department- Department of Health & Family Welfare. At last after ages, I got a reply but not on my G-mail but on my doorstep. I got a letter! I had received a letter before but usually from a relative, not from a strange Government official. Well excited to see the answers I opened the envelope. However it was quite disappointing as they did not have the information I needed. They didn't have the numbers. Well that's that. I thought I will tell you all about how disappointed I am in not getting this answer and it would be a sad ending. It was a sad ending but much more tragic than I thought it to be.
After that letter, I thought it was the end and I am pretty sure you did too. However it was not. I received another letter 2 days later and then another and then another. I kept on receiving them. Few of them had answers, most of them didn't. You are wondering how many letters? I have received 18 letters till now ! They are all from different hospitals around India. Few from the same hospital but different departments. And the last one I received yesterday! I don't know how many more I am going to get or for how long. Pretty sure many generations to come will enjoy this piece of history! Not only did they do this but almost all of them are addressed to Mr. Aru Bisht too. Few were right which shows that I had not entered my Gender wrong. This is a big mistake. Being a Government office shouldn't they at least be conscious of the Gender of the person. It is the most basic thing. I have a few thoughts about this experience.
First and the most simplest of things that can be corrected is- that they could send me emails rather than sending me 18 and I don't know how many more letters. Each post costs around Rs.45. I paid Rs.10 to get this information. Plus the ink, paper and man power used. I don’t see how it was worth it. An email could have been much better and convenient for the sender and the receiver. Yes, there are people who don’t have access to the internet but I gave them my mail id and filed an RTI online. So they had that option. I received only one institution's information through mail and it was AIIMS, Bhopal. I applaud them for this.
Also the fact that during this pandemic they don’t have collective information about this troubles me. I didn't have to get 18 letters if they had recorded information from these hospitals in one database. We should be collecting this information so that we can battle the next pandemic in a more systematic way. If we don’t we have to do it all over again from scratch. There are so many government hospitals with so many departments, how can they possibly ask each one to send me a different mail. It is such a pain to the receiver. I have recorded all the information I got from these hospitals in one excel sheet and it took me 20 minutes. Here it is-

Should right to information be about giving the people answers to their questions or learning from those questions and finding the answers. Right to information to me seems more like a way for them to make us not ask questions. This experience was extremely uncomfortable. It felt like a form of harassment. It is almost discouraging for me to be receiving a letter almost every other day since the last 2.5 months. Should I ask questions with this as a consequence?The power of questions is unlimited. We learn so much if we ask them. It is only when we ask questions that we find answers. We are usually more attracted to answers than to questions. However it was with questions that the world evolved. It was the people who questioned the unusual and seeked to find the answers that we got discoveries and inventions. It is only when we question the practices and understand the answer that we realize it was wrong. Without questioning customs and beliefs we would not have progressed further. Questions are a way forward in life. However weird and different this experience was, I won't stop asking why, what and how and I hope you won’t too.

"The important thing is to never stop questioning." -Albert Einstein