Social Media in e-Governance: A Study with Special Reference to India

ABSTRACT

This paper makes an attempt to analyze current use of social media and their promising advantages for e-governance in government organizations. It discusses potential issues especially issues related to security and privacy of individuals, employees, infrastructure and data that impede successful implementation of social media for e-governance. It examines draft government of India framework for embedding social media in organizational structure and examines issued guidelines for platform to be used, authorization to engage on behalf of government organization, scope and extend of such engagement, etc. It compares these guidelines with similar guidelines of some other nations in terms of employee’s access, account management, acceptable use, employee conduct, content, security, legal issues and citizen conduct and enumerates its merits, demerits and scope for further improvements.

Article Courtesy: https://file.scirp.org/Html/1-2680023_30781.htm 

 

1. Introduction

Social media provides users with deep and rich experience for participation, interaction and collaboration. Various social media tools allow their users to create and share information on the web and collaborate with others interactively thus making easier to find information and connect online with one another. Social media has also been used for e-learning as they have created opportunities for effective teacher-learner, learner-learner and teacher-teacher communication, interaction and collaboration. With the inclusion of mobile technology, there has not only been an intense rise in the number and type of social media tools but their use is also on increase. In developed countries like USA, Poland, UK and Korea at least four in ten adult citizens use social media tools. Social media sites dominate the Internet usage in Asia and the Pacific [1]. In comparison to men, women are more actively engaged in social media sites [2]. Though currently the use of social media sites is more popular among youngsters but studies are revealing that there is an increasing trend of participation by elders from last few years. In general social media can be classified in the following four categories: 1) online networks and ecosystems—e.g. Facebook LinkedIn, MySpace and Twitter2) online publications—e.g. YouTube, Flicker, RSS, SlideShare and Twitter, 3) Online collaborative platforms —e.g. Wikis like MediaWiki, blogs like Wordpress or Blogger, and collaborative office solutions like Office- 365, Google Docs, MS Lync, Debategraph, Teamwork or WorkSpot, and 4) online feedback systems—e.g. voting and debating, rating and commenting, surveys, polls, blogs, etc. Online networks and ecosystems build and reflect the networks and relationships between peers. Online publication tools provide services or platforms for sharing and publishing content online. Collaborative platforms facilitate cooperative and work processes between people. Tools for online feedback facilitate input from an audience through one-way or two-way communication. To promote business many organizations have included social media in their organizational structure. Governments of various nations have also incorporated social media in e-governance, however, to make this integration secure and more efficient they have devised frameworks, policies and guidelines that regulate this integration.

The remaining paper is organized as follows: Section 2 briefly presents current use of social media in e-governance, followed by discussions on its potential advantages and involved risks in Sections 3 and 4 respectively. Section 5 presents the highlights of a recent study that analyzed 26 social media documents. In Section 6, core elements of a successful social media policy are enumerated. In Section 7, Indian Government framework & guidelines for use of social media in e-governance are examined and its limitations are enumerated in Section 8. Finally, Section 9 provides guidelines for improving this framework followed by conclusion.

2. Social Media in e-Governance

Commercial organizations, academic institutions and individuals use social media extensively for online presence, promotion of goods and services, gathering customer feedbacks, experience sharing, consumer and customer interactions, collaborative content preparation, elearning, communication, social interaction, etc. Recently, politicians, citizens, and governments throughout the globe including those from least developed countries have demonstrated effective use of social media tools to revolutionize governance arrangements, mobilize movements against and in support of governments, hold election campaigns, sustain government-citizen communication in disorder, etc. Barack Obama and Mitt Romney have actively embraced Twitter and used the social networking sites as campaign tools during the 2012 presidential contest to communicate directly with supporters and, more importantly, drive the political conversation in a way that reaches far beyond the site. Governments under some policy or government officials in their personal capacity have been using social networks for foreign affairs, administration and information. USA and UK governments beside others like Australia and Sweden are most active in the use of social media for digital diplomacy. Currently, 66 percent of all USA Government agencies use one or the other form of social media website [1]. According to the UN e-Governance survey 2012 [3], 48 percent i.e. 78 member states provide either a “follow us on Facebook” or “follow us on Twitter” statement on their government websites. According to same survey 7 percent such websites provide chat rooms or IM features to gather public opinion. In India, various ministers and officials actively use social media to communicate with citizens.

Recently, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has also shown his presence on Twitter as his office launched its social media initiative through Twitter (http://twitter. com/#!/pmoindia), You Tube (http://www.facebook.com/ pages/Indian-Prime-Ministers-Office/107934225905981) and Facebook (http://www.youtube.com/user/zPMOffice India?ob=0&feature=results_main). Similar efforts have been initiated by various other ministries and other government functionaries throughout the country.

3. Advantages of Using Social Media in e-Governance

Various impediments for adoption of e-governance include lack of awareness of e-services [4], access to eservices [5-6], citizens interest [7], government support [8], digital divide [9] and low usability of government websites. Another important factor in adoption of new technologies required in e-governance is trust on government. Communication with citizens has been recognized as the most important measure to build this trust towards e-governance [10-13].

The four major potential strengths of social media sites are collaboration, participation, empowerment, and time. These facilitate governments to serve its people as they promote government information, services and collaboration with its stakeholders bringing together government agencies, citizens, agencies work and information. Social media can expand the usage of Internet to realize the full benefits of e-governance. Social media sites not only offer benefits to e-governance by intensifying and monitoring services but also reduce costs while improving their quality. Using these sites, governments can post job advertisements, promote services, announce and market events, seek public feedbacks and cooperation and collaborate across its geographically diverse agencies. Since social media has enormous prospectus for increasing citizen usage of e-service [14] and e-participation [15], its greater usage by public could increase transparency which in turn can increases trust on government. A recent review [16] of social media use in e-government has listed its various other applications in e-governance. In its recent report captioned as “Designing Social Media Policy for Government: Eight Essential Elements” [17] three different ways of use of social media sites by employees at work have been identified by Centre for Technology in Government, University at Albany. These uses are for official agency interests, professional interests, and personal interests. Often these three are not mutually exclusive and sometimes there are no clear lines dividing official agency use from professional use or professional use from personal use. David Landsbergen in his recent research works [18,19] identified ways in which social media tools are used in different government agencies and collected five mechanisms as shown in Figure 1 by which social media tools can realize Government 2.0.

4. Risks in the Use of Social Media for e-Governance

Government information systems including its infrastructure, individuals, agency, employees and information is facing threats that are persistent, pervasive and aggressive [20]. This situation gets intensified by the environment created by social media because it uses Web 2.0 technologies that are constantly changing and involves risks on multiple fronts including those related to behavior, ergonomic configuration, regulation and technology [21]. Since the risks involved are interdependent, therefore, regulating one may intensify the other.

Figure 1. Mechanisms by which social media tools can realize Government 2.0.

Since the Web 2.0 environment provides its users with immense power to collaborate, share and interact, they can easily indulge in practices that could infringe the rights of others. The most common risks related to behavior of users during interactions on the Web are risks to reputation, privacy, intellectual property, and publication of personal and illegal content. Social media has potential to raise campaigns in favor or against governments or groups. There has been a sinister use of social networking tools as well, e.g. during summer 2011 riots in the UK. In Kashmir, 2011 upsurge of separatist movement causing unrest in the Kashmir was also directly influenced by the use of social networking.

Technological advancements in the Web have created user friendly and easy to use interfaces and services. Web 2.0 including social media now provide easy environments that permit sharing documents, videos and audio, create groups, add online friends, post profiles, etc. Some configurations also permit to perform these jobs anonymously. This flexibility in the configuration can risk its users to unintentionally violate privacy, intellectual property and other regulations or make actions that may be illegal. Social media permits its users to create their detailed profiles including personal information, relationships, pictures, etc. which can be seen by others and then rearranged and transformed to unacceptable formats and platforms.

Governments and organizations have created laws and regulations that describe what is “right” and what is “wrong” when communicating online. Legal frameworks vary considerable from country to country but the social media has a global character. In many cases appropriate punishments are set to be awarded for violation of these laws. Since Web 2.0 is rapidly changing, therefore, legal frameworks need to be updated frequently to take care of these new developments. However, since in social networking environment different stakeholders share different positions and perform changing roles, it may be difficult to establish responsibility. Further, with little or no knowledge of the laws governing use of social media and consequences for violating some of these laws, users can easily get trapped into crimes for indulging in online offences and crimes.

Attacks through techniques like spear phishing, social engineering and web applications to social media risk individuals, agency, employees and information. Using social media with little or moderate computing skills, individuals or employees face multiple risks from highly skilled cyber attackers to get involved in unlawful activities and compromise on information security and privacy.

5. Social Media Policy and Guidelines for e-Governance

Social media tools have created opportunities for collaborative government and have the potential to facilitate governments to reach its citizens, shape online debates and e-participation, empower citizens, groups and communities and even revive or demand democracy and thus take the evolution of e-government towards new directions. Social media applications also pose several risks including isolation, exclusion, violation of privacy, misuse of information and security threats. Therefore, a comprehensive policy framework can serve as a key enabler for government organizations in providing guidelines for use of social media in governess. Unique challenges are involved in devising policies for the use of social media in e-government as ambiguity looms large on several key parameters including expected benefits, risks involved, effectiveness, etc. Therefore, many government departments throughout the globe have designed guidelines and policies for the use of social media in e-governess projects which differ primarily on the elements covered under these documents and the magnitude of detail under each element.

The highlights of a detailed analysis [21] in terms of content and approach of 26 such documents and a limited survey of the use of social media tools by 32 government professionals is presented below:
• Eight essential core elements for a social media policy are: Employee Access, Account Management, Acceptable Use, Employee Conduct, Content, Security, Legal Issues and Citizen Conduct.
• Only five documents addressed the issue of employee access to social media sites, most of them suggested employee access to be controlled by granting access to selected sites only after business case justification.
• Twelve documents addressed the issue of account management, out of which eight were from local governments’ which provided explicit policy for account management and others which were state policies provided enterprise level suggestions which varied from one other considerably.
• Twelve documents addressed the issue of acceptable use particularly for personal use. The guidelines mostly pointed to the use of existing acceptable use policy regarding ICT infrastructure. It is clear that the policy makers are striving hard to draw boundaries between personal and professional use of employees.
• Twenty one documents set guidelines for employees conduct addressing issue of employees’ behavior which mostly referred directly or indirectly to the general pre-established employee code of conduct. Some provided guidelines specifically to social media including guidelines to respect rules of venue, respect transparency and openness in interactions, and trust. No policy document directly recommended penalties for hosting or disseminating of inappropriate or illegal content.
• Fourteen documents addressed the issues pertaining to content and its management by providing varying guidelines in this regard. Some permit only public information officers or selected individuals or agency functionaries to post content while others permit all employees to post information on agency blogs. No policy provided content guidelines for professional or personal use. Ten policy documents contain instructions to provide a standard disclaimer to announce that employees’ opinion and content may not confer to the agency position.
• Fifteen documents provided one or more specific guidelines mostly technical and behavioral to ensure security of data and technical infrastructure of the agency. Some pointed to the use of existing IT security policy. Various concerns pertaining to technological guidelines addressed in these policies included password security, functionality, use of Public Key Infrastructure for authentication, virus scans, use of complex passwords, restriction for posting of classified information, and control of account credentials.  The concerns addressed in some documents included spear phishing, social engineering, posting of classified and citizens’ information.
• Some of the documents specifically pointed to existing laws and on the contrary others took a general approach suggesting employees to adhere to existing laws and regulations without pointing to the actual laws. The explicitly mentioned laws pertain to privacy, freedom of speech, freedom of information, public record management, public disclosure and accessibility. A few address potential legal issues by directing use of disclaimers of various forms on the social media sites.
• Eleven documents addressed issue of citizen conduct primarily by providing guidelines for dealing with comments posted by citizens. Some allow posting of comments by citizens while others do not. Those allowing posting of comments provide rules referring to offensive language, inciting violence, or promoting illegal activities. Among these some suggest to designate responsibility for controlled flow and moderation of comments.

6. Essential Core Elements of a Social Media Policy

The core elements of a social media policy as identified in [17] are shown in Figure 2. Each of the element covers a set of issues that must be addressed to adequately in any successful social media policy for government agencies. These core elements and the issues under each are briefly stated below:
Employee Access: At work employees can use social media sites for the purposes of carrying out official business or professional development or any personnel interests. Access to social media sites can be controlled by different forms of filtering. Controlling access to social media sites of different types of employees performing different roles in an organization is critical for the effectiveness of e-governance. Employee access to social media sites may be controlled by limiting it to some number or type of employees or by limiting the sites or both.
Account Management: Account management in an agency is not only required to keep record of social media accounts created, maintained and closed by its employees for work or professional use but also to define procedures for creation of such accounts. Account Management policy for use in a government agency must clearly be defined as an account gives access to all features of that social media site. An official account on a social media site can be granted by approval of one designated officer or by approval of more than one designated officers.

Figure 2. Eight essential core elements of a social media policy.

Acceptable Use: Acceptable use policy governs not only the use of social media but also the use of Internet and other technologies by the employees.  It may, quantify online hours, usage monitoring, penalties for policy violation, etc.

Employee Conduct: Employee conduct policy governs, employee online ethics, behavior and penalties awarded for violating this policy. General code of conduct of employees within a government agency to differentiate between “right” and “wrong” in terms of employees conduct may not cover fresh issues associates with social media. Therefore, code of conduct policy for employees governing social media must be revised periodically to cover fresh issues.

Content: Content policy controls permission to employees to post and manage content on official social media pages. It must also govern what type of official content is allowed to be posted on employees’ personal or professional social media page.

Security: Security guidelines aim to safeguard government data and technical infrastructure associated with use of social media from technological and behavior risks. Social media when used in e-governance involves fresh security and privacy concerns which a successful policy must address to adequately.

Legal Issues: Legal guidelines ensure that government employees abide by existing laws and regulations when using social media tools. In recent years governments have raised laws regulating Information Technology use by individuals and organizations. However, social media has created possibilities for unique technological, behavior, and social crimes which may not be directly covered under existing laws, therefore, existing Information Technology related laws need to be constantly augmented to check new crimes.

Citizens Conduct: Since social media integration with e-governance makes it possible to have a public citizen-government communication, therefore, rules for citizen engagement with the government are created. These rules govern various aspects of feedbacks and comments including whether to allow comments and feedbacks or not, penalties for use of offensive language, inciting violence and promoting illegal activity.

7. Indian Government Framework & Guidelines for Use of Social Media in e-Governance

In India, various policy/frameworks, standards, guidelines and best practices have been devised for e-governance and several committees such as Metadata and Data Standards (MDDS), Biometrics, Localization, Security, Mobile Governance, Interoperability Framework for e-Governance in India (IFEG), Digital signature, etc. have been constituted to formulate standards. In September 2011, Govt. of India formulated a draft framework and guidelines which has been updated in April 2012 for the use of social media for government organizations [22]. The guidelines aim at assisting e-governance projects of the central and state governments being implemented under national e-governess plan for engagement of social media in these projects. The document briefly introduces social media, its need in government agencies besides providing framework and guidelines for its use. The framework comprises of seven elements which group various issues related to the use of social media sites. Some of the issues are highlighted only while as for others detailed guidelines are provided in this document. These elements and important issues in each of the element are depicted in Figure 3.

Following sections briefly present various highlights of this framework:
• The framework comprises of seven stages representing seven elements connected in a cycle to demonstrate continuous evolution and scope for improvement. Some issues have been addressed at multiple stages.
• Social media may be used by government agencies for either information dissemination or for public engagement. These include its use for policy making, education and recruitment.
• Existing social media platforms such as social networking, social bookmarking, self-publishing, transaction oriented, or any similar media may be used by government agencies. Agencies may also create their own social communication platforms provided that the existing laws permit it and considering the duration, type and scope of public engagement intended to be offered.
• Official pages on the social media must reflect official position and the interaction must adhere to rules and abide by existing laws with regard to account governance, responses, resource utilization, roles and responsibilities, accountability, content creation, accessibility and moderation, record management, data security and privacy and identity of employees.
• A government agency must maintain same and meaningful name on different social media sites (as far as possible) and proper record of login ID’s and passwords. Though, employees’ engagement may be through personal or official accounts but the official responses should be short and to the point through non-anonymous official accounts and by the cerned official only within pre decided turnaround time. A mail integration may be used to ensure timely response. In case an employee posts comments in personal capacity, it must be ensured that no confidential information is disclosed and the engagement clearly mentions that the comment is personal and not official.

Figure 3. Indian government framework for social media.

Answers to frequently asked queries should be prepared, maintained and displayed for which no separate engagement should be encouraged. Social media must be used for propagation of only official policy and no unverified information or frivolous material should be posted.
• Resources for social media and their responsibilities may be either outsourced or internal to an agency. For moderated conversation, it is necessary to have dedicated resources including a well-trained leader within the agency. There must be clearly defined roles and responsibilities set with regard to responding of Right to Information (RTI), maintenance of IDS and passwords, data security, privacy, etc. Employee should be accountable for their use of social media and employee engagement must be governed by RTI Act, IT Act 2000 and IT Amendment Act 2008.
• Official content must be specified, tailored, moderated and must follow Government of India guidelines for Websites, address challenges related to accessibility of Indian languages and differently abled persons. Records of interactions influencing decision making must be preserved in soft/hard copies. Agencies are encouraged to enter service level agreements with social media service providers to ensure Indian regulations for storage, archiving, access, complaint and response mechanisms.
• All existing laws more particularly RTI Act, IT Act 2000 and IT Amendment Act 2008 govern the engagement on social media. Security of personal data is governed by Information Technology (Reasonable Security Practices & Sensitive Personal data or Information) rules 2011 and ISO 27001 standards. Privacy of individuals must be guaranteed in accordance to existing laws governing data protection and privacy.
• A pilot must be created to test the efficiency and effectiveness of the engagement with public. The engagement must be quantitatively and qualitatively monitored using social network analysis and demographic information, dashboards and respondent connection must be used to extend and expand the engagement. After successfully refining the pilot it must be scaled and fully integrated in the agencies communication and administrative structure.

8. Limitations of Indian Government Guidelines for the Use of Social Media in e-Governance

Though this framework and guidelines have been revised in April 2012 after its initial preparation, yet there are various issues that either have not been fully addressed to or have not been included in the guidelines. The shortcomings in the framework are enumerated below:
• Neither any clear guidelines regarding employees’ permission to access social media sites during office hours for their professional and personal use nor any technological measures such as filtering has been suggested for controlling employee access to these sites in the framework. The objective of the use of social media in government organizations does not include use of social media for employee professional and personal development. Further, the guidelines does not include any instructions regarding the mechanism for granting controlled access (business case justification, access to selected sites, duration of access, etc.) to employees to social media sites for official purpose.
• Though Account management has been covered by the guidelines but certain issues like procedure for granting permission to an official to procure an official account on social media site have not been discussed. A public information officer in most of such policies is made in charge of granting such a permission. For a strict control often approval from two parties like communication department and IT department has been suggested.
• The resource governance sub section of the policy covers acceptable use which does not directly quantify online hours, usage monitoring, penalties for policy violation, etc. However, it suggests that the employee allowed to interact with the public should be held accountable and points out at existing immunity provision of RTI Act, IT Act and IT Amendment Act 2008. Further, like some other policies and documents, it has not drawn boundaries between personal and professional use of employees.
• Guidelines for employees conduct have been given at multiple places in the document which are in tune with such guidelines provided in other policy documents. Detailed guidelines have been provided for legal provisions in this regard. Since social media provide 24X7 engagement opportunity, the guidelines fall short in addressing employee conduct from professional and personal accounts.
• Guidelines for the employees to post in personal or professional capacities have not been addresses to in the framework. Guidelines do mention requirement of moderation of the content, however, does not provide sufficient guidelines for fixing responsibilities within the organization for this purpose. Various policies permit their employee to post freely on agency blogs on various mission related topics but Indian guidelines are silent in this regard.
• The framework has provided guidelines for security of personal data and also has covered privacy of individuals, however, it lacks technical guidelines for achieving the same. No guidelines have been provided for password security, functionality, use of PKI for authentication, virus scans, use of complex passwords, and control of account credentials. It does not provide guidelines for spear phishing or social engineering.
• Legal guidelines have been provided at multiple places in the framework, however, all of them repeat the existing laws that include RTI Act, IT Act, and IT Amendment Act 2008. Though, most of the issues are covered by these laws but social media has created possibilities for unique technological, behavior, and social crimes which may not be directly covered under these laws, therefore, existing Information Technology related laws need to be constantly augmented to check new crimes.
• With respect to the citizen conduct, rules have been clearly depicting how a government agency should classify comments and engage with the citizens. They specify who and when it is necessary and not necessary to respond to comments. Further, they also specify why and how comments that make influence on the policy making decision should be preserved. However, the policy is silent about mechanism that could make a public comment or feedback acceptable or not for the purpose of policy making, etc.
• The guidelines are silent about information confidentiality, integrity and availability and procedures government agencies should adopt to achieve this trio. Though the policy refers to the adherence of various sections of IT Act 2000 and its amendment but no direct reference has been given to any information security act or standard. ICT faces severe security challenges but no specific or very limited guidelines are provided for information security education.
• The guidelines fall short to address risk management, mitigation and issue of acceptance of residual risks by the use of social media. Though the guidelines encourage agencies to enact service level agreements with operators of social media sites but do not provide guidelines about what agencies should seek from these operators in respect of stronger security and privacy controls, multifactor authentication, cross site scripting, persistent cookies, content moderation and monitoring, access to employees official accounts, and code validation and signing.
• The guideline does not provide emphasis on periodic awareness and training of security, policy, best practices for social media. Further, it does not instruct agencies to periodically and constantly update their social media policy especially with respect of privacy & security, content filtering, and acceptable use.

9. Recommendations for Improvement

The Web 2.0 Security Working Group (W20SWG) responsible for accessing information security issues surrounding Web 2.0 technologies in the Federal Government of USA has provided Guidelines and recommendations for using social media technologies in a manner that minimizes the risks involved in it [20]. The document encourages use of social media in government agencies on a strong business case and following adequate security guidelines. The recommendations include five categories of controls grouped into technical and non-technical controls. The technical controls are network and host controls and the non-technical controls are policy controls, acquisition controls and specialized trainings. These security controls should be adequately adapted to make integration of social media in e-governance secure.

The policy document for the use of social media in e-governance must include guidelines to achieve confidentiality, integrity and availability of information and data. It must provide guidelines for the use of various network security control measures including the use of trusted Internet connection, intrusion detection system, intrusion prevention system, Web content filtering methods like traffic filtering and deep packet inspections, creation of security zones, use of domain name security, multi-facet authentication and other emerging security technologies. Clear instructions must be included for the acquisition of social media services and service level agreements for acquisition of enhanced security, privacy and monitoring controls. Proper risk assessment and acceptance of residual risk must be made through some third party before deciding on the use of a particular social media service which must be reassessed periodically. Incorporating social media in e-governance especially in developing countries like India must necessarily include guidelines for security training and assessment of employee technical skills before granting access to social media sites for official purposes.

Different government agencies may require different employee access policy and thus a uniform access policy may not be fit for all government agencies. E.g. In an academic or research functionary of a government where employees are engaged in collaborative and knowledge sharing activities and employees’ professional development is vital to the development of organization access to specific social media sites may be desired. Therefore, policy must be flexibility to enable agencies to permit use of social media during office hours for professional developments wherever applicable. In such a case improvement in accountability system are desired which may be in the form of maintenance of log of all online activities undergone during the office time. The policy must include strict instructions for widely publicizing of all its social media accounts to control any confusion amount its users. The work account must be used for only official work and should always remain a property of the agency and must be open for inspection and surrendered on transfers or retirements. State and local government policies vary on scale and the level at which account management issues are addressed to and therefore, may differ considerably on management of social media accounts.

Acceptable use policy must set boundary around professional, personnel and agency use of social media tools. The existing standard code of conduct followed in government agencies do not address issues involved in employee online conduct especially when using social media tools. Therefore, a successful social media policy must directly address fresh issues of employee conduct associated with the use of social media. To avoid inconsistency between content on social media pages and other electronic and print media pages of the agency, the social media policy must contain strict rules and well defined penalties for its violation. Specific guidelines are to be devised for preparation of e-content, authentication; integrity and non-reputation of e-content and liability of authors needs to be defined.

10. Conclusion

Mohamad Tariq Banday, Muzamil M. Mattoo Advantages of social media like collaboration, participation, and empowerment have attracted governments to use it in governance for bringing together agencies, citizens, agencies work and information. It is used to promote e-services, increase transparency and improve trust on government. Persistent, pervasive and aggressive threats are faced by government information systems which gets intensified through the environment created by social media as it involves risks on multiple fronts including those related to behavior, ergonomic configuration, regulation and technology. When used in e-governance, social media may also poses risks of isolation, exclusion, violation of privacy, misuse of information and security threats. 

Therefore, governments have devised comprehensive frameworks, policies, guidelines and best practices to serve as key enabler for government organizations for the use of social media in governess. Different policies give emphasis on different elements and mostly point to the adherence of existing laws and regulations for securing data and information. Some policies suggest that the decision to incorporate social media in e-governance at an agency should be supported by strong business justifications but with adequate security and privacy controls while as others consider it necessary for inclusion or do not provide adequate guidelines for security and privacy of data. Indian government framework is in tune with other such policies and also includes policy for its multilingual cultural. However, it does not include guidelines for all identified core elements or does not provide sufficient guidelines to some of the parameters that a successful social media policy should have. There is a scope for improvement in each element included in this framework more importantly in the guidelines pertaining to security controls, acquisition of third party services, risk assessment, employees training, account management and legal.

Article Courtesy: https://file.scirp.org/Html/1-2680023_30781.htm

Leadership Competencies For Effective Public Administration

 

Public administrators need to empower their officials and team members, listen to their viewpoints and inspire them to achieve the goals set before them

 

The DoPT has created ‘Competency Dictionary’ to foster more effective, efficient, and transparent and accountable public administration.

 

Competency Dictionary of DoPT pdf: 

http://persmin.gov.in/otraining/competency%20dictionary%20for%20the%20civil%20services.pdf

Public administration plays a major role in governing modern-day society. The government without the support of able public administrators is like a vehicle without wheels. Public administration is significantly different from the management of private-sector organizations. While the public sector is authorized and controlled largely by law, its mandate is ultimately the collective public good, and it has a long-term horizon; the private sector uses the market as its source of creation and control, the customer as its focus, and has a short-term horizon. The duties of public administrators are multifaceted and often very complex. Public administrators around the world are under increasing pressures to perform and provide quality services with ever-fewer resources and face additional stress emanating from increasing global economic, social, political, and cultural integration. 

Meeting the demands of public administration requires a unique combination of knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviours, commonly referred to as competencies. Competency-based management is being adopted as an efficient tool by the public organizations in various countries today. The department of personnel and training (DoPT) of the government of India initiated the project titled ‘Strengthening HRM of Civil Service’ in the year 2011 in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). (HRM is short for human resource management). 

A primary outcome of this initiative was the creation of a ‘Competency Dictionary’ (Government of India-UNDP 2013). The competency dictionary was developed in consultation with a large number of civil servants in the centre and state governments. These included secretaries to the government of India, cadre controlling authorities, chief secretaries of the states and winners of the prime minister’s civil service awards.

The overarching purpose for developing a competency dictionary was to foster more effective, efficient, and transparent and accountable public administration at the national and state levels. Towards this end, the Civil Services Competency Dictionary identified 25 core competencies across the various roles and positions of civil service employees. The core competencies were further divided under four categories: ethos, ethics, equity, and efficiency. 


Recently, the author was a part of a study conducted by the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA) —the nodal institution for training Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers —to identify the competencies needed for the district-level public administrators (referred to as district magistrates, or DMs, in India). 

Based on focused group discussions and a survey of 218 IAS officers, the study identified eight competencies out of the 25 core competencies listed in the Civil Services Competency Dictionary, namely people first; leading others; integrity; decision-making; planning, coordination and implementation; problem-solving; self-awareness and self-control; and innovative thinking. The eight competencies were further clubbed under four meta-competencies, namely stakeholder analysis and decision-making, managing change and innovation, team building and positive administrator personality (The study was published in the Journal of Asian Public Policy. A detailed description of the behaviours included within each meta-competency is provided next. 


The first meta-competency was ‘Stakeholder Analysis and Decision-Making’. To be successful, a public administrator should be able to listen to the voices of multiple stakeholders and take a decision in keeping with their diverse perspectives. Understanding the multiple needs of the citizens, listening to the viewpoints/perspectives of others and then being able to balance the priorities of different interest groups is a critical behaviour of a successful public administrator. Decisions and solutions should be made in a manner that takes care of not only the short-term but also middle- to long-term interests of the citizens and the people concerned. 


Proper analysis of the pros and cons of the alternatives is necessary before a decision is taken. Efforts should be put in to collect the relevant data for decision-making. A public administrator should be able to sift through a large set of information, break down complex issues into smaller problems, identify critical elements for decision-making and find solutions to problems. In times of conflict, public interest should guide the administrator in decision-making.


The second meta-competency that emerged was ‘Managing Change and Innovation’. While leadership is an important driver of change in the public sector, little attention is given to its study in public-sector organizational change process. Being ready for change and willing to redesign and innovate in the public delivery systems is an important characteristic of an effective public administrator. They should be on a lookout for situations where innovations can be made to the existing public delivery systems. Use of technology in bringing about change/innovation, in rigorous data analysis for decision-making, in forecasting of the impact of the decisions and in monitoring the effectiveness of the public systems is essential for successful implementation of change. 


‘Team Building’ was the third theme that emerged. Today, the leadership context in public sector is inter-organizational and is shifting away from a focus on hierarchy, towards a focus on networks and partnerships that cross traditional boundaries. Almost all surveyed IAS officers emphasized the need for teams in public administration. Public administrators need to empower their officials and team members, listen to their viewpoints, be open to new ideas and counterpoints, encourage out-of-the-box thinking, share information with team members, understand the power dynamics between team members and inspire them to achieve the goals set before them. In order to inspire the team, an administrator should lead by example; be a role model; and establish a culture of openness, honesty and integrity.


‘Positive Administrator Personality’ was the last meta-competency that emerged. Often the pressures and constraints on public administrators are very high. Given the same, they should be able to honour the commitments that they make and should be ethical. They should be able to work under tremendous stress/adversity and demonstrate decisiveness when under pressure or faced with uncertainty. They should be able to manage the inherent complexity and uncertainty that exists in the work of a public administrator. They should be resilient in times of failures or great difficulty and should have the will to keep working even when things are not very conducive for action.


The competencies and meta-competencies identified in the study can help training academies and consultants who often wrestle with the task of identifying appropriate behaviours that can ensure effectiveness of public administrators. Development of training modules around these competencies should lead to better return on investment and will make training programmes more useful for public administrators. The set of competencies identified can also be used to appraise the performance of public administrators. Officers who exhibit such behaviours while performing their duties may have a higher chance of producing better results. Alternatively, the list of behaviours presented here can help officers understand possible reasons for their failure and in determining remedial steps. Appraising agencies may go through the competency inventory, evaluate and provide feedback to the officers on how often they display each of the behaviours reported within respective competencies. This can then help them better understand the areas where they can improve.


Vishal Gupta is an associate professor in the organizational behaviour area at the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad.



This article presents the author’s personal views and should not be construed to represent the institute’s position on the subject.

 

Article Courtesy: https://www.livemint.com/Opinion/EBhW9oGaY6d8fl8yPOQY9I/Leadership-competencies-for-effective-public-administration.html

Public Administration And Policy In India: Emerging Trends – Prof R.N Prasad

Courtesy: http://www.napsipag.org/pdf/prasad.pdf

Public Administration is an instrument of action as a profession and academic discipline (Teaching and Research). Public Administration in theory and practice aims at all round development and improvement of the quality of life of the Indian masses but without tearing the socio-cultural fabric or socio economic order. This has been the crucial contradiction of Public Administration in India. Contradiction between its intent and content, the content and the text, the distinction between the constitutional goals and operational goals is paradoxical. 

An attempt to analyse the challenges of the paradoxical situation and to propose a future course of action to resolve the paradox has been made. The translation of the constitutional welfare goals into practice have infact remainded a mere constitutional obligation and been far off even after 57 years of independence within the existing socipolico-economic power structure based on the capitalist model of modernization /market economy framework which the democratic and constitutional state of India has adopted. It has widened sharpened disparities, frustration, estrangement, deprivation, exploitation, poverty, insecurity, oppression, unemployment, starvation, corruption and injustices of all sorts, affecting adversely the social, political and economic conditions of the disadvantaged, vulnerable, weaker sections and the poor women of the Indian society. The weaker/deprived sections are not only deprived of the development programmes in most cases, they are kept out of development process. Because poverty question is a power question. It is rooted in the model of development, the country has adopted and the socio-economic power-structure that obtains in the country. 

Nature, scope and importance / significance of Public Administration in India is determined today by the external factors playing dominant role. The discipline of Public Administration, the very education, which has been imparted all these years in Indian Universities, is an American Product (1887). It has developed alongwith the growth of capitalism in the USA alongwith many countries. Briefly, American Public Administration is rooted in American political culture which is widely acknowledged as advanced capitalism blended with pluralism. The nature of the state in American Public Administration is never questioned. So the essential thrust of American Public Administration towards enhancing the capacity of public organizations without disturbing the basic character of the capitalist state. Even the New Public Administration Movement did not raise – the fundamental issue of the changing the basic character of the capitalist state in America. India could not also escape the Americanization of Public Administration. 

This education of Public Administration has nothing to do with the native, social, cultural, political and economic factors. In its practice, the institutions were / are built, the issues are dealt for the requirements of their directors (west interests). But it appears, the entire policies and programmes were/are designed not to touch the socio-cultural fabric of the Indian society. Thus public administration in India has been an instrument of the Government and a creation of political philosophy where as public administration as an academic discipline has been ‘non-political’ but in matters of governance. It by and large is committed to ruling political elite. The ruling elite in India with the willing cooperation of the bureaucracy has maintained colonial structure paving the way for the development of a capitalist order but not without sermonizing the socialist rhetoric, marring the very spirit goals of the Constitution of India.

Keeping in view the above and the adoption of the New Economic Policy (Liberalization, privatization and globalization) the liberalization policy is to foster privatization and globalization of the Indian economy. Privatization and Liberalization also advocate : rolling back of the state from the sphere of production and productive investment and significant curtailment of the level of social expendicture. Hence the most important change in public administration in India has been its reduced scope and significance. It has been also asked to chage itself in the nature of dealing with certain public. The manpower of public administration in India, who manages public institutions, and who regulate activities (Directorates, Commissionaries, Collectorate, Inspectorates etc.) was/is neither highly trained by an efficient and well organized system of Public Administration Education / Training, nor skilled enough to understand the socio-economic fabric. However, the public managers (officials) with the co-operation (not direction) of the non-officials (politicians) could/can maintain the traditional interests at the cost of good governance. The result is the emergence of a National Human Rights Commission. The recent widespread changes, which have 3 altered the International Economic order, also demand the public administration in India to further reduce its significance to respond and adjust to the market economy. With a view to meeting the requirements of this external demand, public administration in India needs to make certain changes in its structure, policy context, programme intent and implementation style. 

The emerging trends of this new context are as under :

 1. Market friendly economy – Liberalization, privatization, globalization, denationalization, disinvestment in public sector, (market friendly government, intervention, private group and the state work together for common objectives.) 

2. New social policy – more percentage of reservations, facilities to scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, other backward classes, women and minorities in less expensive educational institutions and restricted public employment (less expenditure on social development) 

3. New political policy - Decentralization of political power – constitutiuonal status to local government – reservations of seals to women SCs, STs, OBCs, (Deconcentration of political power may give more power to local elite but not to the local population). 

4. Cooperative relations between Central and State Governments in maintaining the law and order and development.

5. Coalitional Politics – Consequently weak/ineffective political leadership, demoralization, criminalization of politics and mobilization of underworld /criminals/mafias. 

6. Institutional restructuring / administrative decay deregulation, delicensing, debureaucratisation, less civil rule, more use of para military forces, encounters with organized extremists/underground groups. 

7. Proliferation / participation of non-governmental / voluntary organization leading / voicing public demands. 

8. Man-power development – Science, technology, computers, professional and management education through private (International minority and business) institutions leaving the poor, and the unfortunate to distance education / open learning. 

9. New labour Policy – golden shake hand, Exit Policy, (VRS) 

10. Globalization deepens communal / caste consciousness, spreads religiosity, superstition and obscurantism – secularism will be at stake, the state public administration is expected to be neutral.

The neutrality of the civil service and the neutrality of the state whittled down the power of the state. The poor, the weak and the minorities have been expecting to utilize the state power for their uplift. Socio-economic transformation and the socio-economic justice to the masses, no longer remains the objectives of the governance. Concept of rule of law, democracy equality are now threatened. The public interests are dictated by private interests. The human rights, the civil liberties, the judicial independence and review are at stake. There is less public representation, no bureaucratic accountability and more inefficient administration. The labour cooperation, workers participation will not be sought. New Economic Policy through structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) tends to further marginalize women leading to reduction of their employment opportunities, wages, exclusion in the productive process and casualisation. The gravest crisis of Indian Political, economic and social order is its mounting unemployment. The NEP promotes capital intensive technologies and as a result, employment opportunities have further declined. Unemployment is an economic malady and a social curse. It degrades man, generates hatred, depresses socialactivity and economic prosperity and constitutes a great liability to social stability. The dominant sections of the society weild more power of domination over the unorganized weak and minorities. The welfare state is waning a way and giving place to the police state and regulatory government. The emerging trends may not be in tune with the objectives of the Constitution of India. The Supremacy of the legislature, the rule of law, the judicial independence and the principle of equity are sidelined. These trends further lead to friction between the constitutional stipulation – ideals of a socialist, secular state and the public policies of economic liberalization. 

The discipline of public administration in India has to undertake research on the newer changing aspects of public administration. The impact of the emerging trends of the 4 concepts, theories of public administration in the 21st century and the probable consequences on the existing theories must be analysed. Briefly, a problem oriented approach which conceives of public administration as an ameliorative science is to be pursued, Public Administrators and Public Administrationists in India need to think and act as an instrument of social change. In this context, the focus of public administration should be on the entire area of public policy and its analysis. To evaluate the public programmes, public administration unlike other discipline is required to be an action oriented applied Social Science. Modern Public Administration in India has to be made unbiased and impartial and it has to be delinked from economic pressure groups and loyalties built around caste, religion and regional identities. Public Administration both as a profession and discipline should understand the problems or rural misery and the inequalities policies and programmes to reduce inequalities have to include food, housing, health, education, poverty, unemployment, credit programmes for the welfare of other backward classes, scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and weaker sections are included in the above list. As is experienced, the university departments of Public Administration have neither engaged in prioritization nor theoretization of Public Administration. So the gaps have to be filled up and it is urgent to gear the discipline of PublicAdministration towards the study of the masses in the society. So it may be further added that in the Indian setting in contemporary perspective, the Public Administration scholars, teachers and students must reassess the role of Public Administration and also consider alternatives. But the study of exploring alternatives require courage conviction and concern.     

Directive Principles of State Policy, Fundamental Rights & Fundamental Duties: Relationship, Conflict , Harmony & Present Scenario

Dear Readers and loyal followers of this Blog, you are the strength and force behind it and it is because of you that this Blog has been at the forefront of all things related to Public Administration and it will continue to be so with your unflinching belief in it. Many thanks and heartfelt gratitude to all of you. 

This post is going to delve into the very problematic yet interesting and interdependent relationship which exists between the Directive Principles of State Policy (DPSP) and Fundamental Rights (FR) in practicality (through the interpretation of Courts and the Acts of Parliament) although they both have kept their special places in the Indian Constitution and remain harmoniously together in written form there but it is a totally different story outside of it. To this we will also add the role of Fundamental Duties in facilitating all three together in making a conducive atmosphere for progress oriented Country.

So let us begin.

DIRECTIVE PRINCIPLES OF STATE POLICY:

The DPSP are the guiding principles in State’s Policy making to ensure that there is a well-adjusted monetary growth as well as holistic societal growth of the country as per the values enshrined in the Indian Preamble which very articulately lists the India that its Constitutional founders had in their minds and heart.

Even though it is non justiciable in any Court of Law but still it has to be always kept in mind of the Policy framers from the very beginning when framing any policy.

The curious characteristic of the Directive Principle of State Policy is that no doubt it gives the State a free hand in implementing them as per their discretion owing to certain factors that currently prevent them from going ahead with it, yet it can never be violated by them while making any policy even if any DPSP is not explicitly included in the Policy. This is the beauty of the DPSP. So basically there is always some element of DPSP implicit in every Policy ultimately which will help achieve the respective DPSP in its full form later on explicitly because any DPSP being violated or contravened will find form in violation of Fundamental Rights of certain section of the society and it will land up at the door of High Court or Supreme Court. 

For a simple and noncomplex layman example of the abovementioned, let's take this one:

As long as there was non implementation of DPSP's Article 40 which states “State shall take steps to organise village panchayats and endow them with such powers and authority as may be necessary to enable them to function as units of self-government” till 1992 there was not an issue as it is up to the State when it is without any justifiable constraint and wants to implement a DPSP. However, let us suppose if a Bill/Amendment was presented in Parliament that only Union and State Govt will have joint hold or only State will manage the local governance without any other form of local governance and if the opposition is unable to stop it from being passed then it can land up in Court as an ultra vires Act as it directly violates the spirit of the Indian Constitution which specifically mentions Democracy to be upheld in all forms, also it is directly violative of Fundamental Rights - Article 21 which under its wide ambit and interpretation would have surely directed for this impugned Act to be removed as Right to one's own local representative at the lowest level helps form a bond of understanding as well as accountability and provide door to door service to the most remotest of areas. Negating this would lead to an overburdened state govt functioning, the Community Development Plan of 1952 which had the Centre take over local governance was a flop, and a distortion of all types in the current system of functioning of the State which had manifest itself till 1992, hence, there was a lot of pressure on the Parliament to ultimately pass a Bill for implementing this DPSP and bringing it to Constitutional Status that is justiciable in a Court of Law.

It also would have led to a Constitutional question in Court as to how the impugned Act of not having any Panchayats violates the very spirit and basic structure of the Indian Constitution which is Democracy at all levels. 

Also, we have seen in a plethora of cases’ judgments by the Court wherein the question raised was that of FR violation which at that time listed "Right to property" as a part of it and the Courts drew interpretation of it from the DPSP and removed this FR from the list and conferring it the status of a legal right only which will go along the laws established by the Legislature on matters of personal property.

Apart from these factors, if there is any Bill which is being passed by the Parliament directly in contravention of a DPSP or violating it then a dedicated and watchful opposition plays a very important role in curbing it then and there.  Also public opinion forces the people in power to adhere to DPSP else they would be shown the door in next election.

This is the strong hold that the Constitution founders placed in the DPSP thus rightly keeping it non justiciable as it will ultimately find its own justice with the implicit powers and provisions provided to it even though Article 37 of the Indian Constitution clearly mentions that the DPSP are not enforceable in any Court of Law.

The various ways in which the DPSP have been implemented are:

i. The Minimum Wages Act (1948), Child Labour Prohibition and Regulation Act (1986) etc. seeks to protect the interests of the workers.

ii. The Maternity Benefit Act (1961) and Equal Remuneration Act (1976) have been implemented to protect the interests of women workers.

iii. Handloom Board, Handicrafts Board, Coir Board, Silk Board have been set up for the development of cottage industries.

iv.Integrated Rural Development Programme (1978), Jawahar Rozgar Yojana (1989), Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (1999), Sampoorna Gram Rozgar Yojana (2001), Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Programmes (2006) etc. have been implemented to improve the living standard of the people.

v. The National Forest Policy (1988), aims at the protection, conservation and development of forests, etc.

 vi. Abolition of Zamindari system

vii.Nationalisation

viii.Factory Acts

ix.Reservation for SC & ST

x.Compulsory education till 14 years

xi.Community development plans for raising the standard of living

xii. Abolition of titles

xiii.Local self govt.

xiv:ASI to protect monuments and historical places

xv:Prohibition of intoxicating drinks and drugs as well as prevention of slaughter of cows and calves in many states

xvi:Equal pay for equal work

xvii. Planning Commission

xviii. Wildlife protection Act

xix:Tenancy reforms

xx:imposition of ceiling on land holdings and distribution of land to landless labourers.

xxi. Cooperative farming

xxii. Legals Services Authorities Act

xxiii. lok Adalats

xxiv. Modernisation of agriculture and animal husbandry, operation flood,etc

xxv.Untouchability offences Act

xxvi.Primary and secondary health programmes

xxvii.Old age pension scheme

xxviii.MNREGA

xxix.IRDP,ITDP,Pradhan Mantri Yojanas

xxx. Continuing trend of various judgments of HC & SC on Personal Law interpretations with the ultimate goal to secure a Uniform Civil Code.

So one can see by the above implementations of DPSP across time that how an implementation of a DPSP also leads to enabling and better room for exercise of FR by all citizens and vice versa.

It is pertinent to mention here the beautiful judgment passed in the M.Nagaraj case in 2006 by the Constitutional Bench of Supreme Court that sums up the essence of FR & DPSP Relationship: 

               "On the question of power of amendment, it is submitted that the limited power of amendment cannot become an unlimited one. A limited amendment power is one of the basic features of our Constitution and, therefore, limits on that power cannot be destroyed. Petitioners submit that Parliament cannot under Article 368 expand its amending power so as to acquire for itself the right to abrogate the Constitution and if the width of the amendment invites abrogation of the basic structure then such amendment must fail. 

It is further submitted that amendments for giving effect to the directive principles cannot offend the basic structure of the Constitution. On the contrary, the amendments which may abrogate individual rights but which promote Constitutional ideal of 'justice, social, economic and political' and the ideal of 'equality of status' are not liable to be struck down under Article 14 or Article 16(1) and consequently, such amendments cannot violate the basic structure of the Constitution. That, the amendments to the Constitution which are aimed at removing social and economic disparities cannot offend the basic structure. It is urged that the concepts flowing from the preamble to the Constitution constitute the basic structure; that, basic structure is not found in a particular Article of the Constitution; and except the fundamental right to live in Article 21 read with Article 14, no particular Article in Part-III is a basic feature. Therefore, it is submitted that equality mentioned in Articles 14 and 16 is not to be equated to the equality which is a basic feature of the Constitution.

JUSTICE, SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL IS PROVIDED NOT ONLY IN PART-IV (DIRECTIVE PRINCIPLES) BUT ALSO IN PART-III (FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS):

India is constituted into a sovereign, democratic republic to secure to all its citizens, fraternity assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity of the nation. The sovereign, democratic republic exists to promote fraternity and the dignity of the individual citizen and to secure to the citizens certain rights. This is because the objectives of the State can be realized only in and through the individuals. Therefore, rights conferred on citizens and non-citizens are not merely individual or personal rights. They have a large social and political content, because the objectives of the Constitution cannot be otherwise realized. Fundamental rights represent the claims of the individual and the restrictions thereon are the claims of the society. Article 38 in Part- IV is the only Article which refers to justice, social, economic and political. However, the concept of justice is not limited only to directive principles. There can be no justice without equality. Article 14 guarantees the fundamental right to equality before the law on all persons. Great social injustice resulted from treating sections of the Hindu community as 'untouchable' and, therefore, Article 17 abolished untouchability and Article 25 permitted the State to make any law providing for throwing open all public Hindu religious temples to untouchables. Therefore, provisions of Part-III also provide for political and social justice."

For more on this case:https://indiankanoon.org/doc/102852/

DPSP concept was borrowed from the Irish Constitution and are placed in Part IV of Indian Constitution and spans from Article 36-51.

Article 36: Definition

In this Part, unless the context otherwise requires, “the State” has the same meaning as in Part III.

Article 37: Application of the principles contained in this Part

The provisions contained in this Part shall not be enforced by any court, but the principles therein laid down are nevertheless fundamental in the governance of the country and it shall be the duty of the State to apply these principles in making laws.

Article 38: State to secure a social order for the promotion of the welfare of the people

(1) The State shall strive to promote the welfare of the people by securing and protecting as effectively as it may a social order in which justice, social, economic and political, shall inform all the institutions of the national life.
(2) The State shall, in particular, strive to minimise the inequalities in income, and endeavour to eliminate inequalities in status, facilities and opportunities, not only amongst individuals but also amongst groups of people residing in different areas or engaged in different vocations.

Article 39: Certain principles of policy to be followed by the State

The State shall, in particular, direct its policy towards securing –
(a) that the citizen, men and women equally, have the right to an adequate means of livelihood; (b) that the ownership and control of the material resources of the community are so distributed as best to subserve the common good; (c) that the operation of the economic system does not result in the concentration of wealth and means of production to the common detriment; 
(d) that there is equal pay for equal work for both men and women;
(e) that the health and strength of workers, men and women, and the tender age of children are not abused and that citizens are not forced by economic necessity to enter avocations unsuited to their age or strength;
(f) that children are given opportunities and facilities to develop in a healthy manner and in conditions of freedom and dignity and that childhood and youth are protected against exploitation and against moral and material abandonment.

Article 39A: Equal justice and free legal aid

The State shall secure that the operation of the legal system promotes justice, on a basis of equal opportunity, and shall, in particular, provide free legal aid, by suitable legislation or schemes or in any other way, to ensure that opportunities for securing justice are not denied to any citizen by reason of economic or other disabilities.

Article 40: Organisation of village panchayats

The State shall take steps to organise village panchayats and endow them with such powers and authority as may be necessary to enable them to function as units of self-government.

Article 41: Right to work, to education and to public assistance in certain cases

The State shall, within the limits of its economic capacity and development, make effective provision for securing the right to work, to education and to public assistance in cases of unemployment, old age, sickness and disablement, and in other cases of undeserved want.

Article 42: Provision for just and humane conditions of work and maternity relief

The State shall make provision for securing just and humane conditions of work and for maternity relief.

Article 43: Living wage, etc., for workers

The State shall endeavor to secure, by suitable legislation or economic organisation or in any other way, to all workers agricultural, industrial or otherwise, work, a living wage, conditions of work ensuring a decent standard of life and full enjoyment of leisure and social and cultural opportunities and, in particular, the State shall endeavour to promote cottage industries on an individual or co-operative basis in rural areas.

Article 43A: Participation of workers in management of industries

The State shall take steps, by suitable legislation or in any other way, to secure the participation of workers in the management of undertakings, establishments or other organisation engaged in any industry.

Article 44: Uniform civil code for the citizen

The State shall endeavour to secure for the citizens a uniform civil code throughout the territory of India.

 

Article 45: Provision for free and compulsory education for children

The State shall endeavour to provide, within a period of ten years from the commencement of this Constitution, for free and compulsory education for all children until they complete the age of fourteen years.

Article 46: Promotion of educational and economic interests of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and other weaker sections

The State shall promote with special care the educational and economic interests of the weaker sections of the people, and in particular, of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, and shall protect them from social injustice and all forms of exploitation.

Article 47: Duty of the State to raise the level of nutrition and the standard of living and to improve public health

The State shall regard the raising of the level of nutrition and the standard of living of its people and the improvement of public health as among its primary duties and, in particular, the State shall endeavour to bring about prohibition of the consumption except for medicinal purpose of intoxicating drinks and of drugs which are injurious to health.

Article 48: Organization of agriculture and animal husbandry

The State shall endeavour to organize agriculture and animal husbandry on modern and scientific lines and shall, in particular, take steps for preserving and improving the breeds, and prohibiting the slaughter, of cows and calves and other milch and draught cattle.

Article 48A: Protection and improvement of environment and safeguarding of forests and wildlife

The State shall endeavour to protect and improve the environment and to safeguard the forests and wildlife of the country.

Article 49: Protection of monuments and places and objects of national importance

It shall be the obligation of the State to protect every monument or place or object of artistic or historic interest, declared by or under law made by Parliament to be of national importance, from spoliation, disfigurement, destruction, removal, disposal or export, as the case may be.

Article 50: Separation of judiciary from the executive

The State shall take steps to separate the judiciary from the executive in the public services of the State.

Article 51: Promotion of international peace and security

The State shall endeavour to –
(a) promote international peace and security;
(b) maintain just and honourable relations between nations;
(c) foster respect for international law and treaty obligations in the dealings of organised people with one another; and
(d) encourage settlement of international disputes by arbitration.

The DPSP helps fill the void left in PART III of the Indian Constitution as to what about Social goals and welfare state and representations of other sections of the Society as Fundamental Rights are individual rights and one needs to take certain decisions keeping in mind welfare of society and economy as well wherein at certain times personal/individual rights, goals and benefit need to take a backseat. Both Part III and Part IV as per Justice Chandrachud are the "conscience of the Constitution." and B.R Ambedkar hailed them as "the most cardinal and important provision of the Constitution."

FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS:

These found mention for the very first time together with many of Indian Constitution's DPSPs in its nascent form in Motilal Nehru Committee's of 1928. They were clubbed together in this as Rights of the Citizen and State. It was only later that they were bifurcated in two separate parts during the Drafting phase in the Constituent Assembly following many discussions between the members regarding these.

They are inalienable basic rights of the common people to live a peaceful, harmonious, fulfilled, progressive and respectful life under Part III Articles 12-35 of the Indian Constitution. If any of these rights are violated by anyone or any institution it will be enforceable via the High Court under Article 226 & in the Supreme Court under Article 32 via Writs of Habeas Corpus, Mandamus, Certiorari, and Prohibition & Quo Warranto.

The Fundamental Rights draw their source from England's Bill of Rights, US Bill of Rights & France's Declaration of Rights of Man.

The Fundamental Rights are (they have been given wide interpretations by Courts in plethora of judgments):

1. Right to Equality

2. Right to Freedom

3. Right against exploitation

4. Right to freedom of religion

5. Cultural and Educational Rights

6. Right to Constitutional Remedies

The ambit of the Fundamental Rights have been broadened by the Courts in landmark cases.

1. Article 21 - Right to Life:

 https://blog.ipleaders.in/right-to-life/

2. For all other cases on Fundamental Rights interpretation and ambit expansion: https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-important-cases-related-to-fundamental-rights-in-India

HISTORICAL ANALYSIS OF THE CONFLICT AND PRESENT RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FR & DPSP:

In the nascent stages of Indian Independence the Judiciary gave a blanket dominance of Fundamental Rights over DPSP as the former was enforceable and justiciable but the latter wasn't and the first landmark judgment in this context was State of Madras vs. Srimathi Champakam that led to the First Constitutional Amendment. 

The same rationale was applied by the Judiciary in successive cases that came up viz. Mohd. Hanif Quareshi v State of Bihar 1957 and In re Kerala Education Bill, 1958 which led to further 3 Constitutional Amendments. 

This did evoke a lot of criticism from the Legislature and it was put across by the PM Nehru in his speech: 

                    "There is difficulty when the Courts of the Land have to consider these matters and lay more stress on the Fundamental Rights than on the Directive Principles. The result is that the whole purpose behind the Constitution which was meant to be a dynamic Constitution leading to a certain goal step by step, is somewhat hampered and hindered by the static element being emphasized a little more than the dynamic element.”

In 1967, the Golaknath vs State of Punjab case occurred where for the first time a Supreme Court Bench of 11 judges was formed in which the Court laid down that the FR cannot be abridged or diluted to implement the DPSP.This led to the Parliament bringing in the 24th & 25th Amendment Act 1971 in which it amended Article 13 & 368 that stated that parliament had the right to amend any part of the Constitution and Article 31C was added which gave more powers to the DPSP and stated that if any Law is made to implement a DPSP in Part IV of the Indian Constitution, it would be immune from unconstitutionality on the ground of contravention of the FR conferred by Articles 14 & 19 of the Indian Constitution.

Then, there was a sudden shift in the Judiciary's approach towards such cases and they looked to harmonise and equate the two as both were supplementary to each other and derive their interpretations and strengths from each other. Even the Courts rely on both of these while weighing the benefit of individual vs benefit of the whole society as a collective.

Sajjan Singh v. State of Rajasthan,1964 , it was clearly laid down that even if the fundamental Rights are to be taken as unalterable, then the much needed dynamism may be achieved by properly interpreting the Fundamental Rights in the light of Directive Principles. Part IV, is “fundamental in the governance of the country and the provisions of Part III must be interpreted harmoniously with these principles." Thus it was clearly stated that that the FR should be interpreted in light of the DPSP and in this manner a harmonious relationship is to be brought out while dealing with such cases. 

In Bijoya Cotton Mills v. State of West Bengal 1967, Supreme Court laid down two rules, firstly- in case of a conflict between the FR and the laws aiming to implement socio-economic policies, in pursuance to Directive Principles, weight should be given to the latter, and secondly- every legislation enacted in pursuance of Directive Principles should be construed as one purporting to be in public interest, or as a reasonable restriction to the Fundamental Rights.

 Then the Chandra Bhawan Boarding and Lodging Bangalore v State of Mysore case, 1969 came up in which the Judiciary explicitly stated that the DPSP were created to facilitate progress as intended by the Preamble and it would be fallacious to assume that the Constitution provided only for rights and no duties.

The Kesvananda Bharti case in 1973 further strengthened this and it went a step further stating that the DPSP were in harmony with the country's aims and objectives and the fundamental rights could be amended to meet the needs of the hour implying that FR and DPSP need to harmoniously referred to.

This preceded the 42nd Amendment in 1976 through which the Legislature accorded primacy to the DPSP over FR and thus opened up a new Pandora's Box on this debate of FR Vs DPSP.

Then came the Minerva Mills case in 1980, in which the Court stated that the DPSP and FR were both part of the basic feature of the Indian Constitution and any amendment that destroyed its balance would be in contravention to the basic structure of the Constitution. Justice Chandrachud clearly stated that FR and DPSP are complementary to each other and formed the base and core of human rights of an individual and they could not be read independent of the other otherwise they would be rendered incomplete and inaccessible.

Also Article 31C was restored to its pre-1976 position so that a Law would be protected by Article 31C only if it has been made to implement the directive in Article 39(b)-(c) and not any of the other Directives included in Part IV.

Then in the Sanjeev Coke Mfg. Co. v M/s Bharat Coking Coal Ltd.AIR 1983 SC 239 case, the Court went with Article 31C in deciding the matter thus granting greater importance to DPSP as compared to FR to upheld the Coking Coal Mines (Nationalization) Act, 1972.

Another debate ensued with this judgment but it was put to rest in State of Tamil Nadu v L. Abu Kavier Bai, 1984 again reinstated the Minerva mills Judgment of harmonious existence of DPSP and FR and that this was the main thought behind separating the two (PART III for Individual rights & PART IV for socio-economic welfare state) in the Constitution by the Constituent Assembly. This has been further carried forward in various other judgments in later cases like Mohini Jain v State of Karnataka and Unni Krishnan v State of Andhra Pradesh.

The K. Santhanam Committee stated that the DPSP arise a situation of conflict between:

1. Centre & States

2. President & Prime Minister

3. Governor & CM

As per Santhanam, Centre can give directions to the states regarding implementations of DPSP and in case of noncompliance it can dismiss the State Govt. But this rarely happens and in case of wrong decision to dismiss a Govt, the Courts come to rescue and reimpose the Constitutional mandate.

FUNDAMENTAL DUTIES:

The Courts laid down a very important message that there can be no rights without duties. The Constitution of 1950 did not include Fundamental Duties. It was added via the 42nd Amendment in 1976 on the recommendations of Justice Swaran Singh Committee as Chapter IV under Article 51A of the Indian Constitution. These duties though obligatory on the citizens but are subject to the State enforcing the same by a valid law. SC has constantly given instructions to the State with a view to make these more effective and enabling citizens to perform their duties properly.

1. To abide by the Constitution and respect our National Flag and National Anthem

2. To follow the noble ideals that inspired our national freedom movement.

3. To protect the unity and integrity of India

4. To defend the country when the need arises

5. To promote harmony and brotherhood among all sections of the people and to respect the dignity of women.

6. To  preserve our rich heritage and composite culture.

7. To  protect and improve our natural environment including forests, rivers, lakes and wildlife

8. To  ldeveop scientific outlook and humanism

9. To  protect public property and not to use violence

10. To  strive for excellence in all spheres of individual and collective activity

11. A parent or guardian to provide opportunities for education of his child or as the case may be ward between the age of six and fourteen years        

In case of violation of  Fundamental Duties it is taken as contempt of the Constitution and attracts punishment via the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971.

Supreme Court has ruled that fundamental duties are also helpful in determining the constitutionality of an Act passed by the Legislature.

Article 51A brings the Indian Constitution into conformity with international treaties like Universal Declaration of Human Rights and International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

 CONCLUSION:

So one can very clearly see that how these three political concepts and provisions of our Constitution are interwoven to be complementary and supplementary to each other in making a responsible State and community/citizenry as a whole via DPSP and the Individuals via FRs and FDs. 

Only a dutiful citizen will ensure FR remain in its reasonable restrictions and exercised in its true form and will be able to help with the implementation of a DPSP. Smooth implementation of DPSP is possible only if the citizenry and individuals are aware of their rights and duties towards the country.