Citizen’s Charter
- Citizen’s Charter is a document which represents a systematic effort to focus on the commitment of the Organisation towards its Citizens in respects of Standard of Services, Information, Choice and Consultation, Non-discrimination and Accessibility, Grievance Redress, Courtesy and Value for Money.
- This also includes expectations of the Organization from the Citizen for fulfilling the commitment of the Organization.
Salient aspects of Citizen Charters
- Agreed and published standards for service delivery;
- Openness and information about service delivery;
- ‘Choice’ and Consultation with users;
- Courtesy and helpfulness in service delivery; and
- Provision of redressal of grievances.
Standards:
- The Charter should lay out explicit standards of service delivery so that users understand what they can reasonably expect from service providers.
- These standards should be time‐bound, relevant, accurate, measurable and specific.
Information and openness:
- A key attribute of good service is the availability of relevant and concise information to the users at the right time and at the right place.
Choice and consultation:
- The Charter should provide choice of services to users wherever practicable.
- There should be regular and systematic consultation with the users of the service to fix service standards and to ascertain quality of service delivery.
Courtesy and helpfulness:
- The Charter can help embed a culture of courteous and helpful service from public servants.
Grievance redressal and complaints handling:
- By facilitating and responding to complaints, the causes for complaints can be reduced. Secondly, by identifying ‘trends’ in complaints, the service provider can resolve systemic and recurring problems.