A public document in which a government organisation states the services it provides, the standards and time limits citizens can expect, how to seek redress when standards are not met, and what is expected of citizens in return.
The idea emerged in the United Kingdom, where Prime Minister John Major launched the Citizen's Charter programme in 1991 to make public services more responsive by treating users as customers with rights to defined standards. The approach spread to many countries as part of wider "new public management" reforms that emphasised performance, choice and accountability.
In India, a conference of Chief Ministers in 1997 on "Effective and Responsive Government" agreed to formulate citizen's charters for departments with public interface, starting with railways, telecom, posts and public distribution. The Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances coordinated the effort. Evaluations found that many early charters were drafted without consulting users, were not publicised, and had no remedy if promises were broken. To fix this, the government developed the Sevottam model, and states began passing Right to Services laws that make timely delivery a legal entitlement with penalties for delay.
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