CITIZEN ENGAGEMENT INTO THE IMPLEMENTATION OF WELFARE SCHEMES IN TELANGANA DISTRICTS

Authors

  • Bhukya Madhu Department of Computer Science Engineering, JNTU University
  • Ravi Bukya Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering CMR Engineering College, Medchal Road

Keywords:

Information technology, use-cases

Abstract

Citizens are understood as the ultimate client of government, development institutions and private sector interventions in a country. Citizens can act as individuals or organize themselves in associations and groups such as community based groups, women’s groups, or indigenous peoples’ groups. Civil society organizations (CSOs) can represent citizens and can include organizations outside the public or for-profit sector, such as nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), charitable organizations, faith-based organizations, foundations, academia, associations, policy development and research institutes, trade unions, and social movements. In this context, the term citizen is not used in a legal sense but is understood in the broad sense of referring to all people in a society or country in an inclusive and nondiscriminatory way.  We leverage the deep penetration of mobile phones in Telangana to design a suite of IVR (Interactive Voice Response) tools that can help capture community perceptions, improve awareness of the people, and verify official records directly by the beneficiaries themselves. In the context of a rural employment guarantee scheme, we evaluate these tools in a few villages in the state of Telangana and demonstrate that there is good scope for using IVR tools to serve as a citizen engagement channel for welfare schemes. Our contribution lies in outlining several use-cases for technology interventions, and uncovering nuances that should be addressed if such systems are integrated into the implementation.

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Additional Files

Published

15-03-2016

How to Cite

Bhukya Madhu, & Ravi Bukya. (2016). CITIZEN ENGAGEMENT INTO THE IMPLEMENTATION OF WELFARE SCHEMES IN TELANGANA DISTRICTS. International Education and Research Journal (IERJ), 2(3). Retrieved from http://ierj.in/journal/index.php/ierj/article/view/151