Good Governance Day is celebrated in the country every year on 25 December, the birthday of late PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The day was founded in 2014 to honor PM Vajpayee by promoting awareness among the Indians of responsibility in government.
In keeping with this direction, the Indian government has passed the day to be an active day for the Indian government.
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History of Good Governance Day
On 23 December 2014, the ninety-year-old late PM Vajpayee, and Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya (posthumously) were declared as an awardee of the Bharat Ratna, the country’s highest civilian award for excellence, by President of India, Pranab Mukherjee.
After the declaration, the recently elected leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi confirmed that the birthdate of the ex-Prime Minister would be hereafter celebrated every year as Good Governance Day in India.
Objectives of Good Governance Day
- To make individuals aware of the government’s responsibility to offer transparent and liable management in the nation.
- Good Governance Day is observed to improve the welfare and advancement of the people.
- It is observed to formalize the government’s functioning and to create a positively influential and obligated regime for the residents of the nation.
- To enforce fair and useful policies to achieve a mission of good governance in the country.
- To improve the development and growth in India via good governance.
- To get locals nearer to the government to create them engaged participants in the good governance approach.
Eight Characteristics of Good Governance:
1. Participation:
Individuals should keep a voice in decision-making, either straightly or through honest intermediate organizations that express their claims.
2. Rule of law:
Lawful frameworks should be appropriate and implemented impartially, especially the rules on human rights.
3. Transparency:
Transparency is made on the unrestricted flow of information. Institutions, processes, and data are easily available to those involved with them, and sufficient data is offered to understand and observe them.
4. Responsiveness:
Processes and Institutions try to help all stakeholders within a suitable time frame.
5. Consensus orientation:
Good governance needs mediation of the various appeals in the community to get an all-around consensus in society on what is in the finest welfare of the entire society and how this can be fulfilled.
6. Equity:
All groups, especially the most helpless, have chances to enhance or maintain their well-being.
7. Effectiveness and efficiency:
Strategies and institutions deliver outcomes that satisfy requirements while making the most suitable usage of resources.
8. Accountability:
Head in civil society organizations, government, and the private sector are liable to the people, as well as to organizational stakeholders.
Initiatives Taken
● Good Governance Index
The Good Governance Index has been established by the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions to decide the quality of governance in India.
● National e-Governance Plan
It has the concept to “make every government service available to the ordinary human in his locality, through standard service delivery platforms and provide transparency, efficiency, and reliability of such benefits at cheap prices to realize the essential requirements of the ordinary human.”
● Right to Information Act, 2005
It plays a useful part in providing transparency in governance.
Challenges to Good Governance in India:
● Women Empowerment
Females are not sufficiently expressed in government organizations and other associated sectors.
● Corruption
The increased level of corruption in the country has been broadly perceived as a primary barrier in enhancing the quality of governance.
● Delay in Justice
A resident has the freedom to avail timely justice, but there are various elements, due to which an average man doesn’t receive timely justice.
● Centralization of Administrative System
Governments at lower levels can only work productively if they are assigned to do so. This is especially appropriate for the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs), which presently suffer from insufficient devolution of funds as well as officials to take out the roles given to them.
● Criminalization of Politics
The criminalization of the political method and the wicked nexus between civil servants, politicians, and business homes are carrying an adverse impact on general policy formulation and management.