Part 4 of my conversation with Mr. Venkatesh Nayak about his journey as an RTI activist and the challenges he faces along the way…

So I had to equip myself real fast by reading up basic law books such as G P Singh's Principles of Statutory Interpretation, T K Vishwanathan's Book on the art and craft of drafting legislation, S P Sathe's seminal work on Administrative Law etc. Language was also a barrier.

While I was able to conduct trainings in English and Hindi, it was difficult to connect with officers in States like Punjab, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu etc. where the local language was different. But I managed to convey the key messages and learnings through a combination of English and Hindi. Another challenge was the non-availability of the text of some of the State level laws, rules and regulations that appeared to be in conflict with the provisions of the RTI Act. So one had to make extra effort to look for such materials in the law book stores of the respective State capitals.

Not having a law background and not being familiar with the administrative practices and procedures of government agencies were clearly drawbacks I faced in my initial years of work. I faced the language barrier while conducting training sessions for NGOs and media in States like West Bengal and Odisha. This is why we devised a strategy of conducting training of trainers sessions for CSO and media representatives in English and Hindi, so that they could conduct similar trainings in their native language in their States.

To be continued…