New Delhi: The government aims to make policymaking more responsive by using people’s experiences, grievances, and suggestions to identify gaps in public services and turn concerns into broader policy and reforms, said two people aware of the matter.
It is the first time that the government is introducing such a mechanism, they said.
The finance ministry, as the nodal agency, has asked ministries and departments to examine their grievance and complaint mechanisms and shortlist five complaints or suggestions that could potentially be converted into policy changes.
Reform Utsav was christened in June to mark 12 years of the government.
To be sure, under existing practice, departments act on complaints and seek to resolve them within the stipulated timeframe. Under the new approach, however, complaints and grievances will also be screened from a policy perspective. Officials handling consumer grievance portals will analyse the complaints and identify those that could translate into policy suggestions or reforms. The contribution of the complainant or end user will also be acknowledged as an input to the policy reform process.
The initiative marks a shift in the way citizen grievances are viewed. Instead of treating complaints only as individual cases to be resolved, ministries have been asked to identify recurring concerns that may indicate gaps in the underlying rules, procedures, or the scheme's implementation. The thinking is that citizens who use government schemes and services are often best placed to identify problems at the last mile.
Bigger role for citizen’s voice
The ministries will send the shortlisted suggestions to the nodal ministry, where they will be reviewed by an inter-ministerial group to be constituted for the purpose. Any policy or procedural changes will be approved by the competent authority in accordance with the existing rules.
“The key objective is to make policy corrections based on inputs from end users who experience gaps in the delivery of schemes and services on a regular basis. We are scanning the complaints and filtering those that can help bring about reforms, particularly in public-centric welfare schemes,” said the first among the two persons cited above.
“The intent is to increase the participation of citizens at every stage of policy formulation and recognise their suggestions as an important input for policymaking,” this person said, adding that the aim is to make reforms more of the people, by the people and for the people.
Citizens can file complaints through several government channels—Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS), the National Consumer Helpline, the PMO grievance mechanism, ministry portals, and dedicated helplines. Ministries are now mining this feedback pool to spot recurring issues and shape policy reforms.
The complaints or grievances could span a wide range of sectors, including banking services, manufacturing, production-linked incentive (PLI) schemes, agriculture, consumer affairs, food distribution, petroleum products, road transport and several others.
Stronger people's participation
“The exercise also seeks to give a stronger Jan Bhagidari, or people’s participation, dimension to the government’s reform agenda. Rather than relying only on internal administrative reviews or fresh consultation exercises, ministries would draw reform ideas from feedback that citizens have already provided while accessing government services,” the second person said.
Queries sent to spokespersons of the PMO and all ministries, including finance, Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), consumer affairs, education, labour and employment, remained unanswered till press time.
“When there are flaws in the basic structure of a policy, cosmetic changes will not be enough. Complaints and suggestions from citizens are important because they reflect the concerns and gaps people experience on the ground. Issues such as inadequate investment in research and development, rising corruption or weaknesses in implementation cannot be addressed merely by making incremental changes. The government needs to identify the root causes and undertake meaningful policy corrections,” said Arun Kumar, noted economist and retired professor of Jawaharlal Nehru University.