Don’t do me a favor; Grant me the right to demand

Depository’s act of India provided for one of the highest level of service level commitments to the account holder. It required that the depository should indemnify any losses to the investors resulting out of negligence from its part or from the part of its agents namely depository participants. Thus it gave the account holders the right to demand safety of their investment. At the time of enactment of this act, when about 25% of all settlement in the stock market used to have problems associated with paper and there were innumerable instances of investors losing their investment on account of frauds relating to share certificate, this stringent service level requirement appeared utopian and impossible to sustain.

This put enormous pressure on the new depository that was set up, registrars who were hitherto not used to respecting investor’s right and the brokers and bankers who were used to service on good effort basis. This Damocles Sword ensured that systems, processes, checks, balances and audit trail are built and maintained to meet this service level. In the last 15 years since first depository was established, the market intermediaries managed to live up to this service level with practically insignificant instances of breaches which necessitated the service providers to pay up.

What did the magic was the right given by the act of parliament to demand a certain service level without being felt as if we are being offered a favour. In the recent past the government has extended this principle in a number of areas; right to information, right to food, right to education and right to electronic service delivery.

All these are attempts to empower the citizen. Right to Information which was the first of such initiatives has been there for some time. The results have been very encouraging. As more people get to be aware of this right and learn to exercise it, the pressure for performance will build up. It was heartening to see that even children are learning to use this powerful tool. I was impressed by the Class 8 student Kavana Kumar from Karnataka who used this tool to get the garbage dump next her school cleaned by the municipality. These may be anecdotal evidence as of now. But these have potential to grow to stronger tools. Similarly when we give the citizen the right to demand and not stand in supplication for what is due for him we are triggering a paradigm shift.

Instead of being armchair critics who bemoan the degeneration of the society and the level of corruption with little compunction in using the same means to push our own agenda, we need to learn how to use these tools to make a difference. We should also encourage and support enactment of more such laws placing rights into hands of the citizen/consumer, to bring in more service orientation; especially from the people in positions of power both in private and in public sector. Then may be we will learn the meaning of "service with a smile" if not a grimace:-)


Safeguarding the rights of others is the most noble and beautiful end of a human being.” Kahil Gibran

If you like this post, share it with your friends