The Community Score Card – A Tool to Improve Service Delivery

Using a way of assessment and scoring that is inclusive, open and transparent, and jointly working out a possible solution with the community and the Service Provider, to make the running of government schemes more effective and accountable, and improving service delivery is what the correct use of the Community Score Card promises

S hakuntala Mahali of Jabor village, Jhalda 2 Block, Purulia, could not control her emotions as she jubilantly showed her receipt for the 2 kg of rice received for the first time from the Fair Price Shop (FPS).

“Earlier getting the full ration from the FPS was impossible; now our didis have made it possible. We used to fight with the dealer, who would give us 1.5 kg of rice or even less. There would always be shortage of kerosene and sugar, and the rations given to one card holder would be different from those given to another. Until now!”

Often, during Cluster meetings, SHG members would speak about the problems they faced due to the inefficient running of the government schemes and institutions. Some Clusters had also brought these issues to the delivery agencies, and requested for improvement, but had failed to make any impact on a long-term basis. The women were not really aware of the actual provisions under the various government schemes. They would fight with the Service Providers (SPs), put pressure on them to mend their ways, but to no avail.

In one case, 35 women from Simani village went to the teacher of the primary school complaining about the quality of the mid-day meal provided to the children. The women members were very angry and threatened the teacher, “You are not providing good meals to our children. There are no green vegetables, no egg and there is only soya bean khichari. You have to improve the quality otherwise you will face dire consequences.”