NGOs and activists still promoting the RTI law, however, tell us there have been recent indications of interest among youths in exercising the law.

Nearly half of the population, primarily women, are deprived of their right to access critical information, said Sharmeen S Murshid, adviser to the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs and Social Welfare, at an event yesterday.

Now is the opportunity for our youth to lead us in using existing laws to build a better country.

In the last few months, we have received some very encouraging feedback from users of the RTI law about the Information Commission's work.

Indications of the growing maturity of RTI Act users and the increasing willingness of public officials to abide by its provisions are indeed welcome developments.

Citizens’ right to monitor, probe and question the work of their governments is essential for democracy.

The first case was brought to our attention by RTI activists promoting the law at the grassroots level in Bangladesh.

In recent weeks, two important government ministers—Law Minister Mr Anisul Huq, and Information Minister Mr Hasan Mahmud—have given vocal support to a fuller implementation of our national Right to Information (RTI) Act.

Arunendu works for the Rangamati Hill District Council in the Chittagong Hill Tracts region of Bangladesh. He is known for his dedication and commitment to public service.

NGO experience shows that many RTI applications from marginalised communities do not get recorded as those who obtain benefits by simply using the law do not care about receiving a formal response. Officials concerned also do not wish to record applications and may even avoid reporting them to concerned offices, as they often resort to irregular practices to dispose them off.

Unfortunately, so far, our performance on both transparency as well as accountability has not been very good. Fortunately, there is still time to improve this before the major climate change funds begin to flow.

Unfortunately, citizens are yet to rise to the occasion and play a meaningful role to take the law forward. Demands for information are yet to pour into government offices in large numbers to test the system.

It would be unfair to compare the Bangladesh situation with the Indian experience (refer to Part I of this column published yesterday).

During the International Right to Information Week celebrations recently, a common question in people's mind was: Is the Right to Information Act 2009 (RTI) going in the right direction?

A common reaction of most people about the RTI Act is a lack of trust in its efficacy. It is this general lack of faith in the willingness of public officials to break away from the age-old culture of official secrecy...

What is encouraging to note is that this time the government has come forward to break the culture of secrecy. That's why the RTI law has a provision of pro-active disclosure.

RELIGIOUS sensitivity has deepened since the advent of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's regime.