Leveraging SBCC for Enhanced Governance: The Role of Media in Promoting RTI

A law is only as powerful as the number of people who know it exists. The Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005 is arguably the most citizen-empowering legislation in independent India’s history – giving every Indian the legal right to ask any public authority what it is doing, why, and how it is spending public money. Yet for years after its passage, millions remained unaware it existed at all. This is exactly where Social and Behaviour Change Communication (SBCC) stepped in, with media at its centre – translating a dense legal statute into a living, democratic practice.

What is SBCC and why does governance need it? 🔗

SBCC is a strategic communication approach designed not just to inform, but to shift attitudes, behaviours, and social norms. According to UNICEF India, all development goals – including good governance – require behavioural and social change, which in turn needs an enabling environment of institutions that understand and implement evidence-based, gender-responsive SBCC. In practical terms, it means using media, community mobilisation, interpersonal communication, and advocacy together to achieve a measurable shift in how people think and act.

Applied to governance, SBCC does something critical: it bridges the gap between a right that exists on paper and a right that citizens actually exercise. In the context of RTI, this means informing the public about their legal entitlements, demystifying the process of filing an information request, and encouraging people to see transparency as something they can actively demand – not just passively receive.

The RTI Act: a brief foundation 🔗

Before exploring the SBCC dimension, it helps to understand what the RTI Act actually does. The official RTI portal describes the Act’s core object as empowering citizens, promoting transparency and accountability in government functioning, and containing corruption – making democracy work for the people in a real sense. Practically, it mandates that any Indian citizen can request information from a public authority, which must respond within 30 days – or within 48 hours when the matter concerns life and liberty. It also requires every public authority to designate a Public Information Officer (PIO) to handle such requests, and establishes Information Commissions at both central and state levels to handle appeals and penalise non-compliance.

The Act did not emerge in a vacuum. The National Campaign for People’s Right to Information (NCPRI), formed in 1996, united civil society organisations, activists, and citizens to transform scattered local demands into a coordinated national campaign. Their strategy included media engagement – using print and electronic media to build public support for transparency – alongside policy advocacy and legal intervention. This early use of strategic communication to build a reform movement was, in many ways, an early template for what SBCC would later formalise.

How media functions as the engine of SBCC for RTI 🔗

Once the RTI Act was passed, the challenge shifted from advocacy to awareness. Here, the media’s SBCC function became central. Newspapers, television, radio, and increasingly digital platforms each played a distinct role in educating the public about the Act’s provisions and how citizens could use it.

Investigative journalism as accountability communication 🔗

One of the most powerful SBCC contributions of media has been demonstrating RTI’s value through high-profile investigative stories. Notable cases – including the Adarsh Housing Scam, the Commonwealth Games Scam, and the black money scandal – were all made possible by RTI-based disclosures. In one compelling example, journalist Afroz Alam Sahil used RTI to access health ministry data, which contributed to a dramatic reduction in the prices of over 315 essential medicines.

These stories do more than expose wrongdoing. As a communication tool, they perform a critical SBCC function: they show ordinary citizens that RTI works. When a ration card irregularity in a village or a procurement fraud in a municipal corporation is exposed through RTI and covered by local media, it signals to the wider community that the law has real teeth. Journalists frequently leverage the RTI Act to uncover information of public interest, thereby fostering transparency – and in doing so, they model its use for a much larger audience.

Journalist Shyamlal Yadav, part of the investigative team at The Indian Express and a member of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, has been one of the most celebrated examples of this practice – using RTI systematically to investigate foreign travel by public servants, irregularities in parliamentary staff appointments, and pollution in rivers. His work has been recognised as a model for how journalism and RTI can reinforce each other to serve democratic accountability.

Mass media campaigns for RTI literacy 🔗

Beyond investigative journalism, mass media has been used in more direct public education campaigns. Television programmes, community radio segments, and print features explaining how to file an RTI application have all contributed to what communication practitioners call “RTI literacy.” These are classic SBCC interventions: identifying a knowledge gap, choosing the right channel to reach the target audience, and delivering a clear, actionable message.

Community radio, in particular, has proven effective in reaching rural populations. UNICEF India’s SBCC work has engaged trans-media platforms – including TV, video, digital media, community radio, and folk media – to create social narratives that reach marginalised and last-mile communities. The same logic applies to RTI outreach: a farmer who might never read a government circular can hear a radio drama explaining what RTI is and how to use it.

Digital media has added another dimension. Platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, and alternative media sources are increasingly using RTI responses to expose government failures. Social media enables communities of practice to form – spaces where people share RTI experiences, offer filing advice, and learn from each other’s successes and setbacks. Interactive helplines and online forums extend this further, allowing citizens to get direct guidance on drafting requests.

Civil society and media: a partnership for reach and credibility 🔗

Media alone, however, cannot achieve the depth of behaviour change required for RTI to become a common democratic practice – especially in rural and marginalized communities where access to mainstream media is uneven. This is where the partnership between civil society organisations (CSOs) and media becomes essential to SBCC strategy.

CSOs such as NGOs, lobby groups, and community network organisations have used awareness campaigns, trained citizens on how to file applications, and provided legal assistance in cases of denial or retaliation. They have been especially vital in marginalised areas, where state opacity and social exclusion often overlap. These groups serve as intermediaries – translating the media’s messages into on-the-ground support and giving voice to communities that mainstream media often overlooks.

Many such CSOs have partnered with media outlets to run grassroots advocacy campaigns. These typically combine media exposure – a TV feature, a newspaper series, a radio programme – with direct community engagement: workshops, printed guides in local languages, and trained volunteers who assist citizens in drafting RTI applications. This multi-channel, multi-stakeholder approach is precisely what effective SBCC looks like in practice.

SBCC and RTI: fostering participatory democracy 🔗

The cumulative effect of these media and civil society interventions is not just individual RTI applications – it is a shift in governance culture. When citizens routinely file RTIs to check on welfare scheme disbursements, question infrastructure costs, or monitor public fund usage, they are exercising participatory democracy in its most direct form. Public officials become aware that their actions are subject to scrutiny, leading to more careful decision-making and a reduced likelihood of corruption and malpractice.

A study by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative found that over 75% of RTI users felt the law improved their access to information, and today over three million RTI applications are filed annually in India. These numbers reflect not just legal awareness but a change in civic behaviour – exactly the outcome SBCC aims to produce.

RTI has also, as one commentator has noted, given rise to a new fifth pillar of democracy alongside the traditional three branches and the media: civil society. This is not incidental. It is the direct result of SBCC strategies that empowered citizens to see themselves not as subjects of governance, but as active participants in it.

Gaps and the road ahead 🔗

Despite genuine successes, awareness gaps remain significant. According to Lokniti-CSDS data, only about 12% of people in rural India and around 30% in urban India are aware of RTI. Bureaucratic resistance, technical rejection of applications, and threats against RTI activists continue to undermine the Act’s promise. More than 51 RTI activists have been killed since 2005, and over 300 have been harassed or attacked, according to a 2023 report by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative – a sobering reminder of the risks that transparency work entails.

These gaps point directly to the continued need for SBCC interventions. Nationwide public awareness campaigns should focus on informing citizens about filing procedures and the types of information they are entitled to access. Integrating RTI literacy into school curricula, expanding multilingual and offline filing options, and strengthening community media capacity are all identified as priority areas. Organisations like the Population Foundation of India have shown how entertainment-based SBCC – using television serials, interactive voice response systems, and community storytelling – can reach millions. Applying similar approaches to RTI promotion could significantly expand its reach.

Technology offers additional opportunity. Digital RTI portals, mobile-based filing systems, and open data initiatives can lower the barriers to access. But technology must be accompanied by communication – without SBCC campaigns that build trust, demonstrate value, and teach citizens how to use these tools, digital infrastructure alone will not change behaviour.

What do you think? With awareness of RTI still at just 12% in rural India, what kinds of SBCC campaigns – media-based, community-led, or technology-driven – do you think would be most effective in closing that gap? And given that civil society and investigative journalism have together driven much of RTI’s success, what happens to governance transparency when either of those pillars comes under pressure?

References

1. https://rti.gov.in/
2. https://www.unicef.org/india/what-we-do/communication-for-development
3. https://bpac.in/rti-act-2005-transparency-governance-india/
4. https://pubadmin.institute/right-to-information/transparency-movement-rti-law-india
5. https://www.downtoearth.org.in/governance/20-years-of-rti-act-reviving-the-spirit-of-the-act-requires-a-multifaceted-approach
6. https://www.dalvoy.com/en/upsc/mains/previous-years/2025/public-administration-paper-i/media-accountability-transparency-role-argument
7. https://www.routledge.com/Journalism-Through-RTI-Information-Investigation-Impact/Yadav/p/book/9781032906973
8. https://www.unicef.org/india/media/8831/file/Social%20and%20Behaviour%20Change%20and%20Gender%20Progress%20Report%202022.pdf
9. https://www.vajiraoinstitute.com/upsc-ias-current-affairs/two-decades-of-rti-indias-journey-of-transparency-and-trials.aspx
10. https://uppcsmagazine.com/the-right-to-information-rti-act-in-india-its-impact-on-governance-and-transparency/
11. https://www.populationfoundation.in/approaches2/behaviour-change-communication/