Daksh Society

Daksh’s main focus is to improve accountability in politics and governance. They have the following objectives to achieve their goal:

• Develop tools to measure performance of elected governments and representatives.
• Evaluate performance of elected representatives at all levels, i.e. members of Parliament, members of Legislature etc. on a regular basis.
• Collect information and prepare reports on performance of key government departments annually.
• Disseminate information on performance of government and elected representatives widely through the media, their partner network and by organizing discussions at local areas.
• Create a platform for political discourse based on accountability by bringing together various interested parties.

Their initiatives in FY14 included:

• Voters’ Perception on MP and MLA Performance: In FY14, Daksh collaborated with Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) to conduct a nation-wide on-field survey with over 250,000 respondents in 525 constituencies of the Lok Sabha. This was perhaps the largest survey ever done in the world in one country. The survey covered voter priorities on governance issues; voter rating of MPs; the role of caste, religion, crime and money power in elections. In 2013 Daksh had executed a voter survey covering all 224 MLA constituencies in Karnataka. 
• Constitutional Day Lecture Series: The annual lecture of the Constitutional Day Lecture Series was held on 29 November 2014. The lecture ‘The Role, Independence, and Accountability of the Judiciary Under the Indian Constitution' was delivered by Mr. Prashant Bhushan, Indian lawyer, activist and politician. 
• Legislation Drafting Challenge: The Legislation Drafting Challenge is an annual contest designed to encourage students to draft legislation in areas that require reform. Teams from across the country participate in the event.
• The Rule of Law Project: DAKSH is currently working on a new project which aims at studying the problem of pendency and backlog of cases within the Indian legal system. The Project will use data pertaining to cases brought before the High Courts in India that are available in the public domain through cause lists, to enable further research and public debate.