The right to information act prevalent in any country is an essential human right that empowers the general public to demand transparency and accountability from their respective governments and to eradicate corruption within the system through access to knowledge. Right to information provides the public with easy access to facts that are beneficial in a variety of ways from human rights to environmental justice.
The provincial legislature of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) passed the KP Right to Information Act 2013 with the aim to empower citizens through access to information regarding government departments and to establish an accountable and transparent environment conducive for the growth of democracy. Under this act, citizens can exercise their right to request information regarding services provided by the public bodies, details about staff members and how the government manages finances. The female population of the province are also encouraged to use the platform and can benefit in several ways from RTI. The act helps empower women and facilitates them in their access to education and employment opportunities. A female citizen can put forward a request for information varying from merit lists from different educational institutions to details of their screening for a particular government position and reasons on why they did not get the final job offer. Thus, this helps them to constructively work on their weaknesses and further polish their strengths. Access to such information enables females to vest greater trust in the system and gives rise to a more transparent selection process based on equality, merit and performance. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Information commission collaborated with Blimp and availed its expertise in the development of a comprehensive digital strategy for empowering women by creating awareness about the RTI law. The strategy further focused on enabling females to use the act and create awareness for their rights. Blimp rendered its services and expertise and successfully developed a social media campaign for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Information Commision primarily focusing on KPIC’s social media presence across different platforms. The digital campaign also worked around creating awareness regarding RTI among female viewers by sharing engaging digital content. Furthermore, Blimp also reformed, enhanced and continues to provide support for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Right To Information website. For additional efforts to reach their target audience, Team Blimp created handles on social media handles and revamped the existing ones. Blimp has successfully targetted 38,676 and 2,744 females from Nowshera, Swat, Kohat, and Abbottabad on Facebook and Twitter respectively for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Right to Information Commission. Through such a collaborative effort females can now easily access the information they require by simply visiting the department’s website or social media pages. If the information required is not accessible through these mediums they can file an information request with the Public Information Officer (PIO) of the concerned department. A database of contact details of PIOs can be found on the KPIC’s website. If the department fails to provide the information in the stipulated time period, a complaint can also be filed with the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Information Commission via email, phone or in person. The Facilitation Centre Staff can facilitate women who cannot write or read via phone. Blimp thrives as an organization that supports women empowerment through and through and thus, has made it easy for females from all walks of life to access information on laws and legislation concerning women’s rights and wellbeing such as the Women Inheritance Law, Women Rights Legislation, The Protection against Sexual Harassment of Women at the Workplace Act etc.
