Quality of Public Services in the Era of Guaranteed Public Service Delivery

Abstract

The provision of public services is one of the important functions performed by a government as it ensures the growth of a nation and promotes welfare and justice in society. Public services are characterised by timeliness, quality and grievance redressal in the course of service delivery. Quality is an important component of public service delivery and determines citizens’ satisfaction and trust in the government. The debates on governance during the 1990s were focused on service delivery as the most important component in the governance process. Public services were seen as a medium for interaction between the citizens and the government through street-level agents of the state to promote the welfare and wellbeing of the people. Developments like the Citizen’s Charter formulation and implementation, social audit, e-Governance programme, Public Service Guarantee Act, and so on have shaped the governance discourse in India. This essay highlights the significance of quality in public service delivery in India, its need the quality-satisfaction-trust triad, barriers to quality in public service delivery, tools to ensure the quality of public services in India and international best practices.