This book is an independent and pioneering effort to assess the state of India’s public services from a user’s perspective. Most people in India depend on the “state” for many essential services. Yet, the state’s monitoring of service delivery seldom goes beyond tracking public expenditure and physical outputs. Citizens who are the ultimate beneficiaries of these services are never asked for their feedback on the services despite the fact that they possess valuable information on the delivery, quality and responsiveness of services.

The authors have admirably filled this gap and provided unique benchmarks with respect to five basic services that matter to most people, viz., drinking water, primary health care, primary education, public distribution of food and public transport across the major states of India. Based on user feedback from 37,000 households drawn from both rural and urban areas, the study derives important conclusions on the access, use, reliability and satisfaction with respect to these services. A key finding is that governments have done more for extending access to services, but much less for their effectiveness and reliability. Equally important are also the findings on how disadvantaged households and less developed regions have fared with respect to these services.

“This is yet another important milestone in the work of the Public Affairs Centre. I hope the survey will stimulate a productive debate, identifying areas which offer scope for improvement both in the formulation of policy design as well as in improving the quality of the service delivery system. An important aspect of the study is that we have today a benchmark that enables us to measure our performance in the years to come for the country as a whole and the States. I once again compliment Prof. Paul and his colleagues for having produced a study which has far reaching implications for the planning of our public policy and the social and economic development of our country.”

— Dr. Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India

“This monumental study covering the major states in India brings out in rich details the present status of services basic to human development, the extent to which the disadvantaged groups and those in rural and urban peripheries have access to these services and their priority needs. It also provides a valuable set of benchmarks and an innovative analytical design for monitoring the outputs and outcomes in a policy area critical in India's strategy for poverty reduction and economic reforms with a human face."

— Dr. V.M. Rao Honorary Visiting Fellow, ISEC, Bangalore

Dr. Samuel Paul is founder chairperson of the Public Affairs Centre (PAC), Bangalore, India. He spearheaded the development of “Citizen Report Cards” as an accountability tool. Formerly he was Director and professor of economics at IIM, Ahmedabad.

Dr. Suresh Balakrishnan is Chief Technical Advisor with UNDP.

Dr. Gopakumar Thampi is Exec. Director of Public Affairs Foundation, Bangalore and former Head of the Asia Desk at the Transparency International secretariat in Berlin.

Dr. Sita Sekhar is Chief Research Officer at PAC.

Prof. M. Vivekananda is Senior Advisor to Public Affairs Foundation, Bangalore.