Dr. Y. Vishnu Vardhan discusses social audits, which involve stakeholders in planning, monitoring, and evaluating projects and programs to ensure effective implementation and control irregularities. Social audits complement financial audits by assessing outcomes over outputs. The basic principles of social audits are transparency, participation, accountability, comparability, verification, and disclosure. Social audits are conducted over the lifespan of a project or program. The methodology involves 6 steps: defining boundaries, identifying stakeholders, data collection, verifying findings, public meetings, and institutionalizing social audits. An example social audit of a mid-day meal scheme in schools is provided. Social audits are recognized as an important tool to improve program performance monitoring and