INDIA IN CORRUPTION
Background
Corruption
– the word to which Indian political-bureaucratic setup is associated with. In
India, corruption becomes a rule, rather than exception. Pertaining to
statistics, in its 2008 study, Transparency International reports about 40% of
Indians had firsthand experience of paying bribes or using a contact to get a
job done in public office. In 2012 India has ranked 94th out of 176 countries
in Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index.
The
immediate consequence of corruption is the creation of an informal economy. For
instance, a below income person who applies for old age pension has to bribe
the official for quick approval. Once he cannot arrange the money,one, his
right is denied and two,wastage of tax
payers resource. Once he makes a bribe, then again the result is the creation
of a shadow economy.
Socio-cultural
consequences
The
series of scams in recent years from 2G scam to Coalgate scam reveals the
growing trend of largescale corruption
in India. While most are highly manipulated by business corporates who actually
take into lobbying for public policies, others are backed by infamous
politician-bureaucrat nexus. Whatsoever, the result is the draining away of tax
payers’ money, and denial of right based development to common folk. The large
chunk of profit is shared by polical parties and bureaucrats. Liberalisation
policies, FDI’s and FII’s, privatisng the crucial sectors, aim to hide the
rampant corruption underlying them. Private electricity discoms like Reliance
and TATA are subsidized while the poor are asked to pay higher tariffs for
electricity.
The
big scams left, take case of MGNREGA or ICDS programmes. CAG report on both the
programmes point to widespread corruption throughout the country. Apart from
denial of services, the evasion of public money amounts to crores. The widening
rich-poor divide in human
development report (HDR) released by Planning Commission
in 2011, states, the top 5 per
cent of the households possess 38 per cent of the total assets and the bottom 60
per cent of households own a mere 13 per cent. The growing growth rate does not
sync with declining poverty. Its most important consequence is the denial of
basic services of food,medicine,cloth and shelter and education, particularly
of the vulnerable sections. Harsh Mander,in his book Ash in the Belly, points to fact as India is among 29 countries
where hunger levels were ‘extremely alarming’.
Measures to check
The recent hype labelled as ‘anti-corruption
movement’ is not the pathway to check the social evil. Instead an active
judiciary can play a vital role, the recent interruption by Supreme court in
Coal gate scam,an example. Stringent auditing of all public works is yet
another step, however not all CAG’s would be another Vinod Rai. The increased
role of social media has its positive and negative role,however it caters to
the popular opinion of democracy. The Right to Information Act, ought to be
implemented in full scale, bringing in transperancy and accountability,apart
from the E-Governance intiative undertaken countrywide. An engaged civil
society and media is the easiest option to check corruption.
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