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.