Mahadeep Singh Jamwal
Corruption is a term known to all of us precisely meaning an illegal, immoral or unauthorised act, done in due course of employment. Corruption means the state of being bad and dishonest especially in matters concerning money. Corruption is a form of dishonest or unethical conduct by a person entrusted with a position of authority. Literally it means, ‘inducement by improper means to violate duty’. It involves abuse of discretion, favoritism and nepotism. A very accurate definition by Transparency International is ‘Abuse of entrusted powers for private gain’.
Categories oF Corruption: It stands defined in generally following categories; Bribery; an act of dishonestly persuading someone to act in one’s favour by a person. Embezzlement; is misappropriating funds in ones control. Facilitation payment means to pay someone to speed up the legitimate work. Fraud; deceives someone to get illegal advantage. Extortion means to obtain something under threat.
Types of Corruption: Generally speaking the corruption emerges as a facilitator to obtain undue benefits, and in the process both bribe giver as well as bribe taker are consenting parties. Hence such type of corruption is almost never reported and becomes visible only when somewhere misuse of official position is detected. We can categorise this corruption into two categories;
Collusive Corruption: In this case the bribe is paid willingly and there are bleak chances of its reporting directly.
Forced Corruption:Where to obtain bribe the circumstances by the position holder are so created that one is forced to pay the same and this type of corruption is prone to reporting.
Causes of Corruption: Mostly agreed causes are money greed, power lust, personal enrichment, standard of living, and competitions for more show of. The corruption is also because of reasons that we have; Weak law enforcement, very minimal punishment, no incentive for honesty, successful parallel economy and lack of Transparency.
Forms of Corruption: Broadly speaking it can be classified as;
Collusive Corruption: Is a system of corruption where public and private partners join hands. Bribe is willingly given and it is seldom reported.
Moral Corruption: Means when we do not differentiate between good and correct and fail to apply the common sense, owing to certain considerations and sometimes may be without it such as favoritism.
Political Corruption: Is a way of life mostly affiliated with politicians and is adopted to win elections for power. Sometimes in this form of corruption involved are kidnapping, murder, violence, injustice, wealth and everything among people, but law on the subject deal with them under criminal acts.
Administrative Corruption: Is prevalent in all type of government employees. By money we can get anything difficult easily. In this form of corruption, an office holder or other government employee acts in an official capacity, for personal gains and to confer undue benefit to some other.
Professional Corruption: It is in the form of adulteration, duplicating and sub standard productions.
Bureaucratic-Political Nexus Corruption: Leading to big scam and is the most dangerous form of corruption.
Levels of Corruption: Corruption can occur on different scales and can be categorized as;
* Petty corruption involving small favours.
* Systematic Corruption is so prevalent in a large scale, that it is part of the everyday structure of society
* Grand corruption that affects the government.
Effects of Corruption: The myth of corruption effects people, society and economy;
Effects of Corruption on People: Lack of quality in service such as municipality services, electricity, water supply, relief distribution, and lack of proper justice; chances of employment, poor health and hygiene, pollution, accidents etc.
Effects of corruption on Society: Disregard for officials, Lack of respect for rulers, Lack of trust and faith on the government.
Effects of Corruption on Economy: Decrease in foreign investments, Delay in growth, Lack of development.
How To Combat Corruption: Common man needs to reform as it always wants shortcuts to everything. System needs reform. The knowledge is power that means awareness and education. Media; the common man should curb his greed to seek favors and instead expose and condemn corrupt officials through media. The expose is also a mean to curb corruption. And above all transparency is vital.
Many private players are in field and are contributing to curb the corruption at the National and International level by exposing it and coming forth with suggestions.
At the National level we have;
* India Against Corruption movement; movement of 2011-12 by Anna Hajare.
* Bharat Swabhiman Trust to fight graft by Baba Ramdev to bring back black money.
* All India Anti-Corruption, crime prevention, Human Rights Committee; by Vijay Kadam, fighting against corruption, crime and human rights in India operating from Maharashtra.
* The Social Institute of Anti-Corruption from West Bengal.
* Jai Hind Anti-Corruption operating from Haryana.
* Federation of Anti-Corruption Teams India from Tamil Nadu
* Anti Corruption Organization Karnataka from Karnataka.
* Indian Human Rights and Corruption Trust from Tamil Nadu.
* All India Anti Corruption Committee from Delhi.
* National Human Rights and Anti Corruption Bureau from Delhi.
At the International level we have;
Transparency International: It is a global civil society organization leading the fight against corruption. Mr. Peter Eigen, a former Regional Director of World Bank is the founder of TI in association with Hansjoerh Elsshort and Michael Wiehen in 1993.It publishes report every year, based on approximately 200 countries prone to corruption, placing these countries in the order of their Corruption Perception Index. The CPI for the year 2016 has placed Somalia, North Korea, Afghanistan, Sudan, and Iraq as most corrupt countries with Russia at number 35, Nepal 39, Pakistan 43, Bangladesh at 45, Saudi Arab 48, South Africa 61, China and Sri lanka 83 serial. Among least corrupt countries Denmark at the top followed by New Zealand, Finland, Sweden, Switzerland, Singapore, United Kingdom at number 10, Australia 13, United States & Japan 16, France 23, Israel at number 35. India is not at a satisfactory placement in order of the list; it was ranking at S. No 74 among list of 180 countries in the year 2008, it ranked 94 out of 177 countries in 2013 and it has slightly come down to S. No 85 position in 175 countries in 2014 and to 76 nations out of 175 countries in 2015 and 2016.
Transparency International India while releasing its Corruption Perception Index-2014 at New Delhi on 3rd December 2014 demanded;
* An early appointment of Lokpal.
o Stringent Law to deal with corruption in private sector.
* Compulsory audit of accounts of political parties.
* Electoral reforms to prevent tainted politicians from contesting elections and holding the position of power.
* Enactment of legislation for forfeiture of illegally acquired property.
* Speedy trial of criminal cases against Ministers, MP’s and MLA’s.
* Passage of Benami Transaction (Prohibition) Bill to check black money in India.
What we do not find any advancement of government to consider these stringent measures, recommended by ‘Transparency International India’ which somehow exposes the concern of the Government.
There is an interesting list of corruption in Indian States compiled by Transparency International, categorizing them into; Alarmingly Corrupt, Very High Corrupt, Highly Corrupt and Moderately Corrupt states with Bihar at the top and West Bengal at the base. Among top most ten corrupt cities of India i.e. 1 Bangalore, 2 Chennai, 3 Mumbai, 4 New Delhi, 5 Hyderabad, 6 Pune, 7 Kolkata, 8 Lucknow, 9 Noida, and 10 Ahmadabad, we find that almost all metropolitan cities find place in this list.
(To be continued)