By Anupam Sarkar
Corruption is the social evil, curse
to the economy – we Indians know it already. Yet we are reluctant to eradicate
it from every spheres of life. It is hidden truth that India is not
corruption-free. Our statutory bodies may not admit it publicly; still we know
it in our heart. Sometimes we prefer being corrupted rather than fighting
against it. May be that is why India ranked 79th in the Corruption
Perception Index for the year 2016 released by Transparency International. The
score for India was only 40 in the scale of 1 to 100. Denmark topped the list
by scoring 90. The Corruption Perception Index highlights the connection
between corruption and inequality, which feed off each other to create a
vicious circle between corruption, unequal distribution of power in society and
unequal distribution of wealth. Higher ranked countries such as Denmark, New
Zealand, Finland etc. tend to have higher degrees of press freedom, access to information
about public expenditure, stronger standards of integrity for public officials
and independent judicial systems.
India is not at all corruption-free.
Our public procurements, contracts involves illicit benefits to the contractors
– either it is in case of setting the eligibility criteria or during evaluation
of tenders. Although leveraging technology in the field of e-tendering,
e-auction, e-procurement enhances the level of transparency and minimizes human
intervention; still all the cases are not dealt with uniform fairness. News of
various scams such as 2G spectrum distribution, coal block distribution, fodder
scams are always in air. In many cases,
large projects, major investments in public sector enterprises are being done
to favour certain group of people. We, the people of India are victim of
institutionalized corruption. Unfair treatment, favoritism in selection process,
preference to near & dear ones work environment all have become very common
to us. This has corrupted our system of working. We have accepted corruption as
part & parcel of our life. It helps small group of people to get and avail
better facilities in lesser hard work. Corruption enables them to use greater
amount of scare resource depriving the needy ones. Ultimately, we are the
sufferers. We are being ripped off the facilities & benefits we should get
as a citizen of India. The taste of corruption makes us more and more greedy
and inflames the animal instinct inside us. The feeling of superiority and
unprecedented power engulfs our love, compassion and empathy for others in such
a way that we start believing that doing corruption is our sole purpose. Perhaps it is the reason that corruption-free
India is still a vision for us.
Time has come to make India
corruption-free, to establish transparency & integrity. The population of
India has crossed 1.35 billion and more than 30% of people live in below
poverty line. The GDP growth is stagnant in last few years and our minimum literacy
rate hasn’t improved much from 74%. It will not be an easy task to free India
from corruption as the colonial British rule for around 200 years has
devastated our ethical system and knowledge management. In ancient times,
Indians were known for important contributions in the field of arts, science,
economy and spirituality. We were known for our peaceful contribution in
spreading different religions and staying in harmony. Building that ethical
standard, we need to accept our past; take pride in our earlier glory, plan
ahead for holistic development and rise again from the ashes with steady
determination. As the roadmap of our vision, following steps may be followed by
each individual:
a)
To
believe that corruption is one of the major obstacles to economic, political
and social progress of our country.
b)
To
realize that now each of us need to be vigilant and commit highest standards of
honesty and integrity at all times.
c)
To
perform all tasks in transparent manner in the interest of public.
d)
To
report any incident of corruption to the appropriate agency.
To make India corruption-free we need to take the
first step from within. The saying of Mahatma Gandhi is so relevant in this
context.
“You must be the change you wish to see in the world”
-
Mahatma Gandhi.
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