Corruption in India Essay

Corruption in India

Table of Contents

What is corruption?

Corruption is one of the major concerns for most of the developing countries, and often some of the developed nations of the world as well. Corruption can be defined as the exploitation of power, public property and influence to acquire illicit benefit or, abuse power for one’s personal gains. It is one of the root causes of inequalities in any country. Corruption is a slow poison which weakens the country to its core and delays its growth significantly. It severely slows down the development of the nation in all of its social, economical, and political aspects.

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Corruption: The present situation in India

When it comes to corruption in the developing nations, India is no exception. It has prevailed from a distant past in numerous ways. The seed of corruption planted by the opportunistic leaders in the past has now grown into a giant tree, spreading its branches all across the various sectors of India. These may include criminal offences such as – bribery, and embezzlement. Such acts of dishonesty were a major source of corruption in the past and were the instrument of exploiting public property or, power for selfish gains in immoral, illegal ways. However, nowadays, the scenario has gotten so worse that some of the corrupt individuals demand bribery even for their basic, legal duties that they were hired to perform.

Corruption is so frequent in India that it has almost become a norm. In 2005, it was recorded that more than 62% of Indians were reported to have paid a bribe to get some sort of official job done as per Transparency International’s study report. Another report in 2008 showed that around 50% of Indians had paid bribes or, misused their influences for accomplishing their interests. These reports only go on to demonstrate how deeply the roots of corruption have spread across the country.

Seven facts about corruption in India

India has had issues with corruption, and it is reflected in global indices on the perception of corruption. India is often ranked on the basis of perceptions of corruption in public sector by Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index.

India has passed different legislation and attempted measures to eliminate corruption, such as the Prevention of Corruption Act along with setting up bodies against corrupt practices like Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) or Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). However, issues have arisen concerning enforcement and effectiveness.

Public services like law enforcement, education, healthcare and public administration are often reported to have corruption issues. Citizens may encounter bureaucratic red tape and bribery in interactions with governmental offices.

Several high-profile corruption scandals have appeared in India over the years and attracted widespread focus within that country as well wants globally. 2G spectrum scam, Commonwealth Games and the coal allocation

India has been concerned with whistleblower protection. Whistleblowers may face risks themselves and cases have been reported against people exposing corruption or abuse of power. This is the issue that the Whistle Blowers Protection Act aims to resolve.

Economic development can be negatively affected by corruption. It militates against efficient resource allocation, dissuades foreign investments and distorts fair competition. Corruption has economic and social costs.

The Indian government has taken several measures to curb corruption, such as the use of digital governance tools, demonetization in 2016 aimed at eliminating black money and campaigns advocating for transparency and accountability.

Impact of corruption

Every aspect of the country gets affected by corruption. It makes the growth of the country significantly unstable and further increases inequality among the citizens. As a result, the privileged keep acquiring more and more using their influence, and the underprivileged can barely fulfil their basic needs.

Politics – Perhaps the biggest source of corruption in the country is politics. Often time politicians are seen to be alleged of misuse of their power, position, or, social influence for their gains. Most of the political parties are accused of numerous acts of corruption, some more than others, but all of them have their fair share of corruption to some extent. Though, rarely any major action is taken against them. As a result, people lose faith in the honesty and credibility of the government.

Economy – Economy is undoubtedly the backbone of every nation. But with the constant misuse of power by the higher authority, the economy of the country is drastically affected. These corrupt mishandle the government’s investments in various areas of development and use it to fill their own pockets. It directly affects the growth of those areas and results in wastage of the tax payer’s hard-earned money. More incidents such as – registering fake official reports, twisting numbers in tax reports, illegal cuts on penalty rates for monetary benefits etc. further contribute to that.

Society – Inequality in society is a major result of corruption. It allows the wealthy to fulfil all their needs in exchange for bribes. As the poor cannot arrange for such bribes, they are left to suffer from poverty, poor medical services, education, roads, and often leading to child labour. Such severe instability in the society can lead to the rise of criminal activities greatly, and affect law and order of the nation.

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    Major Factors Responsible For Corruption

    The lack of moral values and ethics in the education system, as well as the recruitment process, often leads to hiring individuals who cannot differentiate between the right and wrong or, the impact of their actions.

    Most of the employees feel underpaid; hence they look for other ways of income. There is a hike in the prices of goods almost every passing year, though the wages have not increased comparatively. And it often leads to illegal ways of earning.

    The lack of adequate action being taken against the corrupt is a big reason to worry. Numerous such people, even after being caught with proper evidence, face little to no consequences. It leaves the countrymen with no other option but to accept things just as they are.

    Measures towards control/eradication of corruption in India

    Government of India acknowledges the impact of corruption and has taken some specific measures to minimise it. Such as –

    Right to Information Act (RTI), 2005 gives the citizens the right to ask for all the information that they require from the government officials. This has been effective in reducing the corruption across various government sectors and also opened up ways to redress grievances.

    Another such initiative is the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), which was established in 1964. It was an apex Indian governmental body created to address government corruption. After 2003, it acts has the status of an autonomous body, and monitors all the vigilance activity under the Central Government of India. Also, CVC is authorised to receive complaints regarding corruption, misuse of power, and it can recommend appropriate actions.

    To tackle these issues the government has implemented various anti-corruption laws such as – Prosecution section of Income Tax Act (1961), The Prevention of Corruption Act (1988), Prevention of Money Laundering Act (2002), The Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Act (1988), The Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act (2013), Companies Act (2013), Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Bill (2015). One can face six months to seven years of imprisonment as punishment for bribery.

    A major initiative can be the establishment of special courts for speedy justice. There should not be much of a delay between the registration of a case and its judgement.

    Often most employees opt for unfair means of earning due to necessity than a luxury. Many claim their wages to be insufficient for fulfilling their necessities and taking care of their families. Hence, paying better wages to suffice their everyday needs may improve the situations.

    Corruption can be defined as the exploitation of power, public property and influence to acquire illicit benefit or, abuse power for one’s private gains. It is a form of criminal offence and disloyalty.

    A bribe is the process of persuasion wherein a person is offered a gift of money or other inducements to act in favour of them. It is both dishonest and immoral.

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    Conclusion

    Hence, we can conclude that it is high time and we should participate as much as possible, in raising awareness about the severity of corruption and its consequences on our country. We should encourage the use of various modes of services offered by the government as measures of maintaining transparency and report an official complaint against the corrupt without fear. It is solely due to lack of awareness and often due to ignorance that corruption has reached such heights that it’s almost treated as a norm in our country. We must understand that corruption is, in fact, one of the main hindrances in the development of our country, and we all are affected by it in one way or, another.

    As the citizens of the world’s largest democracy, it is well within our rights and we must take firm, legal actions against the offenders, without taking their political, economic or, cultural background into account. The complete Rooting out of corruption can be difficult to achieve. But with the proper, impartial and unbiased implementation of various anti-social regulations and active cooperation of all patriotic, intellectual, and like-minded citizens of the country, the establishment of a corruption-free India is not too far from reality.

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