BRIBERY IN INDIA

While Denmark and New Zealand are the least corrupt countries in the world, India stands at 80 in a corruption perception index of 174 countries. According to a report of Transparency International in 2015 Indians pay bribes totalling ₹ 21,000 crore every year to access government services. It further says that over 60% people paid bribes to various government departments in the last one year (2019) in eight out of 20 states. In five states Maharashtra, MP,  Uttarakhand, Chattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh over 50% of the population paid bribes to government authorities to get their work done. According to the survey, Punjab, Jharkhand, UP, Rajasthan, Bihar, Telangana, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu are among the states where more than 60% people paid bribe to government departments. In Haryana, Delhi, Gujarat, Odisha, West Bengal Goa and Kerala less than 49% people gave bribes to get their work done in different departments. In 9 states, property and land were the sectors where bribes were sought the most. The Municipal corporation is the most corrupt government department in MP. The citizens of Kerala, Goa, Jharkhand, UP and Haryana paid most number of bribes to tax, electricity and transport offices.

Since independence, no government in India took any result oriented action to eradicate corruption from the country. Let us understand the fact that corruption is the root cause of many of our problems. If corruption becomes zero, there may not be such a big crowd of political aspirants for every office. 

KV George

kvgeorgein@gmail.com