( Continuation from the previous ) We can not afford to take that attitude anymore as the cost of it would be too much more than in the Maurya's time. The extant and impact of today;s corruption is indeed devastating. According to Transparency International, an estimated sum of Rs. 26,768 crores is being extracted as bribe in India every year by the officials at various levels from citizens in the sectors like education, health, power, telephone, railways, land and building adminisration, judiciary and public distribution system. This is at a time when India today has 28 crores of people who go to bed everyday hungry and another 52 crores of people live on less than Rs. 40 a day. No wonder that the Transparency International Survey puts India in terms of transparency in administration in the 71st rank among 102 countries studied by them. Honesty of of officials in India is so low that it occupies 45th rank out of 49 countries surveyed. In Human Development Index the rank is down 127th among 177 countries. Most of our problems would have been solved if only the money going down the drain by corruption is checked.
Bribes in India is usually extracted while granting licenses and permits, as ' speed ' money to get the job done fast, in sale of jobs, postings and transfers,' pugree', black marketing, regularising unauthorised construction, in getting public goods and services, Banks fradulant deals, public contracts, leakages and ' party funds'.These are all crimes under law and every law existing in this regard such as Indian Penal Code 1860, Prevention of corruption Act 1947/1988, Representation of pepoles Act 1950, Commission of Enquiry Act 1952, and the Central Bureau of Investgation, Central Vigilance Commission, Anti Corruption Bureau in States, the Ombudsman are all been ineffective in checking this menace. On the contrary the incidence of corruption is on the increase.
Why do people become corrupt? We all have needs and we want them satisfied. Need for food, shelter, love and affection, status and recognition, self actualisation are all needs well recognised in us. When our needs are not met we feel frustrated and some may start taking devient means to satisfy somehow or other. Corrupt ways and means they may pick up by observing others, what the Psychologist call Modelling Effect.If others use devient means and get their needs satisfied easily and get away with it too makes them copy those behaviour. Parents, teachers, leaders in public, heroes in films all act as models for younger ones especially when their needs are unmet by honest means. ' yata raja tata praja ' As the king so is the citizen.Consumerism, which makes people want what they donot need, coupled with market economy and negative part of globalisation act as an additional impetus for corruption.
How do we tackle the problem? Alleviation of poverty can be a foundation for eradicating corruption as higher values in life can emerge when lower, 'belly ' needs, are satisfied. Education that emphasise the development of not only the Head but also Heart and Hands, a complete person, is yet another antidote for corruption. A holistic perspective on life will offer multiple levels of deriving happiness other than greeds alone. Hence, kindling spirituality ( not mere religiosity ) in people where in we experience connectedness of all beings enabling us to live in harmony by sharing and caring with feelings of equality ushering in a new paradigm of life for the good of self and others will not have any place for corruption.Further we must realise that corruption is not merely the reflection of general decline in standards and morality in public and civic life, that would be a too narrow view of the phenomenon. Instead, we must see it as a symptom reflecting something that has gone wrong in the management of the State, a development perspective. Corruption is perpetuated because there is a system where corruption pays and honesty never. aAsystem need to be built in which good is rewarded immediately and consistently and bad is punished immediately and consistently, both should go together. hand in hand.
