Corruption Intro

The action of willingly acting dishonestly in return of money or personal gain is called as corruption.
It may be in the form of a bride or may be in the form of a favor in return. Corruption is not just
about bad guys who take brides; the greater corruption involves nice guys who are comfortably
ensconced in a predatory economic structure.

Old method

The economic structure that involves corruption is as old as mankind, it only keeps changing its
forms. At the time of dictatorship and rulers, the ministers in charge used to corrupt the structure in
a greed of power and money. Selling information about war statistics and rulers’ weakness was one
of the kinds. And this as also a reason that British army were able to take control over India.
Currently, the level of corruption is high as never before. From making of regular documents to
getting of the tenders, everywhere corruption is a normal way. It seems to have become a part of
the daily life.

current

Corruption has gained power in all spheres of life. It is most responsible for rising inflation in
day-to-day life. It is solely the reason for stringency of most of the things, whether they are natural
or artificial. If there is shortage of jobs corruption is most responsible for it. Millions of brides are
provided to the officers for getting the job and once the job is secured, in order to retrieve the
money given as bride the reverse chain of demanding the bride is started. Any of the work in the
government sector cannot be done without providing bride. Some of the biggest opportunities for
graft relate to the sale of government land and natura resources to the private sector. And this is the
reason for the generation of “Back Money”.

Reasons

Due to the advancement in science, services for comfort and relief can be easily obtained in
personal life. Everyone tends to enjoy these services. But they require a lot of money. But to get this
money no one is ready to do the hard work. One want is money with the greatest ease and the least
investment and work as possible. And this is where the birth of corruption takes place. Once money
has taken the place of God, anything is done to get it. Food adulteration, liquid adulteration as well
as medicine adulteration is done to earn money easily. These adulterations lead to the death of
innocent people, but these corrupt people don’t care for anything.

Ways to check

Corruption can be observed in every work, but is not possible to detect it directly. It is incorrect
to think that corruption can be fought best by finding the guilty person, investigating and giving him
punishment. Some people think that Lok Pal is an answer to the corruption. But our experience with
law enforcement and the judiciary suggest otherwise. Most of the corruption takes place majorly in
the field of judiciary where a large amount of money is wasted for making the truth a false and for
making a culprit to an innocent one. Therefore, corruption is better addressed through transparency,
clear rules for making decision and e-governance. The transparency in making laws, implementing
them and their working can provide a proper and clear way for the working of the economic
structure. The RTI Act (2003) is probably a superior answer to corruption than the proposed Lok Pal.

Most of the time corruption is thought to be related the government sector. Limiting the
involvement of government in mutli-million projects does not limit corruption. People believe that
if the role of government is restricted, it will limit the scope of corruption. This is astonishingly naïve.
There are many government sectors which do not have even a trace of corruption. Even if they
wanted to do so, they are unable to perform it. Corruption thrives in the corporate sector as well. A
state that mishandles ownership of the public assets is also likely to mishandle their transfer to
private hands. Privatization is no answer to corruption. It only creates another avenue for graft. The
person or organization who must have spend their money in order to gain the sector will
automatically try to retrieve their money, either through making a good deal with other private
organization or by gaining maximum profit in process of privatization. Both of these cases lead to
problem for normal people.

Influence on youth

“The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who
think alike than those who think differently”, said Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher, poet
and composer. This is the main reason our youth are attracted towards corruption. They are tangled
in a world where money and power are the superior, where status is decided on the basis of the
outer looks and showoff. One with large car and house is thought to be more prosperous and
talented than others. This thrives youth to gain a good status by having more money.

Improvement

In our current economic structure, those at the top will benefit from both legal and illegal
corruption. Any steps taken in reducing in corruption must be directly related to improvement in the
economic structure. If we can have a proper information about the investments from the upper to
lower levels of the government we can somehow reduce its effects. Anti-graft crusades can slow
down the wheels of the economy in the short-run, as decision making in government is paralyzed. In
long run, such crusades end up de-legitimizing the institution of democracy and pave the way for
dictatorship, which makes the corruption even worse.