Our Isfit ambassador from India, Soumya Jindal, has shared
her incredible story about corruption with us.
Read it, and please share your story as well. How does
corruption affects you?
Our campaign #theglobalinfection is fully underway. Visit the
website and write your story about corruption in the theglobalinfection.com
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Anti Corruption: the movement begins!
‘Corruption’ is one
of the few things that link the diverse world together in a great way. It is universal;
it exists in all countries, both developed and developing, in the public and
private sectors, as well as in non-profit and charitable organizations. It has
been in the society, for as long as one can think, perishing it, ever so
slowly. It is an amazing fact, then, that Corruption has not until recently
been considered as a matter of major significance.
Corruption is viewed differently in the views of different
people. The underlying causes of corruption
remain poorly understood and widely debated. Research on the causes of
corruption is compounded by the difficulties inherent in disentangling the
effects of social norms from the effects of legal enforcement. Specifically,
societies that collectively place less importance on rooting out corruption,
and thus have weak anti-corruption social norms, may simultaneously have less
legal enforcement. Understanding the real causes of corruption is of central
importance in reforming economic and social institutions: if corruption is
predominantly norm-based, interventions that focus exclusively on boosting
legal reforms will likely fail.
In India, Corruption is synonymous to Politicians. It is
believed that money and corruption are ruining
the land, crooked politicians betray the working man, pocketing the profits and
treating the citizens like sheep. However, this is not an entirely correct
approach. The question that should be raised here is that even if the
politicians pledge to cleanse the system and resist temptation, can a change
really be brought about?
Even though the people long to be honest
and live in a corruption-free world, the irony remains that they themselves
give into corruption on trivial matters. Everyone has at some time been tempted
to give or accept an inducement to act in a way that does not conform to ethics
and law. Most people have given into that temptation on occasion, even if only
very rarely and in small matters. Wherever there are transactions that offer
the opportunity for personal advantage or profit someone, somewhere will take
advantage of that opportunity. Corruption can be such a part of life that
citizens of a badly corrupt country may scarcely imagine that it can be reduced
or eliminated. Are we condemned to
accept corruption, however much we hate it?
Corruption can be a major obstacle in the
process of economic development and in modernizing a country. Many now feel
that it should receive priority attention in a country’s development agenda.
This greater recognition that corruption can have a serious adverse impact on
development has been a cause for concern among developing countries. In a
recent survey of 150 high level officials from 60 third world countries, the
respondents ranked public sector corruption as the most severe obstacle
confronting their development process. Corruption also strengthens and
encourages bad governance. Law becomes taken for granted, human rights are not
respected, accountability and lost and transparency declines as corruption
increases. Corruption leads to the depletion of national wealth. It is often
responsible for increased costs of goods and services, the funneling of scarce
public resources to uneconomic high profile projects at the expense of the much
needed projects such as schools, hospitals and roads, or the supply of potable
water, diversion and misallocation of resources, conversion of public wealth to
private and personal property, inflation, imbalanced economic development,
weakling work ethics and professionalism, hindrance of the development of fair
in market structures and unhealthy competition there by deterring competition.
Large scale corruption hurts the economy and impoverishes entire population. In
Social sphere, corruption discourages people to work together for the common
good. Frustration and general apathy among the public result in a weak civil
society.
Corruption exists in all countries it is
more widespread in low income countries. This is not because people in poor
countries are more corruptible than their counterparts in rich countries. It is
simply because conditions in poor countries are more conducive for the growth
of corruption. Bribery and graft are crimes of calculation and not of passion.
Hence, when benefits are large, chances of getting caught are small, and
penalties when caught are light, then many people will succumb.
The conclusion once can infer here is that Corruption is the enemy of development, and of good
governance. It must be got rid of. Both the government and the people at large
must come together to achieve this national objective. In a state where
corruption abounds, laws must be very numerous. Laws can be effective only when
they are backed by powerful professionals and a determine youth.
The youth is one such section of the
society that has the moral duty of challenging corruption and also has the
power of giving a boost to corruption. It becomes important in such a case to
educate and aware the youth about Corruption and its allied activities. The
Youth needs to understand that since
corruption has been a part of the way of living for so long, it cannot be
completely eliminated. However, it can be checked and brought under control so
that the bad effects are minimized.
The truth is
that the fight for justice against corruption is never easy. It never has been
and never will be. It exacts a toll on our self, our families, our friends, and
children. In the end, the price we pay is well worth holding on to our dignity.
Corruption
has its own motivations, and one has to thoroughly study that phenomenon and
eliminate the foundations that allow corruption to exist.
Paul Struges, in his paperwork, CORRUPTION,
TRANSPARENCY AND A ROLE FOR LIBRARIES, believes that uncorrupted politicians
and civil society campaigning bodies propose a variety of approaches to the
problem of corruption. Institutional reform, powerful legal sanctions, and the
creation of regulatory bodies are amongst the types of approach that appear in
anti-corruption programmes. Forming an essential part of all of them, is
increased transparency.
There may seem to be little, but societies do change and the
direction of change can be for the better if the goodwill is there.
Corruption kills livelihood. It is the need of the hour to
join the voice of Anti-Corruption. Millions of people are dying due to wars,
famines and calamities because another million seek profit everywhere.
Soumya Jindal
International Ambassador, ISFit
India
International Ambassador, ISFit
India
