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Sunday, 14 October 2012

Corruption in India

Corruption in India - A quantitative analysis by Vani Baruah

This article on Corruption in India relies on a poor legal and a weak statistical base relying on mere opinions and impressions in the website www.ipaidabribe.com. Any one who visits this website can make out that neither there is accountability of the person who reports a bribe nor there is any sort of verification such as voter's ID or driving license number or ration card number or any such thing provided. Also there is no punitive clause for those who make a fake allegation. The website just asks to mention the Amount of bribe, City, Date paid, Office or Department and the Name of the Transaction towards which the bribe was paid. This does not stand a legal standing since the website hides more than what it reveals. In addition, the author has not considered the other three aspects "I did not pay a bribe", "I did not have to pay a bribe", "I don't want to pay a bribe" which also influences 'corruption'. Further, it is not the mean corruption which counts, since mean is influenced by extreme values. It is the 'modal' corruption which counts (corruption amount paid most frequently).
This comment does not mean that there is no corruption. It only means that the researcher needs to conduct a primary survey for obtaining information on the transaction costs. This vetting is crucial before totally believing the information posted on a website.
It is also crucial to note why there is such a great variation for the same operation (i.e. police verification) between the 'estimators' Mean and Median. The author draws no implication from the study. One implication could be to include the modal corruption (after due verification from primary data as suggested) paid as a 'search fee' or 'police verification fee' so that the Police Department gets this payment. Police have to maintain law and order and have other works to do and passport work needs to be accounted and involves a transaction cost which needs to be paid by the seeker. This also brings in accountability so that the seeker can always say that I have paid the fee and even though this would not guarantee that one would have a zero police verification fee, it brings in greater transparency.

Vague operational definition

In the case of passport application, policemen go to an applicant's place not only to verify his/her identity, but also to verify his/her address. This is especially true if it's a passport renewal application, wherein the applicant's identity has already been established at the time of issuing the first passport. So, the researcher's operational definition of 'passport verification' bribe is slightly vague. Say, I applied for passport for the first time and I paid a bride to the enquiry official - the policeman - when he came to my place. This includes a bribe to approve my identity as well as to verify that I stay at the given address with the knowledge of the authorities. Does the researcher's sample include passport renewal applicants? If yes, they've paid the bribe only for address verification and not for identity verification.
Otherwise, the attempt to quantify the corruption amount is commendable.

Corruption Free India

The article on Corruption in India: A Quantitative Analysis by Vani K Borooah (EPW 14 July 2012) is really sublime reading. First time an attempt has been made to quantify the level of corruption in India. After traveling across the country I have observed no one likes corruption. Corruption is the off shoot of British Policy and today our country has been getting bad name for few persons. To justify the statement, Lord Macaulay’s Address to the British Parliament on 2 February, 1835 may be mentioned here “I have travelled across the length and breadth of India and I have not seen one person who is a beggar, who is a thief such wealth I have seen in this country, such high moral values, people of such caliber, that I do not think we would ever conquer this country, unless we break the very backbone of this nation which is her spiritual and cultural heritage, and, therefore, I propose that we replace her old and ancient education system, her culture, for if the Indians think that all that is foreign and English is good and greater than their own, they will lose their self-esteem, their native culture and they will become what we want them, a truly dominated nation”.
In recent years not only for Passport (as mentioned in the article) but to get ration card, driving license, or for any public services in most of the cities without bribe no work is complete. Need of the hour is to up-root corruption. In this context Central Vigilance Commission’s Draft Report on Anti corruption Strategy may be highlighted which inter alia, states that any anti-corruption strategy should fundamentally focus in the following manner - Character education, Citizenship and democracy education, Youth anti-corruption education, Organizing public awareness campaigns, Promoting ‘zero tolerance’ etc. Another important line of the Report is that, “Film shows and videos of people with integrity & how they grew in society through right Means”. Let us have corruption free India then the country can show path to others. No one can beat us.
Dr Shankar Chatterjee, Hyderabad

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