Corruption in India Essay: A beautiful wooden house by the side of the lake added to the completeness of the exquisite landscape. The strong structure had withstood the vagaries of nature in form of torrential rainfall, terrible thunderstorms and devastating hail and snowfall. Lavish praises were endowed on the structural strength and foundational firmness of the house. To utter surprise and dismay of many, the house collapsed in the stillness of spring.
Termites had eaten through the structure rendering it hollow and vulnerable. In our nation beset with multitude of challenges and problems, the cancerous spread of cormption holds a similar threat. The much debated phenomenon of cormption has permeated every plausible sphere of our dealings in society. It is not a recent origin phenomenon, but has certainly assumed monstrous proportions, sufficient to destabilize any society. It has existed globally ever since humans decided to settle down in a social set up.
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Long and Short Essays on Corruption in India for Students and Kids in English
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Long Essay on Corruption in India 600 Words in English
Norms and mles were decided and adopted by a social consensus, which invariably gave rise to a breed of deviants. The moral debates of right versus wrong soon gave the platform to demystify the deviations. As the righteous path became arduous, taxing and challenging, the breed of fickle-hearted expanded choosing the easier path which satisfied their material needs, albeit by nailing their morals.
The institutionalized nature assumed by cormption has the potential to choke the life of the nation. It becomes more dreadful as the social stigma attached to theses deviations has been losing ground. It is glorified in informal circles and in a surprising state of “mass- surrender” has been often branded as a “way of life” in the contemporary Indian society.
As a civilization which prides itself in values and culture, have we collectively blown out the candles of hope to redeem our society from this ailment? At every level of interaction of common man with the system schools and colleges admission, applications for basic amenities, policing, licensing authorities, promotion, tax departments corruption is breeding like a norm, rather than an aberration. At the heart of every such corrupt system, lie the individuals who are morally bereft and lack ant commitment to the values of their job profiles. They expect to gain their illegal extraction from the hard earned income of other only by virtue of their occupancy of a post and other person’s imminent need to get his work done. It is an exploitation of the worst order. Sadly, we have stopped even recognizing it!
Does justifying the cancerous spread of corruption as “need” of stmggling individuals hold any gravity? Or have we, as a society, managed to blur the defining lines between need and greed? Corruption by public sector employees often finds vocal defense by citing their insufficient pay. With inflation making essential commodities out of reach of a common man, he looks for avenues to augment his income to raise his family. In a largely patriarchal social setup, where most women stay home and fail to contribute to financial security of the household, the buck rests with the male-earning member only. Added to this gender disparity is the twin problem of lack of entrepreneur culture and unemployment, which further strains the earning member of the family to feed larger mouths only through his efforts.
The weak social security set up adds to the forces that often drive a strong willed honest employee to sacrifice his morals. With a number of expectations from the family regarding children education, saving for their marriages and gifts, health related emergencies and desire to have a permanent abode before retirement, the regular income is seen highly insufficient. With rising gap between salaries and inflated market prices of the products, a monthly salary leaves no scope for futuristic security of any kind. This is where a stable social security system guaranteeing along with pension, some assured benefits of education, health and housing can drive away fears of future, which will influence the behavior of present.
Public sector employees also justify their corrupt acts by lamenting about the obscene gap in pays being received by them and their counterparts in the private sector. Although some regulation can be sought for maintaining value for money, the public sector employee must appreciate the several incentives, beyond pay, which he utilizes as the part of the system. An appreciation of the harmony between the public and private sector must also seep in by appreciation of their diverse work in a common effort of nation building. Rather than profit garnering, it is the spirit of public service which has been supreme in these organizations and a similar sentiment must be appreciated, cherished and reflected by each employee.
However, even to deliver the rights of the citizen and to perform the basic duties of their post, at a pace expected of them, they expect something extra to whet their appetite. The comparisons with the private sector and with their own colleagues indulging in this nefarious habit results in sustained trauma and mental fatigue for the employee.
The pressures from family and social sanction to this “low risk: high gain” indulgence tests the commitment to values and integrity of the person. These are the testing times of dilemma, where many individuals prove weak and surrender before the temptations. The desire to raise their standard of living and arrange for future themselves due to weak social security structures by state perpetuates the phenomenon of corruption further deep.
Corruption is no more a sector-specific phenomenon. It is equally rampant in the private sector where it is “managed” in a systematized and proficient manner. However, the impact of corrupt practices of government employees is far consequential. A recent survey highlighted that the nation is compromising on about 1.5% of GDP growth due to the widespread existence of corruption. A nation with more malnourished children than the poorest regions of sub-Saharan Africa and which still has highest number of illiterates just can not afford to go this way. This debilitating effect on growth hits hard on our development strategy whereby we expect the growth to trickle down and deliver fruits at the bottom of the pyramid.
It is corruption related leakages which made an Ex-Prime Minister remark that of a rupee spent by the central government, only ten paise manages to reach the targeted beneficiary of the scheme. But over the years, have we cared to trace out and plug the leakages of the remaining substantial chunk of the pie? Policies of any government are the tools which help in delivering value to the society. Inspite of perfectly framed policies, our progress in improving our social indicators of health, education and sanitation have been tardy. The leakages of corruption have driven holes in the fabric of effective governance. The policies manage to perform only on paper but loose their sheen when applied on the ground level.
In this way, it is the poor who is hit the hardest by the menace of cormption in the state implementation machinery. We need not be surprised if this sustained exploitation and neglect of the weak evaporates his faith from the government machinery and democratic institutions. Corruption lies at the heart of problems where the oppressed citizens have taken to arms against the state. Corruption has not only been making the government schemes ineffective, it has been also playing with he lives of innocents. Adulteration of essential food items and drugs has claimed multiple lives. Health care infrastructure remains inadequate in rural India, despite allocations due to pilferages in the amount.
Corruption in awarding of tenders has resulted in collapsing bridges, dilapidated roads and projects yielding cost and time over-runs. Corruption in every stage of any large industrial project setup deters the investors and leaves disastrous impact on industrialization and trade. Transparency International, a global civil society organization, leading the fight against corruption has ranked India at 94 out of 176 countries in Corruption Perception Index. With such global perception, we are paying high price for this moral weakness of individuals.
Corruption is incapacitating the much valued human resource of India by blocking the flow of sufficient food and nutrition to them. The saga of food delivery through PDS is a rotten tale of corrupt individuals exploiting the system to their benefits. Simultaneously, the material resources have also fallen into the kitty of the corrupt lobby of rich and powerful. The resources mean to deliver dividends to all citizens of nation are being siphoned off to the benefit of a few.
Corruption in contemporary India has attained obscene magnitudes. The exposure of a number of scams in recent years has re-established the unholy nexus of business politician bureaucrat in exploiting their positions for personal gains. Political corruption has touched unimaginable extremes with an almost unapologetic misuse of hard-earned tax-payers money.
The illegally earned money is filling coffers in foreign accounts of the rich and the powerful. Can we still fathom to argue the “need” basis of these massive thefts from the common man’s money? Do we apply the same standards to defend corruption done by a constable struggling to raise his family and a minister overloading his Swiss bank account/ it simply boils down to lack of integrity, lack of respect for the responsibility associated with one’s job and weak moral grounding of the individual.
Tackling of corruption demands an entire generation of strong willed and determined individuals supported by few effective legislations and a vibrant civil society determined to root out this evil. Resignation to corruption as a way of life has to be a thing of the past. It is the people who have been greasing the palms of the corrupt and its their power which has the potential to reform the system. They have been yielding as it is tough for a common man to comprehend and tackle the system by devoting his time and energy in pursuing the honest applications which are unaccompanied by the greenbacks.
The maze of bureaucratic procedures befuddles a common man, who yields to pay more to keep his file hopping from one table to another. Simplification of these procedures and transparency about them, along with fixing accountability is the first step towards uprooting corruption. India has already made a beginning through RTI, which needs to be strengthened over time by relentless public pressure on the governments of the day. People have found it easier to give as they lost faith on the efficacy of system to operate on its own without greasing palms at each level.
“Power corrupts absolute power corrupts absolutely”
This eroded confidence has to be restored by preventing concentration of power in few hands. With proper computerized file tracking systems in place, accountability of individuals can be ascertained with accuracy. The social approval to this practice should be diminished by simple measures like announcing names of the most corrupt official on monthly basis, based on the feedback from the common public. With the ease of facilitation as criteria, the public can also indicate the nature of their interaction with any employee of the department and thereby bring openness in the system.
Technology can prove to be an able warrior in this crusade against corruption. The success of computerization has already been felt in several departments like passport booking and railway reservation and can be extended to others with ease. Basic training of manpower in operating systems can unfold an era of opportunities even for the most remotely located individuals and save them from corrupt clutches of middlemen. Computerization will help in doing away with unrequired human intervention which becomes a node of corruption in the chain of service delivery. Similarly, single window clearances for projects will also go a long way in restoring confidence of investors and provide him a hassle free environment of operation.
The “low risk” element associated with corruption must be targeted in particular to create a deterrence value in performing any such act. Any highlighted act of corruption must entail strict and immediate punishment. With more special fast track courses, these cases must be disposed off on a priority basis. Increased conviction rate can bring about deterrence effect in the society. Raids by a proactive IT department targeting any disproportionate assets will also have similar effect.
Political corruption needs to be wiped out by opening a war on several fronts. Electoral reforms are the imminent call of the nation and only adequate reforms will ensure that right spirited people manage to reach the positions of power. Only the candidates with a transparent and clean track record and experience in social work should be promoted by adequate awareness about candidate.
Democratization of political parties is another fundamental requirement to prevent involvement of money in cornering a party ticket. More transparency in party procedures can be desired by the election commission. A system of regular audit and tracking of party funds also need to be estabbshed. Funding of election expenses have also promoted the clandestine collaboration of business houses with political parties which later seek favor from the party when in power. State funding of elections can be viable alternative which can be worked over.
In a mission mode approach, the need of hour is to bring strong legislations and then working on them to transform the grassroots spread of corruption. To detoxify the entire body, the crusaders need support through an armed Whistleblower Protection Bill. Efforts to expose and bring back the nations wealth stashed abroad must be intensified. With a potent Judicial Standards & Accountability Bill, corruption in judiciary must be stemmed, so that it remains the cornerstone of every citizen’s faith and trust. Irregularities in awarding og government contracts can be given a death blow by bringing in the public procurement law. All efforts should be guided towards reducing discretion of public authorities and establishing transparent procedures.
The biggest strength that this anti-corruption movement can derive is by challenging the mindsets of the individuals. It is an arduous task and may consume an entire generation but it is the most sustainable way of eradicating corruption from India’s future. “Charity begins at home”. At home, only the child picks up his first lessons which become an intrinsic part of him as he grows up into an individual. The small moral deviations that parents initiate a child into unknowingly, branch into a rigid flowering tree later, whereby the individual fails to acknowledge and see any wrong in his deviations from the rightful path. The rich Indian value system is the ultimate weapon to counter the menace of corruption. The values of integrity, ethics and honesty should be part of natural training of any young mind.
The onus lies on every school and college teacher, training academies for bureaucrats and every parent to implant it in joining minds that the path of righteousness, however difficult it might seem, is the one God desires his children to take. With such moral grounding, the child will grow up into a strong individual who will happily undergo hardship but refuse to sell his morals at the drop of hat.
Short Essay on Corruption in India 150 Words in English
Short Essay on Corruption in India is usually given to classes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.
Corruption is “the” biggest problem afflicting our motherland and roots of several other problems can be traced back to it. Other problems then merely appear as symptoms of this deviation from the righteous path. Contain this to eliminate it. Do not accept this as a way of life. The recent Lokpal debate, which took the nation by storm, requires careful deliberation. The existing institutional framework must be fine tuned and strengthened at all the levels of operation. Role of CAG and Anti Corruption Cells in different departments must be strengthened. Sufficient operational autonomy to CVC and CBI will go a long way in striking at the root of the problem.
A vibrant and demanding civil society can instill political will, which has been slow to emerge on its own. The Anna Hazare led movement should be a platform for a sustained demand to establish an effective institution of Lokpal and LokAyuktas. However, establishment will only be a necessary but not sufficient step. Civil society organizations must create an atmosphere of awareness amongst citizens about their rights and provide forums to register any complaints of corruption. Each such complaint should be looked into, made public and the corruption demanding culprit be convicted through proper channels. This demands a brigade of committed anti-corruption warriors from amongst the society. Much onus lies on the youth as they create an India for their tomorrow. An India with enormous opportunities and a nation, which devoid of corruption, holds potential to scale the unscaleable glory.