A recent survey places India at the top of the list of corrupt Asia-Pacific countries. In other words if bribery were a sport we would have won the gold medal. Transparency International states that 41% Indians feel that the rate of corruption has shot up considerably in the year gone by. Seven out of 10 people in India have paid bribes to someone, one way or other. But even as this bad news pours down on us, there is a minuscule proportion of consolation -- half of the population is content with the government’s efforts to combat corruption. Almost 63 per cent citizens also feel that they individually have the capacity to fight this evil. The Global Corruption Barometer for the Asia Pacific Region released by Transparency International (TI) reveals that 90 crore people
in this region have been involved in the act of paying bribes. The question is whether bribing is encouraged or just a way out of helplessness, but the survey goes on to show that 73 percent of the people who have paid bribes belong to the poor sections of the society. This tags bribery in India as exploitative and a get-rich-quick scheme for those who have the power to ‘get things done’.
