In brief: Corruption survives through legal loopholes and citizen apathy. Citizens’ vigilance — including anonymous reporting through social media — can generate the evidence to fight it, and grassroots pressure creates the political will for stronger laws.
Though plenty of laws is available against Corruption yet its control is becoming difficult. The loopholes in the Laws help the Corruption to survive.
Corruption has a disproportionate impact particularly on the poor and most vulnerable sections of society. We can well imagine the impact of Human costs due to counterfeit medicines and vaccinations. Corruption erodes the trust of the people in the Govt. perpetuates inequalities and leads to creates a fragile society where violence and conflict can occur every now and then.
What can ordinary citizens do against corruption?
The Citizens who watch all these forms of Corruption can expose the corruption of any form. All of us belonging to any class who do not expose Corruption, when it comes to our knowledge, are part of perpetuating Corruption and are accountable for facilitating Corruption.
The Eyes and Ears of the citizens can help a lot to introduce the required standards of integrity by plugging weak points which allow Corruption to flourish.
Fighting Corruption needs not only a proactive approach but also needs stringent reactive action. When allegations of fraud and corruption are substantiated, there should be no compromise to award stringent punishments to the guilty.
What are the major areas where corruption occurs?
Corruption seems to have become not only a national phenomenon but a global problem. The major areas of Corruption include public procurements, loopholes in the state-owned enterprises, weak administration, unequal delivery systems, etc.
How can citizen participation and social media help curb corruption?
The participation of Citizens shall provide an opportunity to influence the Anti-Corruption functionaries and other machinery to take strict action against the guilty.
The use of Social Media can add to these efforts. Citizens can post their stories anonymously on some Social media platforms under the headings like “Actual payment of Bribe” or “I also paid Bribe”, etc. This documented material would help in the dissemination of information to the Govt. agencies that deal with Corruption.
Lack of awareness in the Citizens, Lack of Trust in the official systems, apathy, and indifference approach helps in the continuance of Corruption.
The role of Citizens and civil society is important. Every citizen should devise its own way to provide inputs about the prevailing corrupt practices.
Various forms of Corruption include red-tapism, misbehavior of the officials, squeezing the poor for personal benefit, accepting gratifications, awarding the contract to favor friends, giving recognition and awards to the undeserving for vested interest.
What global initiatives exist to curb corruption?
The World Bank has launched some global initiatives to curb corruption like providing leadership to create international transparent standards, actively assisting efforts for honest reporting of corruption cases, coordinating legal and administrative efforts, and extensive use of technology to keep surveillance.
It needs the active participation of individuals and groups of civil society and community-based organizations to follow the above initiatives to check corruption and raise public awareness.
Let there be a grassroots movement against Corruption. This can create the political will to enact adequate laws & formulate Govt. policies to curb corruption.
The establishment of citizen-friendly procedures and mechanisms to get information about prevailing Corruption can go a long way to check and curb Corruption.
If Citizens lend Eyes and Ears and pay attention to this grave evil, a lot of evidence can be generated which can assist to deal with the corrupt individuals strongly & effectively.Join the NISSMAT webinar on 11th Feb 2022 at 6 PM (IST) where our two learned speakers shall deliberate at length as to how the Society and the Citizens can contribute to check prevailing Corruption.
About this Webinar
NISSMAT Speakers Forum · Session 129 — held Friday, 11th February 2022.
The Speakers
Dushyant Dave (Senior Advocate) — He was on the London Court of International Arbitration between 2003-2008 and is presently a member of the International Council of Commercial Arbitration. He also remained a member of the National Legal Services Authority.
Karnal Singh (IPS (Retd), Former Director, Enforcement Directorate) — An IPS officer of the 1984 batch, he superannuated in 2018 as Director of Enforcement (Government of India). A postgraduate in computer sciences who introduced technology to improve police systems in Delhi, he is also the author of the book "Investigation of Major Cases".