- Bribe Hotline
- 13 years ago
- 1761 views
Its a great initiative. I support and spread this. But I feel this alone will not solve the problem. I think people should know their rights in government offices and need to be educated to show respo
The issue of corruption is so vast and complex that it will take many different initiatives, focused on a variety of fronts to effectively tackle it. First, we need a wide definition of what corruption is (we have advocated for this, by launching a campaign for India to sign the UN Convention against Corruption) and strong laws that empower investigating agencies and provide for deterrent punishments (This is what Annaji and other civil society representatives have been advocating and we support them fully). Second, as you say, we need to educate people to know their rights in government officers also. The tem commandments against corruption that we have developed are steps in this direction. Based upon the wisdom of nearly a thousand citizens who have not paid bribes, we have developed the ten commandments against corruption, to guide citizens to stand up and resist bribery. The third thing is to work with the government to reduce corruption step by step in each department, by analysing the workflow in the department and suggesting simplification and other steps to speed up the process.
By taking this path of promoting systems improvement, Ipaidabribe.com aims at using citizens’ experiences to analyse where we are going wrong in the delivery of government services and suggest process reforms to reduce corruption. We can clean up our the processes of filing FIRs, issuing ration cards, driving licences police processes, our driving licences. Success in doing this will prompt faster change. It will encourage larger numbers of citizens not to vent their anger and frustration through agitation, but effectively resist corruption through individual steps in their daily life and transactions with the government. Faced with this silent but potent resistance, corruption at this level will come down. As honest officers in the government gain the upper hand, the process of reducing corruption will gain even more momentum. This process will be gradual and will not attract front page headlines. But it will be a real and demonstrable improvement.
It is in this way that we hope to effectively tackle the hydra-headed challenges of corruption in India, with the support of citizens.