- I Paid A Bribe
- 13 years ago
- 1227 views
I refused to give in
- Public Services
- Bribing of Government Officers
- Paid INR 1
My wife and myself are professors at IIT Kanpur. We adopted a baby girl in 2007 through Missionaries of Charity, Kanpur. The whole process went smoothly including multiple visits of Social worker to check up on us and then eventually Missionaries of Charity sent the relevant papers to "Women and Child Welfare" department of U.P. Govt. We went to the office on an appointed date. The officer was not there. We were informed by the "lekhpal" that if we were to have a naturally born baby there would be so many expenses and by adopting a baby we are going to bypass all of those, therefore, we should pay him some money so that he is happy and "blesses" the child. I did not want to bring an innocent life to our family compromising my principles. So I said that I do not pay any bribe and the guy said fine then I will ask my officer why don't you come back? This began my driving 180 km twice a week to see this lekhpal and he would ask me to come back couple of days later for one reason or the other. I was simply playing along. The matter took a serious turn - one day I was in Delhi on official business and I got a call from this lekhpal on my mobile - stating - "Apne uske bare mein kuchh socha?" This broke my patience and I said - "Look, I told you that I do not pay bribe and I am not about to start. I may not get the baby girl for this and it will break my heart but I will make sure that you lose your sleep". I do not know what effect this stand of mine had, may be he thought that as we are IIT Prof.s we have connections in high places and can indeed give him trouble. Eventually he relented and we got our baby. However, to get the birth certificate of this same baby I had to pay bribe to a tout in Kanpur Nagar Nigam. I still can not forget the day when I was arm-twisted to pay a bribe where I had my weakest point on the line - school admission of my child.