To Make India Corruption-Free, We Need To Start With Ourselves

When democracy becomes corrupt, the best gravitates to the bottom, and the worst floats on top and the vice is replaced by more vice.

The term “corruption” refers to the misuse of public power for private or personal gain. Politics and corruption share a hand-in-glove relationship. Corruption erodes the political framework, siphons resources and destroys the moral fabric of the society. Earlier, bribes were paid for getting the wrong things done, but now they are paid for getting the right thing done at the right time.

Power doesn’t corrupt people; instead, people corrupt power; it’s just that when people get empowered, their corruption becomes supervisable. They come in the vicinity of the microscopic lens, and thus, their actions get magnified, and the corruption finds expression.

The cancer of corruption has spread its tentacles everywhere, from education to health sector to food and marketing. But simply being aware of corruption won’t do, we need to dig up on the causes of corruption, and only then it can be uprooted.

So let’s list the major causes of corruption:

1. One of the major causes of corruption is human nature itself; we are attracted a luxurious and comfortable life; sometimes even beyond our affordability. This is the reason we force ourselves to do illegal activities.
2. Our education system focuses only on academic excellence and monetary gain; values are hardly accommodated in our education system.
3. Another reason of corruption that always remains latent and silently sows the seed of corruption—our parents, elders, and family members who tell us that if we score good marks, we will be gifted a bicycle etc. This is a type of bribery at a small level. Children should learn something because they are interested in it, and not in the greed of a cycle or any other gift. In the movie ‘3 Idiots’, it is rightly said, “riswat lena to khud papa ne seekhaya, 99% marks laoge to ghadi warna chadi”. Asking your child to score by bribing them with a bicycle is wrong because how do you expect your child to work for the nation selflessly then?
4. In some cases, the incomes of people are too low, and they can’t meet their basic requirements; this situation often leads to the path of corruption

Analysing the reasons for corruption was a preliminary step, but the main step is working towards its elimination, and taking some major steps against it. These include:

1. Exercising the power of Right to Information, we have to be active citizens, ask questions about where our income taxes are utilised, what is the budget of a certain government scheme, and to what extent the scheme succeeded. The Public Information Officer (PIO) has to make sure they provide answers to all the queries when and where asked by the citizens
2. There is a checkpoint for corruption called the Central Vigilance Commission; it keeps an eye on corruption.
3. Setting up fast track courts to speed up the judgement on important issues because it is rightly said that “justice delayed is justice denied.”
4. By maintaining transparency in every government action, selection procedures, and by maximising digitalisation and cashless transactions.

We, the youth of this nation, have to shoulder the responsibility to eradicate corruption completely by joining politics and giving it the right direction.

Every voice holds weight. Evil cannot destroy the system, but watching evil silently can definitely destroy it.

Taking bribe is a crime, but so is offering a bribe. So, start with yourself, just as charity begins at home. Small steps will have a huge impact, and we will definitely succeed in making India corruption-free.