Corruption is a great evil and biggest hindrance in the growth of India. From the time of independence, corruption has been rapidly increasing, first it was only confined to the executive level, but afterwards it also entered the legislature and today there are allegation on the judiciary as well. Many schemes are prepared by the government but those schemes are not prepared in a fair way, because most of the money which is sanctioned for these schemes goes in the pockets of different ministers and governmental officers, basically middle men.
India is one of the highly corrupted nations of the world, it was found in a study by Transparency International, that the overall rank of India in corruption is 84th in the world. The accounts major bureaucrats and ministers being filled with black money, and the masses suffering, India has the dubious distinction of slowly and steadily moving ahead in the race of most corrupt nations. As per the statics, the black money from India which is deposited in the swiss banks is worth of 18-20 % of our GDP.
If we talk about the causes of corruption then there are many, but the main reasons can be summarized as follows-
Degradation of Moral Values- In recent times, the moral standard of the people has degraded pretty much. The education system is becoming more and more professional (adversely), and there is a lack of moral education. Everything is counted in the terms of money and economic resources, that is the reasons that people don’t give much weight-age to the character and principles.
The Dirty Politics — At the time of independence the leaders were honest and they wanted the welfare of the people; the parliament was full of ideal personalities. But now, the politics is continually becoming a dirty hub. From top to bottom, the stink of corruption has become a trademark of the governance, especially at the local levels, and in a democracy when there is lack of good leaders how can we expect that other subordinate bodies or officers will function properly?
Lack of broader participation of people- The level of inequality is rising and the economic resources and political power is concentrated in a few hands. So, there is lack of wider participation and consequently the larger masses are exploited by corruption. The few elite want to capture that power forever.
Illiteracy- A majority of the masses in our country are illiterate. They are not able to ascertain the fraud which is being committed with them. They can’t raise their voices unless they are aware of their powers.
Solutions
Once it was said by Napolean, “Give me good mothers, I will give you a good nation”. The reason behind the saying was that a mother can either improve or spoil her child, the moral character of the mother will have a direct impact on the life of child. We have to brings structural changes in our system.
First of all, we have to stress on the character building of an individual. We have to give them education not only for their employment but also to make them a responsible citizen of our nation. In this respect the Vedic philosophy can help a lot. We have to make our children learn from the very beginning, the importance of ideals and morals.
Secondly, we have to restrict the phenomena of inequality, I mean, at least the basic necessities as like food, clothing, shelter and of course education should be provided to all. If everything will be counted in the terms of material requisites then we can never expect that the people of our nation will follow moral values. So, we have to bring a type of a socialistic approach in our functioning.
Thirdly, the removal of illiteracy is also required so that people know if a particular officer or personnel is working in the fair manner or not. Without education, they cannot claim their rights. Education has a direct bearing on the level of corruption.
Stringent laws- The laws against corruption should be more stringent. As like in ‘cash for question scam‘, when some MPs were caught taking bribes for asking questions in parliament, they were only expelled from the house and no further action was taken. In this respect the MPs should not be allowed to enjoy the parliamentary privileges, criminal proceedings should be initiated against them. The Right to Information Act is also working in a fair manner, more and more awareness should also be created about it.