Another one, where you can post your trysts with bribe, is making waves with Pakistan, Bhutan, Philippines, Bangladesh, Kenya, even China, looking to replicate it. Can these bring down what affects the average Indian the most – retail corruption?
When my father passed away, I needed a death certificate. I was shocked that a bribe (Rs 500) was asked even from someone who is in mourning. I feel ashamed now for having paid it and wish I had confronted the person.”
“An airport official at Begumpet airport held me back showing a small torn edge on my passport...He said he would let me off if I pay some money. I ended up paying him Rs 1,000 to allow me to take my flight.”
These comments were posted on ipaidabribe.com and are among the thousands of accounts of the shame and humiliation people suffer when
forced to pay a bribe. It could be for anything — getting driving licenses, birth or death certificates, traffic challans, property deeds, gas connections, pensions…you name it and you have to pay up.
The website, an initiative of Bangalore-based NGO Janaagraha, has become the world’s largest crowd-sourced repository of data on corruption in just over a year since its launch, claims its co-founder Ramesh Ramanathan. Till date, over 15,000 bribe reports have been posted, totalling a value of Rs 43 crore and counting. “We care about retail corruption which affects the average citizen. The site is a vent where people can report paying bribes, having resisted it or where they didn’t have to pay one, and as a collection of data whereby some policy changes can take place,” says Ramanathan.
The ripple effect is already working. Bangalore’s transport department has changed its system of conducting driving tests based on the complaints. Next week, government offices there will be putting up posters with helplines for those asked to pay bribes. Ramanathan says that even the central government is exploring whether “this platform can be used to report corrupt practices in NREGA.”
The NGO has also got requests from Bhutan, Philippines, Bangladesh for starting similar sites there. Kenya already has one, while there are plans afoot in Pakistan. There was an attempt to start one in China but the government shut it down.
“There’s growing intolerance to corruption. More people are reporting it,” says Anupama Jha, executive director of Transparency International (TI) in India. When the Anna Hazare movement was at its most fervent last year, 14-year-old Aditya Palnitkar from Pune decided he should do something more. He launched www.corruptionfree.in, awebsite where people could report bribery, cheating, scams and harassment in government offices. The Central Vigilance Commission, too, has a technology-supported Blow Your Whistle initiative where people can report corruption. TI is opening centres to provide free legal advice and assistance to witnesses and victims of corruption.
So how effective can such websites be? Ramanathan says, “As more and more people know about it, there will be less such transactions. It’s not a witch-hunt. We want sustainable change.”
The highly effective role of the internet and social media in whipping up mass opinion is well-documented, with special reference to the Arab Spring. A 2011 global study on IT and corruption indicates that a 20% increase in access to the internet in a country lowers corruption by 0.60 points. But with around 90% of India’s population being outside internet’s reach, and a majority of them illiterate or uneducated in English, the digital divide continues. Citizen movements often only engage the middle class in urban areas.
Yamini Aiyar, director of the Accountability Initiative being set up at the Centre for Policy Research, Delhi, says the challenge for such websites “is to expand it to audiences that aren’t web-enabled”.
Ramanathan recognizes that: “We have already started an SMS initiative — people can dial 58888 to make their reports. We plan to make it available in vernacular languages.” He also hopes to look at corruption in the private sector. “Lots of people have got in touch with us over kickbacks, overpriced medicines and unnecessary testing in hospitals,” he says.
Ultimately, the greatest impact would be individual refusal to countenance corruption. That’s a focus of concern, says Jha, because of the middle class’s willingness to bribe. Ramanathan is optimistic: “Georgia changed from being among the most corrupt to least corrupt countries. How did they do that?”
The real zero sum game
Way back in 1997, an expat Indian got so frustrated with the corruption he witnessed on a trip home from the US that he created the ‘zero rupee note’. It looked like a regular note with the image of Mahatma Gandhi, but its monetary value was nil. And it had the phrase ‘Eliminate Corruption at All Levels’ emblazoned across. Last year, with Anna Hazare’s movement at its height, a Chennai-based NGO, Fifth Pillar, started distributing these Rs 0 notes to people to encourage them to fight corruption at the local level. The idea is as simple as it is effective. In many Indian cities, the note has become a way of saying “no” to corruption, and there have been calls from Nepal, Argentina, Mexico, France and Germany, all debating decisions of the zero currency concept to fight corruption.
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