Curbing corruption: Can I do something?

I have been traveling to work in local government buses for the past few days. There is something that caught my attention. More than once, I got offered by the conductor/driver to travel by giving less than the amount stipulated by the government. The gain for the conductor/driver lied in the other side of the deal: no ticket to be issued to me. If I accept the offer and do not give the additional money (a rupee or two, usually) to buy the ticket, the money I paid will go in the personal pocket, not to the government. This is obviously unfair because it’s the government that owns the whole bus system and provides you the service; the drivers/conductors just do what they are paid to do by their employers – the government. If this kind of corruption continues, soon you might see the BMTC (Bangalore Metropolitan Transportation Corporation) incurring severe losses, which will bring down the quality of service. Thus, saving that rupee or two by not taking the ticket is not just morally wrong, it could also be detrimental to your long term comfort as you stand to get inferior service.

An analogous situation is when a traffic policeman catches you for the breach of a traffic law. If you want the receipt, you are charged 500 (which goes to the government). Most people are interested in personal (short-term) gain, so they give off a 100 rupee note and flee the hell out of the place with no receipt, feeding the pocket of the corrupt policeman.

I can understand, even excuse, a lower-middle class person doing these things but there can’t be any excuse for people who pour money for all kinds of non-necessities. What makes me more exasperated is that the same set of people, sometime later, will sit in their comfort chairs and complaint at length about the system (the government) and the country being useless!

The instances of corruption talked about so far were all about saving money. Equally rampant is the practice of paying more to avail better/faster service. Bribing a passport officer or policeman is quite commonplace in India. In a recent argument about the passport scenario, an acquaintance defended the bribe by calling it just a tip or gift. Sadly, he isn’t the only one overlooking the simple fact that once bribes become the order the of day, the passport person tends to delay the work of those who can’t/won’t pay. The same thing happens in the police scenario. The poor, who have neither influential  contacts nor the capacity to bribe, hardly ever get justice from the police. Would such a situation have ever arisen had each one of us never bribed?

It’s high time we ensured that every human being – rich or not – has equal access to the public services. It’s time we seek a trifle less comfort and do the right thing. That would include taking the bus ticket/traffic receipt by paying whatever (extra) money required and giving no money to government officials by resisting the urge of getting things done quick and smooth.

[Update] A startling piece of news reveals that the poor paid bribes worth Rs 9000 million to access basic facilities like healthcare, education & water in ‘07!