CORRUPTION Starts at home

Corruption is an age old phenomena originating form the greed and lack of values. Corruption is a general concept describing any organized, interdependent system or individuals in which part of the system  or individuals are not performing duties it was originally intended to, or performing them in an improper way, to the detriment of the system's original purpose sometime with illegal gratification.

Generally human beings have been competing with their fellow beings to accumulate wealth succumbing to the needs of  greed either succumbing to the pressure of the near ones or to store as much for them and their future generation. Our society has adopted a system to evaluate the success by measuring the quantum of wealth accumulated. Therefore the persons who are ambitious and interested to succeed but incapable of doing so honestly choose corruption as a way to do so.. 

There are many types of corruption including political corruption,biological corruption,data corruption and personality corruption.In the present context it is the political corruption which this essay is intended. In broad terms, political corruption is the misuse by government officials of their governmental powers for illegitimate private gain. Misuse of government power for other purposes, like repression of political opponents. Forms of corruption vary, but include bribery, extortion, cronyism,nepotism,patronage,graft and embezzlement.

Nepotism is the showing of favouritism toward relatives, based upon that relationship, rather than on an objective evaluation of ability or suitability. For instance, offering employment to a relative, despite the fact that there are others who are better qualified and willing to perform the job, would be considered nepotism. Embezzlement is the fraudulent appropriation by a person to his or her own use of property or money entrusted to that person's care but owned by someone else. For instance, a clerk or a cashier or a civil servant can embezzle funds from the treasury.

Every one blames other person for the corruption but in fact it is, we all as the units of democratic system are responsible for the corrupt practices in the country.In any democracy the corruption starts from the people when they vote.They vote the corrupt people to come to power.In addition to these the lack of proper education and transparency in the system are the few causes of corruption.

Transparency International, a leading anti-corruption NGO, provides measure of corruption updated annually a Corruption perception index . According to the 2006 Corruption perception index,  ten countries perceived to be least corrupt are Finland,Iceland,New Zealand, Denmark, Singapore, Sweden,Switzerland, Norway, Australia and Netherlands. According to the same survey, the nine countries perceived to be most corrupt are Haiti, Indonesia, Myanamar, Iraq,Guinea, Sudan, Congo, Chad and Banglades. But I have my own apprehension of the list. Mainly about Switzerland which supports and protects the ill-gotten  money generated from corrupt and criminal activities in their banks. Indian government has requested to the Switzerland authorities who refuse to cooperate in investigating the issue. A country which lives on the income of such wealth can not be rated higher in the corruption index.

 In order to control and prevent the corruption practices in government the Indian government constituted a Committee in the year 1962 to study the growth of corruption and methods to control it. The Central Vigilance Commission was established on the recommendation of  the same Santhanam Committee , the Committee for prevention of corruption in 1964.The commission is assisted by the Central Bureau of Investigation in its operations.At every unit level there are vigilance functionaries to prevent and control corrupt.

In spite of all these efforts by the government the corruption has been growing day by day.The problems of eradicating corruption is not merely due to lack of necessary legal powers or absence of any enforcement agency but primarily due to the absence of genuine desire and will to deal with corruption.

These are many ways to control corruption.An effective legislation and the Vigilance machinery should emphasise more on preventive vigilance than the punitive vigilance. And the punitive should be proportionately tougher for higher level of corruption. Further it can also be achieved by introducing the value education in schools. Awarding the ethical corporations. Training and educating the government servants and the multinational corporations and encourage transparency in every aspects of government dealings. 

 Corruption starts from the day the value system is programmed into the child's mind. If the children is taught about the corruption is very bad and will be punished severely then most of these children may stay away from the corruption. Now there is no fear amongst the people that they will punished or their ill gotten wealth will be ceased. Even after they are proved guilty , the wealth reamains with the their family because of which the guilty is happy to go to jail if at all convicted. The best way to fight corruption is to educate the younger generation against the ill effects of corruption and it should start at home as the corruption begins and ends at home.