The following essay received third place in TRACE International’s 2008 essay contest and was selected for publishing in ethisphere Magazine. 

Writers were asked to write their thoughts on “what personal behaviors, what laws or policies, what deterrents or incentives, what reporting devices or transparency mechanisms, what educational campaigns, what measures of any kind have been or could be effective in resisting or curtailing bribery?” 

Bribery is an important part of life in India. With an elaborate and almost Byzantine bureaucratic system and a long legacy of a corrupt civil service, it’s hard to escape the clutches of corruption. From handing over a hundred rupee note when you get pulled over for speeding to escape a ticket, to assuming that getting a file from the government offices will require “grease money,” to scams worth thousands of billions of rupees involving the top politicians in the country: we have come to accept corruption, while at th e same time berating it at every juncture. Innovative means are sometimes used to fight it: there were reports recently of people in Orissa, a state in India, who printed a note with a denomination of zero rupees to give to officials demanding bribes in order to register their protest at this practice. However, more serious efforts have been initiated and have been successful as well. This essay won’t deal with a description of corruption as such, and will focus on various innovative means to fighting bribery that have been employed in India. In the course of the essay, the term corruption will be used to encompass not just bribery but other similar social phenomena as well, in order to give a more holistic description of the problem. //Read more