EVEN AS India’s parliament hotly debates anti-corruption legislation pending for 42 years, a regional survey has revealed 74 per cent of locals believe levels of graft had increased over the past three years and that politicians and police are the most corrupt.
Transparency International (TI), the Berlin-based global corruption watchdog, has revealed in Daily Lives and Corruption: Public Opinionin South Asia that 64 per cent of Indians had bribed police, while 55 per cent of respondents felt prime minister Manmohan Singh's Congress Party-led government was ineffective in controlling corruption.
The findings, based on a survey of 7,800 people between 2010 and 2011 in India, Bangladesh, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, found that more a third of south Asians had been forced to bribe officials, mainly for services to which they were legally entitled.
Released in the Nepalese capital Kathmandu on Thursday, the report showed bribery had become so endemic that south Asia was second only to sub-Saharan Africa as the world’s most corrupt region.
“With bribery such a big part of life for south Asians, you can see why so many people are angry at their governments for not tackling corruption,” Transparency International’s Rukshana Nanayakkara said.
People were sick of paying bribes to get on with their daily lives and of the sleaze and undue influence of public servants, he added.
The survey found that 62 per cent of south Asians believed corruption had got worse over the past three years, with Indians and Pakistanis being the most pessimistic.
According to Transparency International India, 63 per cent across the country had bribed land service officers over the past 12 months, while 62 per cent had paid off registry and related services personnel, in most cases for what was their right.
More than 42 per cent perceived Indian political parties to be the most corrupt institution, but in a heartening endorsement of journalism, some 23.9 per cent of respondents were of the view that the media was the “most trusted” body to fight graft.
Bangladesh emerged as the most corrupt country, with 66 per cent reporting having paid bribes to public institutions.