Politicians, cops most corrupt: Survey

While the political establishment is busy arguing the Lok Pal Bill in Parliament, the Transparency International India (TII), in a survey, has found that 74 per cent Indians believe that the level of corruption has gone up in the last three years and 55 per cent felt that the Union government was ineffective to curb the menace.

During the survey of 7,500 people, the anti-corruption organisation also found out that majority of the respondents believed that politicians and police are the two most corrupt institutions in the country, and they have to be bribed to speed up paper work, avoid problems with authorities or simply access basic services.

“More than one in three public service seekers paid bribes. Among the nine services that were covered in the survey, 64 per cent Indians said they bribed police for one reason or the other, 63 per cent paid bribes to land service officials, and 62 per cent paid bribe for registry and permit services. More than 48 per cent perceived political parties to be the most corrupt institution, 34.2 per cent said Parliament and legislature were corrupt bodies and 40.4 per cent perceived police to be corrupt,” Transparency International India said in its report, Daily Lives and Corruption: Public Opinion in South Asia. (Click here for infographic)

Urging the Union government to respect the voice of the people and encourage engagement of citizens, the anti-graft organisation said since people think that corruption was on the rise, they were agitating to take action against it — which is evident from the ongoing protests for enactment of a strong Lok Pal.

“Nearly one-fourth (23.9 per cent) felt that media was the most trusted body to fight corruption in the country. On an average, people in the highest income quintile were more likely to pay bribes than the lowest income quintile,” TII said in its report.