Tackling Corruption in India

Posted by Susannah Vila in Build Awareness , Poorly Wired, Mobilize


“We need a Wikipedia for corruption in India—enabling and empowering whistlebowers to drop information with enough anonymity that there’s no fear of implication.”

THE CHALLENGE

Minimizing corruption in India is about a lot more than getting citizens to report on bribe requests. The real challenge lies in addressing a climate wherein corruption is status quo -- people expect to encounter it, anticipate paying bribes in exchange for basic government services, and don’t think that reporting on it will change anything.

If a campaign to convince people that:

1. they can play a role in minimizing corruption in their community

2. it behooves them (financially, professionally and personally) to do so

were successful in just one state, then maybe this attempt could inform other anti-corruption efforts throughout the country, even coalescing into a national anti corruption campaign with teeth.

That’s an experiment that Vijay Anand began in the Southeastern state of Tamil Nadu, India.

THE PLAYERS

Vijay Anand, the founder and President of 5th Pillar, was pleasantly surprised when, while living and working the United States, he was able to accomplish simple tasks like opening a bank account without paying a bribe or wading through loads of bureaucratic tape. He said to himself, if this is possible in one part of the world, then why not in the county where I grew up?

Anand spent a few years educating himself on the field of anti-corruption, and decided to head back to India in 2005 when a new law called the RTI Act (see below) was implemented. He registered 5th Pillar in Washington, D.C. to make it easier for people in the Indian diaspora to extend financial and intellectual support, and began what has now been over 5 years of work in the field.

THE TOOLS AND TACTICS

Identify the information you want to spread. To begin, 5th Pillar decided to focus on raising awareness about three essential pieces of information:

- Bribery is a crime in India punishable with suspension and jail time;

- The Right To Information (RTI) Act: passing in 2006, RTI was a monumental step because it empowers every citizen with the right to question why the government hasn’t used their tax money to accomplish the tasks that they expect of it, asking questions like “why aren’t the roads in my neighbourhood fixed?,” “Why is there so much garbage on my street?”

- Citizens have nothing to lose in refusing to pay a bribe, and if reported to an organization (like 5th Pillar) they have the assurance of institutional support behind them.

Identify the groups and institutions that will help you get the word out:

5th Pillar is made up of chapters according to geographic area, and each chapters serves as an force that pushes institutions like schools, universities and NGOs to engage with anti-corruption initiatives in their respective communities. They knew that these groups had periodical meetings or gatherings, and they leveraged used those gatherings to disseminate information.

You have to engage people with the topic if you expect them to take action. They’ve so far used largely conventional methods of connecting with people, employing a 90 minute interactive workshop called “freedom from corruption” at educational institutions and NGOs:

In its workshops, 5th Pillar starts a dialogue meant to surface the connection between societal corruption and its implication for individuals’ well beings and short-term/long-term futures. Most people in India don’t see corruption in relation to their day-to-day life. In these workshops, 5th Pillar breaks down in detail and deconstructs several possible examples of corruption and how these scams directly impacting the participants’ lives.

They draw examples from natural disasters like tsunamis, earthquakes, and floods, bringing peoples’ attentions to the inefficiencies in disaster relief mechanisms and how relief funds could have been better distributed if officials hadn’t been taking kick-backs.

Vijay Anand says:

"People started framing their own opinions about the topic, converging on the fact that government could have avoided the high death toll if they had acted proactively. As an example, despite the tsunami warning alerts sounded in December 2004, there was no warning system at all in place in the villages hit by the natural disaster. It would have costed the government around 300,000 USD to put this in place, and the death toll of nearly 230,000 would have been much lower."

Getting onto the streets for holidays and other community events: 5th Pillar has had some success in taking advantage of topical events to build awareness -for example, on national holidays they’ve organized groups of students in a ‘human chains’ in public places w/ slogans in support of good governance and anti-corruption. This kind of activity engaging civic participation and large number of students has attracted a lot of media attention.

Fake money to fight corruption! 5th Pillar introduced something called a Zero Rupee Note, which looks just like actual Rupees but isn’t worth anything. It gives people something tangible thing to hand to a corrupt official when they’re asked for a bribe, allowing them to make a strong statement against the bribery without actually saying anything. It also circulates like regularly currency, so anyone - it doesn’t matter if they have internet access, have a mobile phone or can read the newspaper - might end up with one in their hand and consequently find out about 5th pillar.

THE STUMBLING BLOCKS

Limited resources:

5th Pillar lacks the full time resources to respond quickly to citizens’ issues and complaints in a timely manner and to carry out information dissemination- both regarding anti corruption advocacy and topical updates about 5th Pillar’s activities. How can they better share their success stories through the whole state, in different languages and different channels and mediums?

They could be doing a lot more with tech:

Yes, their audiences are largely rural, so it makes sense that they have had success with face to face advocacy in Tamil Nadu. And while it’s true that a text message does not equal a 90 minute in person workshop in terms of impact, exploring the possibility of connecting with more people virtually would multiply their impact - if you have thoughts for how technology could supplement their efforts, get in touch.

Addressing the demand and the supply sides:

Getting people to report on corruption is an important step forward - citizens are reporting crimes, posting videos, etc. using tools like ipaidabribe.com, but that doesn’t necessarily address the root cause of corruption: the demand for bribes. This is unlikely to happen unless there is greater political will to strengthen legal systems to clamp down corruption and incriminate perpetrators of the crime in a timely and effective manner. Right now, there’s not enough fear of retribution on the part of officials asking for bribes.

THE OUTCOME

5th Pillar needs to scale nationally, and in order to do this they should identify where their target audiences are exchanging information, and go there. Some are receiving information through word of mouth or newspapers, others by text message or even Facebook or Orkut. How can anti-corruption activists find citizens, and engage with them, on those platforms? That's the question that these advocates need to answer now, especially as they push their campaign out beyond Tamil Nadu.

With this in mind, they are partnering with the Indian chapter of Transparency International to convene a national conference of anti-corruption activists at the end of April. Get involved here. 



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