Knowcusp

Since past few weeks I was reading about corruption and it’s impact on our society. It’s 2025 and India still remains one of the most corrupt countries in the world.

Transperency International is a non-government organization whose vision is to stop corruption and promote transparency, accountability and integrity at all levels and across all sectors of society. The Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) by Transperency International ranks 180 countries and territories worldwide by their perceived levels of public sector corruption. The results are given on a scale of 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean).

The chart below shows as of 2024 India ranks 96 out of 180 countries and has a score of 38 out of 100, a score change of -1 can be seen since the year 2023. A concerning figure.

According to Transperency international, corruption is the abuse of entrusted power for private gain. It erodes trust, weakens democracy, hampers economic development and further exacerbates inequality, poverty, social division and the environmental crisis.

What is corruption doing to India as of today?

1. Loss of trust amongst masses making it one of the low trust societies of the world
2. India remains one of the most polluted countries in the world in terms of water, air and land pollution. While efforts have been made but they either get ignored or get stuck in an endless loop of bureaucracy
3. India has one of the most weakest passports in the world, though other factors count here too
4. Actual justice remains a question unless one is wealthy, politically connected or powerful
5. Heinous crimes against innocent women are at an all time high. On the other hand misuse of laws against innocent men for exploitation is very high as well.
6. India remains one of the poorest nations by GDP per capita
7. Infrastructure still mostly remains mostly poor despite paying high taxes, with exceptions of a few central contracts, and crumbles often due to lack of accountability

Taking the issue further, the three most important pillars of a healthy democracy are: Legislature (where laws are made), Executive (where laws are enacted) and Judiciary (safeguards principles of justice and equality). The issue with India is, all the three pillars are riddled with corruption since decades and there doesn’t seem an end to it despite the political party at the helm. Amidts all this, the poor and the middle class suffers as far as the daily life is considered.

So what are the solutions now? Not many. The anti corruption establishments and Right To Information Act (RTI) were meant to dig into the actual details, reveal layers and curb the issue of corruption, instead today they have become mere tools that have been strangled and get trapped in the loop of red tapism, yet again. There was a time when things could have been improved as solutions were many and options were many, but now, India is almost at a point of no return as far as the corruption story goes, because it’s so deep rooted and a part of the culture, that it’s impossible to bring any significant change from here on. We can do so much to only save ourselves and each other.

The powers, be it any political party or bureaucracy, have become so strong in the country that most of us can’t even think of raising fingers against them. The value of life in this country has become almost non-existent for most of us, it’s down to a mere statistic. Can’t the citizens even expect some value to their lives? Where has accountability gone? The common citizens is riddled with hundreds of such questions on a daily basis.

For a country with so much diversity, a rich culture, natural resources and landscapes, a country that has given back so much to the world time and again, a civilization dating back to thousands of years, the land of spirituality which has always sided with peace, India as a nation deserves way way better. It’s an overall sad state of affairs and an unfortunate fact that the fight against corruption shall never end for a nation like India.