Then we have the tragic spectacle of companies manufacturing substandard medicines or worse, of medicines which are fatal, causing death to children; of bridges collapsing, potholes springing up in freshly tarred roads. Incidents of embezzlement, extortion, fraud, money laundering, cronyism. All of which indicates that we do have a serious problem of a lack of integrity, of not doing the right thing; and lack of integrity ultimately is an indication of corruption.
It is in this background that we should view the Vigilance Awareness Week which is being observed this year from October 27 to November 2. A week where both citizens and organisations are expected to take a pledge where we acknowledge that corruption has been one of the major obstacles to economic, political and social progress of our country. We pledge that we will follow probity, rule of law, not give or take bribes, perform all tasks honestly, act in public interest and lead by example exhibiting integrity.
We have been doing so since 2000 when the then Chief Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) first mooted the idea of a vigilance awareness week through a letter addressed to all establishments and departments. The letter of the CVC mentions the UNDP Report on Human Development 1999 on South Asia. The Report states that if the corruption level in India goes down to that of Scandinavian Countries the GDP will grow by 1.5% and FDI will go up by 12%. The letter also quotes Transparency International which had ranked India 73 out of 99 countries in the Corruption Perceptions Index.
It would appear that very little has changed. The UNDP report on human development 1999 ranked India at 110; as per the Report for 2025 India is ranked at 130. According to the latest Corruption Perceptions Index 2024, India is ranked at 96 out of 180 countries — we have fallen in both indices.
Transparency International defines corruption as the abuse of entrusted power for private gain. Corruption as has been pointed erodes trust, weakens democracy, hampers economic development, exacerbates inequality, poverty, social division. The sheer extent of the illicit financial money generated by various acts of commission and omission including corruption as per estimates would indicate the extensive damage it causes.
As per the United Nations Office on Drug Control (UNODC), corruption, bribery, theft and tax evasion, and other illicit financial flows cost developing countries anything up to 2-5% of the GDP. Prof. Arun Kumar who has written extensively about black money in India has suggested that the extent of black economy in India is estimated to be 62% of the GDP-generating (at 2016-17 prices) about
₹93 lakh crores of revenue. To put matters in perspective this is larger than the income generated by agriculture and industry put together which is about 39% of the GDP. This is money lost for the economic and social development of the country. Corruption thus hurts every aspect of life in a civil society.
The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)16 to which India is a signatory specifically highlights the imperative need to reduce corruption and bribery in all their forms— and since corruption undermines institutions and development, it points out that this is the cornerstone for achieving the SDG’s. The UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) to which India is again a signatory highlights the need to fight corruption which it terms as an ‘insidious plague’.
How then do we tackle this vexatious problem? On a larger macro level, transparency and democracy are vital antidotes against corruption. The Right to Information Act, (RTI) which completed 20 years recently is a major weapon against corruption. As the preamble to the RTI puts in succinctly, an informed citizenry and transparency of information are vital for the functioning of democracy and to hold governments and their instrumentalities accountable to the governed.
It is imperative that laws are clear and unambiguous. Compliance requirements and procedures should be simplified and need to be regularly reviewed. The tendency of policy makers stipulating conditions which even the law does not envisage has to be curbed. And laws are meaningless unless effectively and uniformly enforced.
Every organisation should regularly assess corruption risks and ensure they are addressed. Risk management with an emphasis on technology which also facilitates citizens to interact with the management is essential. This presupposes that technology is simple, can be accessed by the ordinary citizen and works. An environment where the ordinary citizen has confidence in the organisation to initiate action against offending functionaries without the fear of retribution should be created.
Preventive vigilance whereby checks are carried out regularly to identify lack of integrity in processes or individuals should be the norm. Where action has been initiated against erring official’s swift follow-up till its logical end should be taken. Ultimately the credibility of organizations dealing with the citizenry has to be established organisations not only have to be corruption free but also seen to be so.
Given the scale of the problem and the impact it has on all our lives, this year’s theme for the Vigilance Awareness Week is indeed appropriate- ‘Vigilance-Our shared responsibility’. It is indeed a shared responsibility of all citizens and organisations to address the problem of corruption and effectively curb the menace. We will also have to focus on our education system and teach the young about values, about doing the right thing. It is going to be long haul – but we should not let cynicism take over and tolerate and accept corruption as a way of life; a ‘we are like this only’ attitude. No, we were not, and we should not let ourselves drift into such a condition of indifference. And if we are to achieve our ambitious goal of Atma Nirbharta curbing corruption is critical.
—The author, Najib Shah, is former Chairman, Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs. The views are personal.
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