Corruption is one of those giants that come with several heads and each head has several branches – the more societies try to crush it, the more it spreads deep into the systems of administration and governance. It is deep rooted and cannot be curbed without a proper plan and a fool-proof system of checks and balances. However, it isn’t undefeatable as strong administrative checks, governmental policies as well as peoples will can actually end this social evil once for all!
Corruption refers to a form of criminal activity or dishonesty by an individual or a group thatmars the rights and privileges of others by creating space for the undeserving. Furthermore, corruption primarily includes activities like bribery, embezzlement or coercion. People in positions or at the helm of affairs are likely to indulge in corrupt andit certainly reflects their greedy and selfish behaviour.
Bribery is the most common method of corruption. Bribery involves the improper use of favours or gifts in exchange of personal gains, the favours may include money, gifts, company shares, sexual favours, employment, entertainment and political benefits. It is worth to note that personal gain can be considered as overlooking crime. Embezzlement refers to the act of withholding assets for the purpose of theft. Furthermore, it is done by one or many individuals who are entrusted with these powers and positions.
While embezzlement is a kind of financial fraud,graft is a global form of corruption. It refers to the illegal use of politician’s authority for personal gains. Furthermore, a popular way for the grafts is misdirecting public funds for the benefit of politicians. Extortion is another major method of corruption. It means to obtain property, money or services illegally.
Favouritism and nepotism is quite an old form of corruption that refers to a person favouring one’s own relatives and friends over the actual deserving persons. This is certainly a very unfair practiceas many deserving candidates fail to get jobs. Abuse of discretion is another method of corruption. Here, person misuses one’s power and authority.
Finally, influence peddling is the last method here. This refers to illegally using ones influence with the government or other authorized individuals. It takes place in order to obtain special treatment or favour.
Some possible ways to prevent corruption is to give better salaries. Many govt employees receive quite low salaries and they resort to bribery to meet their expenses. So, government employees should receive higher salaries. Consequently, high salaries would reduce their motivation and resolve to engage in bribery. Increasing the number of workers can be another suitable way of curbing corruption. In many government offices, the work load is very high. This provides an opportunity to slowdown the work by government employees. Consequently these government employees then indulge in bribery in return for faster delivery of your work. Hence, this opportunity to bribery can be removed by bringing in more employees in offices.
Though laws are very important for stopping corruption, yet strict punishment needs to be announcedfor the guilty individuals. Additionally, there should be an efficient and quick implementation of strict laws. Installing camera’s in work places is an excellent way to prevent corruption. That is certainly one way of how many individual would refrain from indulging in corruption.
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The writer is pursuing bachelor’s degree at GDC Dooru Anantnag.
