India Corruption Study 2005 to Improve Governance

Author: Transparency International India & Centre for Media Studies

The aim of India Corruption Study 2005 taken up by Transparency International India in alliance with CMS, is to sensitize the people of India against all-pervasive corruption faced on day-to-day basis by the Common Man in eleven public services in twenty major states. The study is by no means exhaustive, as some states and services have not been covered.

The other aim of the study is to recognize the good work being done in particular departments/States where corruption levels have decreased and to share those success stories with other departments. An effort has also been made to suggest how the department concerned can improve service delivery and reduce corruption.

This benchmark study will also help to track and study the impact of various initiatives like the recently passed “Right to Information Act”, adoption of E Governance and various administrative reforms being undertaken across the country to improve service delivery and reduce corruption.

This study focuses only on the corruption experienced by the ‘Common Man’ in getting services from various service providers i.e. government departments. Citizens are entitled to receive these services, but are not only served poorly but very often have to pay a bribe to the service providers.

This study does not cover corruption at various other levels such as where a business man pays bribes to an Income Tax official or a custom official to pay much less tax than he is obligated to pay. It also does not cover the mega corruption, the grand larceny, in which hundreds, and thousands of crores of rupees are paid as bribes to corrupt functionaries or Government funds are siphoned off on large scale.

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