“I am Indian, but I’m ashamed of this bribery culture in all walks of life.”
For refusing to pay off a municipal employee, a 45-year old man in Ahmedabad is kept waiting a year to get his birth certificate.
A New Delhi resident buckles and palms a 100-rupee note to a policeman accusing him of illegally operating his car as a cab while driving a foreigner friend to Agra.
Launched six weeks ago, IPaidABribe (IPAB) is already making waves on the internet. It was set up by the Bangalore-based Janaagraha, a non-profit that works to change the quality of life in urban India by working with both citizens and governments. In the short time since its launch, thousands of Indians have gone online to record their experiences under a laundry-list of headers: I paid a bribe, I didn’t pay a bribe, I didn’t have to pay a bribe, I don’t want to pay a bribe.
According to Janaagraha co-founder Swati Ramanathan, recording a bribing incident is like owning up a sin in a confessional. She says IPAB is a “mandi”, a marketplace where prices for various services are openly shared. In order to encourage more ‘confessions’, IPAB does maintain the anonymity of the bribe-giver. It does not unmask the bribe-taking government official’s identity either — it aims to change processes and not target individuals.
The results are already beginning to show. Karnataka’s transport department has gleaned details of the bribes collected by transport officials based on the locations mentioned by the bribe givers. It has sent show-cause notices to 20 senior officials.
The initiative is headed by T.R. Raghunandan, an upright IAS officer who quit the civil service to join Janaagraha. In the “Ask Raghu” section of the website, the former official provides advice on how to deal with a policeman demanding a bribe or how to get a driving license or a passport without giving a bribe. Often, average people pay bribes because they do not have access to information on either the process or the fee to be paid for a particular service.
The website is supported by a dozen volunteers from Bangalore’s IT industry. To get more Indians involved, the website will be launched in several regional languages soon.
Pl' have a look on the site cited below:
http://ipaidabribe.com/ .indianwebsite
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