Root Cause of Corruption
Living in the city, one comes across corruption in everyday life. People who earns thousands of rupees a month shy away from paying a 500 Rs fine for an offence they committed. They bribe their way out. I count myself in the guilty too. However everytime we discuss corruption, we always blame the guys who take the money.
Lets take the cops for example. We all bribe our way out. And then we compare stories about how cops are so honest in the US and they never take bribes….blah blah….
However one needs to stop and look at the reasons the cops are forced to accept bribes.
We pay them peanuts.
These are some statistics I received in an email.
Here’s what our policemen earn:
- Police constable: Rs6,000-Rs8,000 with an increment of Rs75.
- Senior constable: Rs8,500-Rs10,000 with an increment of Rs100.
- Police hawaldar: Rs10200-12000 with an increment of Rs100
- Police sub-inspector: Rs15,000Rs16,000 with an increment of Rs175
The salary that an average private sector employee draws after three years into service is as much as that of an Assistant Commissioner of Police with an annual increment that is 20 times more.
Is that correct. These guys potentially go to work everyday risking their lives. And they get paid practically nothing.
Think about it.
May 28th, 2007 at 1:26 pm
The reasons for such widespread corruption has be to something more than their salaries. Cops in the U.S. aren’t really paid that well too but we don’t hear of rampant corruption. If amount of salary is really the issue, then how much would we have to pay them to stop accepting bribes? Also, it is necessary to ask what would we do to stop paying bribes? Often paying bribes is taking the easy way out so the reasons for corruption are more deep than you suggest.
PS. Why why wouldn’t you offer full feeds?