Indian citizens do not believe that their governments at the Centre or in states are working to curb corruption. On the other hand, around 72 per cent of denizens of Thailand have faith in their government’s anti-corruption initiatives.
Team Clarion
NEW DELHI — India is rated as the most corrupt country in Asia, with 69 per cent bribery rates while Japan came out as the least corrupt nation, with a 0.2 per cent bribery rate. Noticeably, India was found to be more corrupt than Vietnam, Thailand, Pakistan and Myanmar in a study done by Transparency International, a Berlin-based NGO working against corruption.
As far as fighting corruption goes, things don’t look well for India which was named the most corrupt country in Asia-Pacific region. Almost seven out of ten people had to pay a bribe to access public services, according to Forbes which quoted the Transparency International report.
The NGO spoke to nearly 22,000 people across 16 countries in the Asia-Pacific to understand the level of corruption in the region.
The number of times bribes were demanded for accessing public education and healthcare facilities is also very high in India, the report shows. Around 58 and 59 per cent bribery rates were seen in the education and healthcare sectors in India, respectively. Vietnam turned out to be the second-most corrupt country with 65 per cent bribery rates. Thailand showed 41 per cent bribery rates whereas Pakistan had 40 per cent bribery rates.
Indian citizens do not believe that their governments at the Centre or in states are working to curb corruption. On the other hand, around 72 per cent denizens of Thailand have faith in their government’s anti-corruption initiatives. Meanwhile, only 45 per cent of the people in Pakistan think that their government was effective in bringing down corruption.
The report also showed how poor sections of society are more affected by the menace of corruption. A whopping 73 per cent of the bribes paid in India came from low economy groups, who had to pay money due to unavailability of other options, or less influence to avoid paying bribes. The overall trend of relating economic class to bribery rates remained disproportionate across the Asia-Pacific region, though. The study showed that people in India are speaking up against corruption now, as according to the report, 63 per cent of Indians felt most empowered to fight corruption.
