Corruption declines in India by 10% in 2019: Survey

India has improved its ranking in the corruption index from last year as per the data released by Transparency International, moving three places up and now stands at 78th position in a list of 180 countries.

However, as per the India Corruption Survey 2019, one in two Indian citizens paid a bribe in the past year as almost 51% of Indians was involved in corruption.

The survey said that many of these bribes were demanded by departments like police, municipality, transport.

According to the survey report, corruption in India fell by 10% in 2019. The report has been prepared after a survey was conducted with a sample of 1.9 lakh respondents across India. The survey was conducted by LocalCircles in collaboration with Transparency International India.

The percentage of Indians who paid bribe this year was 51% compared to 56% last year.

However, in 2017, almost 45% of Indian citizens paid bribes.

Incidents of people paying bribes were reported more in states like Rajasthan, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand, and Punjab while states like Delhi, Haryana, Gujarat, West Bengal, Kerala, Goa, and Odisha recorded a low rate.

Most occurrences of people paying bribes were paid at government offices. Such practices took place given that government offices had CCTV cameras.

As per the survey, almost 35% of bribery incidents took place when people committed these acts through cash, or an agent or in the form of gifts, almost 6% were indulged in favours, however, 37% said they did not need to pay a bribe to get their work done.