Indians don't see any institution as clean. From political parties and NGOs to media and Army, everyone's perceived to be dirty. At least, that's what the 2010 Global Corruption Barometer of Transparency International (TI) has found.
With headlines screaming every other day of this scam being unearthed or another, it seems muck all around for people. Worse, no one seems to come out as clean. Only the degree of cleanliness varies.
The worst of the lot, needless to say are political parties. On a scale of 1 to 5 (1: not at all corrupt, 5: extremely corrupt), political parties score 4.2. That would be a corruption perception of 84 per cent.
The police fare only marginally better with 4.1, followed close behind by Parliament with 4.0. Public officials get a rating of 3.5, the education system 3.4, the private sector, nongovernmenttal organisations (NGOs) and judiciary 3.1, media 3.0.
Religious bodies and the military come out relatively cleanest. Relatively, being the operative word there. Their corruption perception ratings are 2.9 and 2.8 respectively. That would mean a corruption perception rating of 56 and 54 per cent respectively.
Transparency International’s Global Corruption Barometer is the only worldwide public opinion survey on views and experiences of corruption. As a poll of the general public, it provides an indicator of how corruption is viewed at national level and how efforts to curb corruption around the world are assessed on the ground. It also provides a measure of people’s experience of corruption in the past year. The Barometer surveyed more than 91,000 people in 86 countries and territories. It focused on petty bribery, perceptions of public institutions, and views of whom people trust to combat corruption.
