Students gauge city’s corruption quotient….Kiran Wadhwa
Anti-Corruption Day of 1,040 students surveyed, 75% said they will bribe police
About 75% of youngsters in Mumbai would bribe a police officer if they were caught breaking a signal. On the eve of Anti-corruption Day, students of HR College of Commerce conducted a spot survey among 1,040 people in the age group of 20 to 30 to check their corruption quotient.. Sixty students armed with questionnaires did a basic check on the corruption meter in the city and the city did not fare well.
“In certain everyday situations to find an easy way out, people are willing to be corrupt and they don’t think it is wrong,” said Aniket Jotwani, from the college’s Rotract Club who coordinated the survey. “The drive also wanted to increase awareness about the Anti Corruption Bureau website.”
People were asked to react to situations.
For example, students, who comprised a large number of respondents, were asked what would they do if they realised their friend had a copy of the next day’s exam question paper. While 30 % said that they would report them, another 30 % said that they too would ask for a copy.
The remaining 40% said that they would ignore it.
The same attitude prevailed when questioned about cinema tickets: 65% of respondents said that they would buy a ticket in black if the movie they wanted to watch had a full house.
Apart from putting respondents in situations, the survey also accounted for public opinion on corruption.
They asked people surveyed to list professions they identified as most corrupt and 82 % rated politicians as the most corrupt followed by police officials (10%).
“Most people said that India is a corrupt country which is when we tried to tell them that they are part of the corruption and they should begin by themselves refraining from bribing,” said Rahul Batra, another coordinator.