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SOCIAL VALUES-II
India’s
Underdevelopment Attributed To Mistrust And Dishonesty
By
Fr. J. FELIX RAJ
Roughly
three-fourths of the US GNP derives from labour inputs. High
labour productivity, achieved by a trained and skilled labour
force, which reflects human capital investment, incentive
system, management and cultural factors, is responsible. Human
capital has played a significant role in America’s 20th century
economic growth — the increase in average schooling, the
positive effects of policies intended to boost the knowledge and
skills of people, the proper distribution of income that enables
people to lead better lives, a measure of well-being.
But Russia
demonstrated a prominent example of a low-trust society.
According to Susan Rose Ackerman and Bo Rothstein, under the
Soviet style of socialism, government institutions had become
severely discredited among the population. Dishonest behaviour
towards them was often seen as acceptable and even praiseworthy
in the face of their legitimate power. In general, trust
relationships extended little beyond the circle of family and
close friends.
Erosion of values
India’s
underdevelopment is attributed to the high degree of mistrust
and dishonesty, erosion of values. According to a Transparency
International survey (2003), India stands out as one among the
30 most corrupt countries in the world. TI has also found out
that Indians pay a whopping Rs 267 billion in bribes annually
with the health sector perceived to be the most corrupt with
people being made to pay for what they are entitled to. High
corruption demonstrates the low level of trust, honesty and
integrity.
Corruption in
governance is the root cause of many evils today, resulting in
slow development. It brings down the quality of governance. A
survey of seven government departments conducted in 2002 in five
metros in India rated Delhi’s Customs and Excise Department,
scoring 8.6 on a scale of 10, the most corrupt. As Frederick
Keith Ross has said, “Corruption is a sin; every government
denounces it and every government practices it”.
Politicians,
bureaucrats and governments in India are involved in scams and
scandals. The 1990s has been a decade of scams — Bofors, the
bank securities scam, the hawala scam, the animal husbandry
scam, the sugar scam, telecom scam, fertiliser import scam, PSE
disinvestment scam etc. Governments at the Centre and the states
are full of scandals and corruption charges involving those who
occupy top political positions. Corruption manifests itself in
many forms: at the highest political level as horse-trading of
MLAs and MPs; at the fiscal level in the form of evading taxes;
at the corporate level in terms of financing elections by black
money and so on.
As Ruddar Datt puts
it, “A strong feeling has grown in Indian political life that
corruption has become a way of life. In case, you are caught
taking a bribe, you can get rid of the crime by paying a bribe”.
Unlike the developed countries, home and work place are two
independent entities in India. Values, lived at home, are seldom
carried to work place.
Bribe
an incentive
That is why; bribe
has become an incentive these days, which increases work
efficiency in public offices. It is disturbing to note that
corruption has brought India among the lowest in the list of
countries in the matter of corrupt activities. Seventy per cent
of India’s population lives in villages. It is known to be a
cradle of all religions. In an Indian village, people of
different religions and castes have lived together for centuries
in harmony and peace. But of late, communal clashes are not
uncommon, costing hundreds of lives besides wealth and property.
The Godhra massacre of February 2002 in Gujarat where nearly
2,000 people, most of them Muslims including women and children
were affected is a recent case in this regard.
While religious
pluralism and multicultural and multi-linguistic realities are
strength on the one hand, it also hinders India’s development.
Communal violence is a major hurdle. Frequent communal clashes
keep the environment disturbed with fear and suspicion and
reduce the degree of incentives to invest and the potential for
productive activity. Religions in India have not played a
constructive role in nation-building and economic development.
No economic system
can perform as well as free markets in an atmosphere of mistrust
and dishonesty. An efficient market requires that parties to
transactions trust one another and trust that the information
presented to them is accurate. If stock analysts and everyday
investors cannot be confident that they are being given accurate
figures regarding the financial health and prospects of
companies, they cannot make informed buying decisions. The
result is simply gambling or, more likely, an increasing
reluctance to invest. The stock market will plummet and
investment will dry up, and without investment, there will be no
capital improvements, no research, and no prosperity.
Values and ethical
behaviour are not just goods relevant to Sunday morning; they
are critical to our total well-being. Consumerism has become a
cancerous culture. We give importance to “having” and not
“being”. In being we grow together, but in having we shall all
perish together. We increasingly are losing our understanding of
just what it means to act fairly and honestly. To be sure, we
have a multitude of laws on the books that say, in essence,
“Thou shalt not lie. Thou shall not cheat”.
Complexity of laws
However, the very
number and complexity of these laws, applied in different ways
to almost every aspect of economic life, have blurred the basic
point: lies and cheating are evil. The very complexity of our
laws has encouraged many professionals and business people to
find ways of conducting business that arguably fit within the
letter of the law while avoiding its true intent.
We have become so
tolerant of half-truths, hair-splitting definitions, and the
notion that truth is “subjective” that we have lost our ability
to enforce basic honesty and integrity, even where they are
crucial to our life and economic well-being. When people
perceive that the social system is untrustworthy and
inequitable, their incentive to engage in productive economic
activities declines. Anti-corruption programmes that are
formulated to address issues of economic growth, income
distribution, governance, government services in health and
education, if implemented effectively are likely to not only
reduce corruption, but also improve growth and development as
well.
It is time we
stopped talking and discussing about values and ethics, and
start living it in our lives to bring changes in our educational
institutions, organisations, companies and government
departments. Higher the degree of trust and honesty,
accountability and transparency, which results in strong human
bond, higher will be the level of growth and development.
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