According to a global survey by Transparency International (TI), nearly 54 per cent people in India paid a bribe in the past one year, a claim which appears to be highly understated.
India, according to the survey, is the ninth most corrupt country in the world.
Transparency International's Global Corruption Barometer Survey, released on global anti-corruption day measures public perception on corruption across the world. India finds itself among the dubious group that includes Iraq (56 %), Afghanistan (61%), Liberia (89%), Uganda (86%), Nigeria (63%), Sierra Leone (71%), Senegal (56%) and Cambodia (84%).
The world average is 25% and India has a long uphill task ahead. The Asia-Pacific average is 11 %. The European Union has an average of 5%, but Latin America and North Africa reported an average of 36%. Sub-Saharan countries have an average of 56%, comparable to India's.
According to the TI survey, people in India perceived political parties to be the most corrupt, ranking them 4.2 on a scale of one-to-five.
Police (4.1) comes next, though the ranking looks a bit understated.
Parliament/legislature (4) and civil servants (3.5) - again the figures appear to be understated.
Private sector, NGOs, judiciary are all seen to be similarly corrupt (3.1) according to the TI report. Media enjoys a rating of 3 out of 5, a worrisome trend.
Army (2.8) and religious bodies (2.9) also figure in the survey.
74 per cent of Indians feel that the level of corruption has increased in the last three years.
In India, 1,000 urban respondents were queried for the sruvey that had 91,000 participants worldwide.
One metric asks respondents if they paid a bribe during the past 12 months to providers of any one of the nine services - education, judiciary, medical services, police, registry and permit services, utilities, tax revenue and customs.
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