Business Standard: Bangalore: Saturday,
April 09, 2016.
Civil society
observers often say that the biggest obstacle in reducing corruption in the
public sphere is that it has become so entrenched in everyday life that
citizens have come to accept it as something they can't change. It was to
change such attitudes, to empower people with a non-violent way to deal with
corruption that an expatriate Indian physics professor in Maryland, US,
designed a Zero Rupee Note (ZRN), visually as close to Indian currency notes as
the Reserve Bank of India would allow it. It was an interesting theory, which
in 2007, Vijay Anand, president of the NGO 5th Pillar, put into practice as a
tool with which citizens could fight corruption. Similar to the Rs 50-note, the
ZRN bears a slogan, "Eliminate corruption at all levels," and a
pledge to neither accept nor give bribes. In the last nine-odd years, the
Chennai-based NGO has distributed over 2.5 million such notes in five
languages, and compiled accounts of how it has helped citizens get their work
done without resorting to bribery and corruption. Here are some examples.
A young girl
was told that the only way to get a learner's license quickly was by greasing
the palms of the officials at the RTO office. Instead, she handed a ZRN to a
senior officer and requested for a licence. The abashed official handed it to
her within five minutes. When a Chennai motorist was asked to pay a bribe of Rs
650 to retrieve his towed car, he too offered the police a ZRN. Not only did
they withdraw their demand, the police also issued a receipt for the
appropriate fine he paid. In another instance, one of 5th Pillar's staffers,
Lakshmi Gunasekhar went to complain about a friend's lost purse in a
Maharashtra police station. "The police wanted money to file an FIR. When
I offered them a ZRN, they immediately became friendlier. They went to great
lengths to assure me that they weren't really corrupt and helped us file the
complaint!" she says.
How does a
note of no value fight corruption? First, corrupt officials seldom expect
resistance from ordinary people. The handing over of a ZRN embarrasses them,
even as it enables citizens to address corruption in a non-confrontational way.
"We train citizens how to behave when someone asks for a bribe. Instead of
aggression, a non-violent approach effects attitudinal change more
effectively," says Gunasekhar. Further, accepting bribes is a punishable
offence and the ZRN's passive resistance carries a threat of reprisal. Most
important, the note indicates that its bearer has the backing of a civil
society organisation committed to fighting corruption.
In addition
to the ZRN, 5th Pillar conducts several projects to acquaint citizens of their
rights and empower them to fight corruption instead of simply giving in. One of
their popular programmes, Freedom from Corruption, ran in 300 educational
institutions last year. "We also train citizens to use the RTI act in our
office every Saturday," says Gunasekhar. "Every week, the crowd
ranges from eight to 30, which shows that citizens are concerned about making
government functioning transparent and honest." Another project that 5th
Pillar introduced last year, AGNI trains rural youths to use civic tools like
RTI. "We trained people from two villages near Chennai last year. How many
villages we reach out to this year, depends on how many volunteer to help us!"
says Gunasekhar.
With eight
full-time staffers and a host of volunteers, 5th Pillar has managed to spread
its base across Southern metros like Chennai, Vizag, Bengaluru and Hyderabad.
Incredibly, they charge no fees and turn no victim of corruption away - although
they currently have no institutional donors. ZRNs are distributed free,
although they cost less than a rupee to print. "Often, our ZRNs are
printed for free (usually by printers who like the concept)," says
Gunasekhar. Most of their resources come from members of 5th Pillar, who
contribute $50 per annum. A handful of corporate donors have added to its
kitty, but the resources are still nowhere near what they need to expand to
other Indian cities. Yet, on the anvil are plans to provide a satellite RTI program
for overseas Indians, and to provide online training on the RTI act and other
ways to fight corruption.
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