Rising trend in perception about graft in Kerala
Last Updated : 29 Apr 2011 11:34:09 AM IST
THIRUVANATHAPURAM: In what could be a shock to the most educated and highly politically conscious state in India, the people of Kerala itself feel the heat of corruption more than the people of any other state in India. According to a recent survey by New Delhi-based Centre for Media Studies, Kerala is the only state which showed an increasing trend in the general perception about corruption. The report says that there has been a marginal increase from 56 to 59 percent in the perception of rural households in the state about level of corruption in the public services. About 46 percent households reported paying bribe in any public service in the state during the one year preceding the survey. Public Distribution System, school , water supply and hospital services were the four public services covered by the survey. "The corruption level has come down owing to many factors including the implementation of Right to Information Act. But an increase in perception level of corruption in Kerala is contrary to expectations," Prabhakar, head of the media lab of the CMS, told Express. Of the four services, the hospital services have been found as the most corrupt in the survey while lowest level of corruption was reported in the PDS. Of the 62 percent of the households of those surveyed who said that they had availed of hospital services, 98 percent were of the opinion that corruption perception had increased or had not come down. While 16 percent people said that they had to pay bribe to avail of hospital services, two percent said that they could not afford to pay bribe. While 85 percent of those surveyed felt that the corruption in water supply services has increased or remained the same, it was 81 and 77 percent for school and PDS respectively. According to the survey, in 2010, the percentage of rural households which paid bribes in any public service, during the last one year preceding the survey, had come down from 56 percent to 28 percent, except in states like Chattisgarh (55 pc), Bihar (52 pc), Kerala (46 pc) and Maharashtra (40 pc). The percentage of rural households which paid bribe during the last one year was relatively higher in PDS (11.5 pc) followed by hospital services (9.0 pc), school (5.8 pc) and water supply (4.3 pc).
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